BOOKS – Page 3 – Madam Mayo

Selected Cabeza de Vaca Books, Part I: Notes on the Two Editions of Cabeza de Vaca’s “La Relación” (Also Known as Account, Chronicle, Narrative, Shipwrecks, Castaways, Report & etc.) and Selected English Translations

This blog posts on Mondays. This year, 2021, I am dedicating the first Monday of the month to Texas Books, in which I share with you some of the more unusual and interesting books in the Texas Bibliothek, that is, my working library. Listen in any time to the related podcast series.

Just a small election of the translations of La Relación, as well as paraphrases of the Relación, commentaries, histories, and biographies of Cabeza de Vaca.

Yes, that most memorable of conquistadors’ names, Cabeza de Vaca, means Cow Head. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was, among many things, the author of the first printed book on what is now the American Southwest and the great state of Texas— back when it was terra incognita, the 1500s. I have already written about Cabeza de Vaca and his book, La Relación, in a longform essay about the Mexican literary landscape, “Dispatch from the Sister Republic or, Papelito Habla.”

My longform essay about the Mexican literary landscape is now available as a Kindle.

Now that I’m writing about Far West Texas, Cabeza de Vaca pops in again, but where in Far West Texas was he, exactly? Towards answering that question, for my working library, which I have dubbed the Texas Bibliothek, I’ve accumulated a hefty stack of Cabeza de Vaca biographies, histories, and translations of his La Relación. (I do read Spanish, and in fact I’m a translator myself, however I specialize in contemporary Mexican writing, not 16th century Spanish, large chunks of which can float by me like so much Gabbahuaque.) The consternating thing is, in these various tomes the various routes mapped out for Cabeza de Vaca’s travels differ wildly.

As recounted in La Relación, Cabeza de Vaca’s travels encompass, from southern Spain, the Canary Islands, Cuba, Florida, the Galveston area, his enslavement in the general region we call South Texas and what is now northern Mexico, also his trek through Far West Texas, and thence a jog southwest to the Pacific coast, where he was rescued by Spanish slavers, and on to Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, where he was received by Hernán Cortez, conquistador of the Aztec Empire, the Marqués del Valle, himself. (Subsequently, after writing his Relación, Cabeza de Vaca was sent to Argentina, and from there, for being much too nice to the Indians, returned to Spain in chains.)

There is indeed a library’s-worth to say about the life and times of this most unusual conquistador and his fantastic travels and ghastly travails.

THE TWO EDITIONS, 1542 and 1555

A first edition of La Relación appeared in Zamora, Spain in 1542; a second, slightly different, edition in 1555. The latter is available for viewing online at the Witliff Collections— have a look here. To bamboozle matters, some English translations are of the 1542 edition; others of the 1555; some a medley of both.

Read the 1555 edition online at the Witliff Collections

Of the differences between the two editions, in his introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of the Bandelier translation (discussed below), Ilan Stavans says:

“Whereas the [edition] of 1542 is an attempt to show his courage and achievements to Charles V, the 1555 edition seeks to present the author in a good light so as to cleanse his reputation from charges against him after his forays in South America. Therein lies the difference: the first is a report, the second is an engaging, persuasive act of restoration.”

In addition there was a testimony known as The Joint Report given by Cabeza de Vaca and the other two Spanish survivors of the Narváez Expediton upon their return. The original of The Joint Report has been lost, however a partial transcription was made by historian Gonzálo Fernández de Oviedo (1478-1557), and included in his Historia general y natural de las Indias— a verily massive collection of 19 books not published in its entirety until (not a typo) 1851. There is a good website in English on Oviedo’s Historia general y natural at Vassar which you can view here. The notable biographies of and narrative histories about Cabeza de Vaca also incorporate the Joint Report from Oviedo. (I’ll be doing a post on some of those works next first Monday.)

NOTES ON SELECTED ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF CABEZA DE VACA’S LA RELACIÓN

SAMUEL PURCHAS, 1625

The first English translation, by Samuel Purchas, came out in 1625—nearly a century later— sandwiched into a collection of exploration narratives entitled Purchas His Pilgrimes. You can read about that at the Witliff Collections Cabeza de Vaca website. Purchas’ source was the Italian translation of 1556, which explains his calling the author “Capo di Vaca.” Not in my working library, last I checked. If you ever happen to come upon an original edition of Purchas His Pilgrims on offer, and perchance have the clams to buy it, I would suggest that, forthwith, you donate it to a worthy institutional library.

THOMAS BUCKINGHAM SMITH, 1851 and 1871

Astonishingly, no English translation was made directly from the Spanish original of Cabeza de Vaca’s La Relación, until Thomas Buckingham Smith‘s in 1851, of the 1555 edition. That it would take over three centuries for a stand-alone English translation of such a major work in the history of the Americas to appear is, in itself, telling— as was the historical moment: the wake of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe, which ended the US-Mexican War and considerably expanded the territory of the United States at the expense of its sister Republic.

The New York Historical Society, which has Smith’s papers, offers this brief, albeit most interesting, biographical sketch of the far-traveling translator:

“Thomas Buckingham Smith was a lawyer, diplomat, antiquarian, and author. Smith was born on October 21, 1810 on Cumberland Island, Georgia. The family moved to St. Augustine, Florida in 1820, when Smith’s father was appointed U.S. Consul to Mexico. Smith attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and earned a degree from Harvard Law School in 1836. Following graduation, Smith worked in the Maine office of Samuel Fessenden, a politician and abolitionist. He returned to St. Augustine in 1839 and served as a secretary to Robert R. Reid, governor of the Territory of Florida from 1839-1841. Smith served as a member of the Florida Territorial Legislative Council in 1841. He married Julia Gardner of Concord, New Hampshire in 1843.

“Throughout his life, Smith was a devoted student of North American history, specifically Spanish colonialism and Native American cultures and languages. In order to further his studies, Smith lobbied U.S. government officials for diplomatic appointments abroad. He was successful in obtaining positions in the U.S. embassies of Mexico (1850-1852) and Spain (1855-1858).

“While abroad, Smith actively purchased, transcribed and translated manuscripts related to the Spanish colonization of North America. Smith also supplemented his income by selling rare books and manuscripts to collectors in the U.S., including Peter Force, an editor and politician, whose collection was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1867. During the 1850-1860s, Smith translated and edited several publications, including Colección de varios documentos para la historia de la Florida y tierras adyacentes (1857), A grammatical sketch of the Heve language (1861), Narratives of the career of Hernando de Soto in the conquest of Florida (1866), and Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca (1871).

Smith died in New York City in 1871 and was buried in St. Augustine.

Note that the New York Historical Society biography is mistaken: A first edition of Smith’s translation of La Relación appeared in 1851; the second edition, edited by J.G. Shea, was published posthumously in 1871. I am sorry to say that I have not yet seen a copy of this translation; I will have to remedy that. I note that inexpensive reprints are widely available.

MRS. FANNY BANDELIER, 1905

Mr and Mrs Bandelier, she the esteemed translator of Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación. From the NYPL archive (which notes that this image can be freely used).

This second translation of La Relación– from the 1542 edition– was made by Mrs. Fanny Bandelier, and originally published in 1905 as The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Mrs. Bandelier’s translation held its ground for many decades. According to Cleve Hallenbeck, in his Journey and Route of Cabeza de Vaca, published in 1940:

“Of the two English translations I, in common with nearly all other students, prefer the Bandelier. The Smith translation was admittedly defective, and Smith was engaged in its revision at the time of his death in 1871. It was the need for a more accurate translation that prompted Mrs. Bandelier to undertake the task.” (p.24)

Cyclone Covey, on the other hand, has this to say about the Smith and the Bandelier, in his introduction to his 1961 translation (notes on that below):

“The translation that follows has been checked against both of these and is deeply indebted to the more literal Smith version.”

Go figure.

The Briscoe Center at University of Texas, Austin has a collection of documents transcribed from those in the Archivo General de las Indias in 1914-1917 by Fanny and her husband, Adolphe Francis Alphonse Bandelier. From that website, we have a biographical note for Mr. Bandelier but, alas, not Mrs:

“Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840 – 1914) was an American archaeologist after whom Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico is named. Bandelier was born in Bern, Switzerland, and emigrated to the United States in his youth. After 1880 he devoted himself to archaeological and ethnological work among the Indians of the southwestern United States, Mexico and South America. Beginning his studies in Sonora (Mexico), Arizona and New Mexico, he made himself the leading authority on the history of this region, and — with F. H. Cushing and his successors — one of the leading authorities on its prehistoric civilization. In 1892 he abandoned this field for Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, where he continued ethnological, archaeological and historical investigations. In the first field he was in a part of his work connected with the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition and in the second worked for Henry Villard of New York, and for the American Museum of Natural History of the same city.”

Says Hallenbech, p. 24:

“[Mrs. Bandelier] was a recognized Spanish scholar, and Adolphe F. Bandelier, who wrote the introduction and annotated the text, certainly subjected the work to the closest scrutinity; some of his notes lead one to believe that he actively participated in the translating. His qualifications for such work are widely recognized.”

Well, ring-a-ling to Gloria Steinem!!

My much marked-up copy of the Bandelier translation is a Penguin Classics paperback edition of 2002 with an introduction by Ilan Stavans, revised and annotated by Harold Augenbraum, shown here:

An inexpensive paperback reprint of the Bandelier translation.

CYCLONE COVEY, 1961

Not until 1961, with Cyclone Covey’s, did another complete translation of La Relación appear, this one under the title Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. His translation, Covey writes in his preface, “is deeply indebted to the more literal Smith translation,” and he consulted both the 1542 and the 1555 editions. In the afterword professor William T. Pilkington calls Covey’s “the most accessible” translation for the present-day reader. It is moreover, “thoughtful and balanced, avoiding an archaic tone as well as twentieth-century colloquialisms.”

My copy of the Covey is a 1997 University of New Mexico Press reprint, shown here:

Cyclone Covey, by the way, is also the author of a book about a Roman Jewish colony in Arizona in the time of Charlemagne—you read that right. I’ve yet to read it— the title is Calalus—but it’s extremely rare, although I delightedly note that his son has just this year, 2021, made a print-on-demand facsimile edition available on amazon. Covey had few adherents to his Romans-in-Arizona hypothesis, but I give him major points for the courage to stand by his catapult, as it were, and publish Calalus. (And strange as some things may strike me, I always try to remember that the past is a strange and ever-changing country… ) In any event Covey had a long and otherwise distinguished career as an historian at Wake Forest. You can read Covey’s obituary here.

MORE TRANSLATIONS, 1993

Nearing the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, more translations appeared, including Martin A. Favata and José B. Fernández’s The Account: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación (Arte Público Press, 1993) and Frances M. López-Morillas’ Castaways (University of California Press, 1993, edited by Enrique Pupo-Walker).

ROLENA ADORNO AND PATRICK CHARLES PAUTZ, 1999

At present it would seem that most English-speaking Cabeza de Vaca scholars look to the Adorno and Pautz translation of 1999. Leading scholar of the Spanish Conquest Andrés Reséndez, in his A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Basic Books, 2007), has this to say about the Adorno and Pautz, in his notes (p.251):

“I wish to single out the landmark, three-volume set published in 1999 by Rolena Adorno and Patrick C. Pautz, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. This work constitutes yet another edition and translation of Cabeza de Vaca’s Narrative plus—literally—two and a half volumes of “notes.” These volumes have taken our understanding of this survival experience to a new level. The book contains biographical information of the protagonists, a detailed study of Cabeza de Vaca’s genaeology, relevant historical backrgound, and a textual analysis of the different accounts of ghe expedition, among other things. It constitites the single most important source for the present book project. I have also relied on their transcription of Cabeza de Vaca’s Narrative, first published in 1542, and often cite their translations.” (p.251)

The three volume boxed set published by the University of Nebraska Press, which you might be able to consult in a library, or hunt down on Abebooks.com, is an heirloom of a doorstopper, and yep, it calls for serious clams. (Ouch.) I did buy the three-volume set, very belatedly, and I only wish I had started with it because it is indeed the most authoritative translation and history and biography; moreover, Volume I contains the original text of the original 1542 La Relación side-by-side with Adorno and Pautz’s English translation, with notes on the same page.

The three volume set ALVAR NÚÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA, University of Nebraska Press. Shown here is the side-by-side 1542 original and Adorno and Pautz’s translation, with notes. Simply splendid!

In addition, I have been working from, and freely penciling in my underlines in Adorno and Pautz’s much less expensive paperback edition of their translation of La Relación, separately published by the University of Nebraska Press. Here’s a photo of my copy of that:

Dear writerly reader, if you are looking for a rollickingly good armchair read about Cabeza de Vaca’s North American odyssey, there are two narrative histories I would especially warmly recommend: Andrés Reséndez’s A Land So Strange, and Paul Schneider’s Brutal Journey. I will be talking about these and other narrative histories and biographies in next month’s first Monday Texas Books post.

Next Monday, look for my monthly post for my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing.

P.S. I welcome you to sign up for an automatic email alert about the next post, should you feel so moved, over on the sidebar.

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me by simply clicking here.

A Visit to the Casa de la Primera Imprenta de América
in Mexico City

What the Muse Sent Me about the Tenth Muse,
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Reading Mexico:
Recommendations for a Book Club of Extra-Curious
& Adventurous English-Language Readers

My new book is Meteor

Carolyn E. Boyd’s “The White Shaman Mural”

On my shelf loaded with books on rock art the most beautiful and, I believe, the most important, is The White Shaman Mural, in which artist and archaeologist Carolyn E. Boyd makes the visionary and revolutionary argument, based on many years of research, that the rock art site in the Lower Pecos known as “White Shaman” is no random assemblage but a creation story. It can be considered North America’s oldest “book.”

From the catalog copy from the University of Texas Press:

The prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, created some of the most spectacularly complex, colorful, extensive, and enduring rock art of the ancient world. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural, an intricate painting that spans some twenty-six feet in length and thirteen feet in height on the wall of a shallow cave overlooking the Pecos River. In The White Shaman Mural, Carolyn E. Boyd takes us on a journey of discovery as she builds a convincing case that the mural tells a story of the birth of the sun and the beginning of time—making it possibly the oldest pictorial creation narrative in North America.

Unlike previous scholars who have viewed Pecos rock art as random and indecipherable, Boyd demonstrates that the White Shaman mural was intentionally composed as a visual narrative, using a graphic vocabulary of images to communicate multiple levels of meaning and function.

Drawing on twenty-five years of archaeological research and analysis, as well as insights from ethnohistory and art history, Boyd identifies patterns in the imagery that equate, in stunning detail, to the mythologies of Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples, including the ancient Aztec and the present-day Huichol. This paradigm-shifting identification of core Mesoamerican beliefs in the Pecos rock art reveals that a shared ideological universe was already firmly established among foragers living in the Lower Pecos region as long as four thousand years ago.

A few blurbs:

“The White Shaman Mural not only provides a thorough demonstration of technique, but it also raises provocative issues regarding the history and cosmovision of Native America. Boyd penetrates the cosmological conceptions of the past as she unveils an amazing text painted on a rockshelter wall thousands of years ago in southwest Texas.”
— Alfredo López Austin, author of The Myth of Quetzalcoatl and emeritus researcher, UNAM

“This is a milestone in the study of ancient American visual culture. First, it showcases the fruitful results of the scientific studies that the authors conducted, as well as their modes of analysis and analogical interpretation. Second, this work makes a major contribution to the literature on the expansive interaction spheres and fluid boundaries between the US Southwest, Mesoamerica, and south Texas. Finally, it provides a solid model for the interpretation of visual imagery from societies without alphabetic writing and especially for the study of Mesoamerican and Native American art.”
— Carolyn Tate, Texas Tech University, author of Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture: The Unborn, Women, and Creation

For more about the rock art of the Lower Pecos, see my previous post, which includes some images and a video from my visit to White Shaman, Lewis Canyon, Meyers Spring, Curly Tail Panther, and other rock art sites here.

Here is my video from my visit to White Shaman in 2015:

Recently some major news was announced by the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center, which was founded by Dr. Boyd and is based in nearby Comstock, Texas.

From Shumla’s January 2021 newsletter:

The Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archeological District, is now a National Historic Landmark.

This land has always been sacred. There’s no question about that. For those of us lucky enough to have spent time in this place, it holds an almost magical allure. The decision by Archaic people to record their beliefs in marvelous works of art here suggests that they also felt this place was special.

Scientifically speaking, the archaeological sites in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands contain a superlative, unbroken record of human occupation spanning at least 11,000 years, represented by extensive deposits and pictographs. For nearly a century, archeologists and art historians have recognized the outstanding significance of these sites, their cultural deposits, and their art. Combined, the deposits and the art can yield a far more complete and complex picture of the past. Pecos River style (PRS) pictographs, unique to the region, are abundant, well-preserved, complex, and among the most significant body of pictographic images in North America.

For all these reasons, the Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archeological District has now taken its place next to other National Historic Landmarks that tell the story of America from the earliest inhabitants to our modern history.

What does the designation mean?

A National Historic Landmark designation is national recognition. You might compare it to receiving a recognition award at your job. I doesn’t necessarily “do” anything unless you put it on your resume and take advantage of the recognition as you seek to move ahead in your career. From Shumla’s perspective, designation of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands Archeological District as a National Historic Landmark will help us immensely as we work to raise awareness and funding for the continued preservation and study of these incredible sites.

Q & A with Mary S. Black,
on Her New Book From the Frío to Del Río

A Review of Patrick Dearen’s
Bitter Waters: The Struggles of the Pecos River

Peyote and the Perfect You

Find out more about
C.M. Mayo’s books, articles, podcasts, and more.

Newsletter (Texas Books, Workshop Posts, Q & As, Zooms & Cyberflanerie)

This blog posts on Mondays. Fifth Mondays, when they happen to arrive, are for the newsletter. Herewith the latest posts covering Texas Books, workshop posts, Q & As, selected other posts and news, plus cyberflanerie.

TEXAS BOOKS
(Look for posts about Texas Books on the first Monday of the month throughout 2021).
The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger: My Online Working Library of Rare Books
March 1, 2021
From the Texas Bibliothek: The Sanderson Flood of 1965; Faded Rimrock Memories; Terrell County, Texas: Its Past, Its People
February 1, 2021
A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek
January 4, 2021
> View all Texas posts here.

WORKSHOP POSTS
(Look for these every second Monday of the month throughout 2021)
Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs
March 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Creative Process
February 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Craft of Creative Writing
January 11, 2021
Shake It Up with Emulation-Permutation Exercises
December 14, 2020
> View all workshop posts here.

Q & A with Tim Heyman about B. Traven in Literal Magazine

Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy of the German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

MORE Q & As ON THIS BLOG
(Look for these every fourth Monday of the month through 2021)
Q & A with Jan Cleere
on Military Wives in Arizona Territory: A History of Women Who Shaped the Frontier
March 22, 2021
Q & A with Solveig Eggerz
on Sigga of Reykjavik
February 22, 2021
Q & A with Christina Thompson
on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
January 25, 2021
Q & A with Álvaro Santana-Acuña
on Writing Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude
Was Written and Became a Global Classic
December 28, 2020
> View all Q & As here.

SELECTED OTHER POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
Melanie Kobayashi’s Champagne Kegger —
Plus From the Archives: Ruth Levy Guyer’s A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day
January 18, 2021
Top Books Read 2020
December 7, 2020
> View the Madam Mayo blog archive here.

OTHER NEWS
Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72

Ignacio Solares, one of Mexico’s most outstanding literary writers, appears in English translation by Yours Truly in the fabulous new issue #72 of Gargoyle. Edited by poet Richard Peabody, Gargoyle is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most enduring and prestigious literary magazines. Check it out! Solares’ short story is entitled “The Orders” (“Las instrucciones”). My thanks to Ignacio Solares for the honor, to Richard Peabody for accepting it and bringing it forth, and to Nita Congress for her eagle-eyed copyediting. (My previous translation of Solares’ work, the short story “Victoriano’s Deliriums,” appeared in The Lampeter Review #11.)

*The cover of Gargoyle #72, which includes my translation of a short story by Ignacio Solares, features spoken word poet Salena Godden.*

Earlier this month I gave a Zoom talk on my book Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual (as translated by Agustín Cadena, Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita) for the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México. If and when this talk becomes available as a recording I will be sure to post a notice in my newsletter. If the subject interests you, some of my other talks and interviews are here.

By the way, if you don’t subscribe to Madam Mayo blog but would like to receive my very occasionally emailed newsletter (via Mad Mimi, my email letter service) just send me an email at cmmayo (at) cmmayo.com and I’ll add you to my mailing list.

MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT
Ongoing! I’ve let the Marfa Mondays podcast sit for a while as I am working on the (related) book, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas. That said, I’m almost…almost… done with podcast #22, which is an unusually wide-ranging interview recorded in Sanderson, a remote town that also happens to be the cactus capital of Texas. Podcasts 1 – 21 are all available to listen for free online here.

COOL STUFF ON MY RADAR ( = CYBERFLANERIE = )
The brilliantly brilliant Edward Tufte is offering his course on video. I took his in-person workshop twice, that’s how big a fan I am. I wish everyone else would take it, too, for then our world could be a little less fruit-loopy.

My amigo the esteemed playwright and literary translator Geoff Hargreaves has a most promising new novel out from Floricanto Press, The Collector and the Blind Girl

Heidegger scholar and Typewriter Revolutionary Richard Polt offers his thoughts on typing a novel.

Poet Patricia Dubrava shares a beauty on her blog, Holding the Light: “Hearing the Canadas”

Cal Newport on “Beethoven and the Gifts of Silence.” Newport has a new podcast by the way, which is ultra-fabulous. Newport’s new book, A World Without Email, is a zinger of clarity. More about that anon.

Allison Rietta, artist, designer, yoga teacher, sound healer, and founder of “Avreya” offers a new series of digital books on contemplative practice that each, I am honored to say, include a writing exercise by Yours Truly. (These writing exercises are from my “Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises” which you can access here.) Rietta’s digital books are so refreshingly lovely, and filled with wise and practical ideas for anyone seeking to improve the quality of their health and creative life. Here’s her introduction:

A series of five Contemplative Practice books based on the elements of nature: air, earth, fire, space and water. Each book is designed specifically to enhance that particular element and offers holistic, contemplative practices that include yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation, creative writing and visual art.

What’s in each book:
Warm up and yoga asana-s (postures)
Pranayama – a breath technique
Meditation practice
Creative writing prompt
Art journaling prompt
Practice pairings – Just as pairing food dishes with wine enhances the dining experience, this book offers pairings designed to complement each element such as, music, crystals, essential oils and mantras.

The books are designed to help yoga practitioners cultivate a personal home practice. The practices offered in these books may be done sequentially or separately.

Visit Allison Rietta here and find her new books here.

My new book is Meteor

My amigo poet, playwright, literary translator and writing reacher Zack Rogow was interviewed by Jeffrey Mishove for New Thinking Allowed on “Surrealism and Spontaneity”: A most informative and charming video.

Anne Elise Urrutia’s Pechakucha on her grandfather Dr. Aureliano Urrutia’s “Miraflores”—something very special in San Antonio, Texas history.

“Traven’s Triumph” by Timothy Heyman (Guest Blog)

Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB

Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993), “Moonlight Over the Chisos,”
and a Visit to Mexico City’s Antigua Academia de San Carlos

Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs

This blog posts on Mondays. Second Mondays of the month I devote to my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing. Welcome!

> For the archive of workshop posts click here.

This is a list, not of any so-called cannon of the genre, but of the books that have been my teachers as I learned to write literary travel memoir. It also includes those I have read relatively recently and greatly admire. The ones that are starred are those that I have read and reread time and again; each, in its own way, has been vitally helpful to me, whether for shorter pieces such as A Visit to Swan House; longer ones such as From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion, or my books, among them, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California the Other Mexico. I aim to read many more literary travel memoirs, learn much more about the craft, and write more essays and books (indeed my book in-progress is a travel memoir of Far West Texas), hence I consider this an embryonic list.

If you, dear writerly reader, are writing literary travel memoir or anything in the realm of “creative nonfiction,” I would encourage you to read the books on this list; may you enjoy and learn from them as I did.

At the same time, I would encourage you, if you have not already, to make your own list of works that you have already read and— never mind what anyone else thinks— that you admired and loved. Then ask yourself: What do these works you so love and admire have in common? How do they handle descriptions of nature, or animals, of crowd scenes? Transitions? Dialogue? Sandwiching in the exposition? Narrative structure? Throw whatever writerly questions you can think of at these, your True Faves, and I’ll betcha bucks to buttons, they will teach you something valuable.

A final note: “Literary travel writing” can be defined in myriad ways. How far does one have to travel to consider it travel writing? The Pushkar camel fair would be fab, but I say, your own backyard will do. The idea is to see with new eyes and an open heart, then tell a good story.

Armitage, Shelley. Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place

Bain, David Haward. Sitting in Darkness: Americans in the Philippines

Berger, Bruce. Almost an Island

—. The End of the Sherry

—. The Telling Distance: Conversations with the American Desert.

—. A Desert Harvest
This splendid anthology collects selected essays from Bruce Berger’s masterwork of a desert trilogy, The Telling Distance, Almost an Island, and There Was a River. P.S. Read my Q & A with Bruce Berger apropos of the publication of this collection here.

Bogard, Paul. The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.

*Brown, Nancy Marie. The Far-Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman

Buford, Bill. Among the Thugs

*Byron, Robert. The Road to Oxiana

Calderón de la Barca, Frances. Life in Mexico

*Chatwin, Bruce. In Patagonia

Childs, Craig. Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America

—. The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert

*Conover, Ted. Coyotes

—. Whiteout: Lost in Aspen

—. New Jack: Guarding Sing Sing (not precisely travel writing, but who’s to say? A masterpiece)

Ehrlich, Gretel. This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland

Ellis, Hattie. Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee

*Fergus, Charles. Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World

*Fisher, M.F.K. Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon

Ford, Corey. Where the Sea Breaks Its Back

*Frazier, Ian. Great Plains

*Fussell, Paul. Abroad: British Literary Traveling Between the Wars
Not a travel memoir, rather its about travel memoir, nonetheless…

Gibson, Gregory. Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe
(Yes, I’m calling this a literary travel memoir. Here’s why.)

Godwin, Peter. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

*Iyer, Pico. Video Night in Kathmandu

Karlin, Wayne. Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and Living in Viet Nam

Kapuscinski, Ryszard. Travels with Herodotus

Klindienst, Patricia. The Earth Knows My Name

Larkin, Emma. Finding George Orwell in Burma

Martínez, Rubén. Desert America

*Mowat, Farley. Walking on the Land

*Morris, Jan. Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere

Morris, Mary. The River Queen

*Naipaul, V.S. Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey

*—. A Turn in the South

Nickerson, Sheila. Disappearance: A Map

Peasley, W.J., The Last of the Nomads

*Poncins, Gontran de. Kabloona

Quinones Sam. True Tales from Another Mexico

*Seth, Vikram. From Heaven Lake, Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet

Steinbeck, John. The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Swain, Jon. River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam and Cambodia

Synge, J.M. The Aran Islands

Taber, Sara Mansfield. Born Under An Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter

—. Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf

—. Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia

Toth, Jennifer. The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City

Tree, Isabella. Sliced Iguana

Turner, Frederick. In the Land of the Temple Caves
Read my post about this book here.

Tweit, Susan J. Barren, Wild, and Worthless: Living in the Chihuahuan Desert

Wheeler, Sara. Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica

*White, Kenneth. Across the Territories: Travels from Orkney to Rangiroa

Whynot, Douglas. Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers

Wright, Lawrence. God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State

Q & A: Ellen Cassedy, Translator of On the Landing by Yenta Mash

Why I Am a Mega-Fan of the Filofax

Texas Pecan Pie for Dieters, Plus from the Archives:
A Review of James McWilliams’ The Pecan

My new book is Meteor

The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger: My Online Working Library of Rare Books

Texas history aficionados, welcome and bienvenido! I invite you to check out these three fascinating—and free—digitalized rare books:

Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies: Or the Journal of a Santa Fe Trader During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico. Two Vols, J.W. Moore, 1851. Fifth Edition.
A best-seller of its day. The editor was none other than John Bigelow, who later became the US ambassador to France during the US Civil War—the time of Mexico’s French Intervention / Second Empire. Gregg’s memoir is vital reading for anyone interested in the history of the West, the Southwest, and the history of US-Mexico trade.

Domenech, Abbé Emmanuel. Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico: A Personal Narrative of Six Years’ Sojourn in Those Regions. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1858.
A few years after its publication, Abbé Dommenech served as Maximilian’s press secretary. Here he recounts his travels in the parts that might more properly be called Apachería and Comanchería. Grim stuff.

Sherman, William T. The Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. D. Appleton and Co., 1886
One of the greatest memoirs of the 19th century. Some mighty strange stories in here.

If this finds you, dear writerly reader, working on a biography, history, or historical fiction, whether Texas-related or not, the rest of this post is also for you. Normally I post for my writing workshop the second Monday of each month, but on occasion I make an exception. (In any event, look for the regular workshop post next Monday.)

Hot Diggety Digital!

Is it practical to go all digital with your working library? Probably not. But partially, yes. It depends on your project and your daily capacity for screentime & scrollin’. As I continue with my book in-progress on Far West Texas which, of all my several books to-date, has required the largest working library, this finds me still a-huffin’ & a-puffin’ up the learning curve for utilizing and managing my working library. But I can say that I’ve achieved some oxygen-tank-worthy altitude! Three things about working with working libraries that I learned the “ouch” way:

(A) buy the book whenever possible (else I may not get my hands on it again);

(B) make space, more space than you will ever think you could possibly need for the working library because… you will need it; and

(C) in some way, ruthlessly, keep the books organized (for this I use categories and bookmarks. See A Working Library: Further Notes and Tips for Writers of Historical Fiction, Biography, History, Travel Memoir / Essay, etc.).

I cannot say it too often, a book I cannot find is a book I might as well not own.

A BOOK I CANNOT FIND
IS
A BOOK I MIGHT AS WELL NOT OWN

Kindles?

Only when I don’t have another option. For this particular book project, I have not found Kindles of much use. In my experience, for the most part, where there is a Kindle, there is also a paperback and I ever and always prefer the paperback.

What About Using (Um, Actually Going to) a Library or Three?

Yes, of course, I have used both public and research libraries. That would be another blog post (such as this one). That said, for independent scholars with limited travel options, relying on libraries is not ever and always nor even usually the best option when it comes to consulting a given book. Let me put it this way: I don’t cook spaghetti one noodle at a time, either.

Rare Books Out of Reach?

But what about when a needed book is impossible to find and/or too expensive to buy? A fine copy of certain classic 19th works can go for hundreds, even (I’m talking about you, Josiah Gregg) thousands of dollars. Happily, many such classics are now in the public domain, that is to say, they are out of copyright and some publisher somewhere has brought out an affordable paperback edition. My working library has many such paperbacks purchased for a few bucks each from my go-to online booksellers. I’ve also purchased used and ex-library books of later editions, many of which books, not being in such good shape, are generally inexpensive (sometimes the book is cheaper than the shipping), these mainly from www.abebooks.com. And finally, on a few special occasions, I have shelled out a pile of clams for a rare book (see my posts on rare books here and here, for example). For rare books, stay away from amazon and ebay because many used book sellers on those platforms do not know how to properly describe a rare book (you’ll think you’re getting the elephant, but what shows up is a three-legged alpaca). It is best to buy from a member-in-good-standing of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, or similar association, for those dealers based in other countries.

Free!

Fortunately for this writer’s pocketbook, many out-of-copyright oldies are now available in ***free*** digital editions on the nonprofit Internet Archive archive.org and/or the Gutenberg Project gutenberg.org. Lo and behold, many of the books I need in my working library fall into this category.

For example, the English translation of the French Abbé Emmanuel Domenech’s memoir Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico was one I had been looking for several years (it was relevant to an earlier book of mine, as well.) When a copy finally popped up, alas, its price was well out of my budget. But I can now access Domenech’s memoir for my working purposes, thanks to the free online edition.

And Searchable!

Yep, digital books are also searchable and that can come in handy.

Behold:
The Digital Döppelgänger

So, after some time working on this Far West Texas book, I have accumulated what I think of as the digital Doppelgänger to my physical working library, the Texas Bibliothek.

As I noted in a previous post about how I organize my (physical) working library, I shelve the physical books under categories that work for me— categories that may not necessarily make sense to anyone else. I also include books which inclusion may not make sense to anyone else. And that is OK: Anyone Else is not the name of the person writing my book. Nor is Anyone Else writing your book, I would imagine…

And what about when, as is oftentimes the case, a book falls into two or more categories? Well, la de diddly da, I just pick one category, and go with that. My working library may be large, but I don’t need to put on rollerskates to go in there.

How to keep an online working library
organized for one’s writerly purposes?

For the online library originally I kept a list, by author in alphabetical order, on a blogger blog (treating it as basically a free, oft-updated webpage). But I have since moved to a system that works much better for me: I categorize the links to the online books in the same way as I do my physical working library, using a photo for quick reference, on a private page of my very own self-hosted WordPress blog, Madam Mayo.

Herewith, one example of the approximately 30 categories in my online working library (that is to say, a photo of the physical working library ‘s label and shelf + any online titles):

Davis, Richard Harding. The West from a Car-Window, Harper & Brothers, 1892.

Q & A with Sergio Troncoso, Author of A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son

A Review of Claudio Saunt’s West of the Revolution:
An Uncommon History of 1776

The Solitario Dome

My new book is Meteor

Recommended Books on the Creative Process

For updates to this list, see the dedicated page Recommended Reading on Creative Process.

Last month I posted my list of recommended books on the craft of creative writing. This month, herewith, my list of recommended books on the creative process. May they prove as useful and inspiring for you as they have been for me.

By the way, many of these books are not about creative writing per se. As writers we can learn not only from other writers, but from painters, filmmakers, musicians, athletes, computer science professors— in sum, anyone who sets out to do, and keep on doing, extraordinary things when the world, alas, does not always respond in a timely nor generous manner.

TOP PICKS ON CREATIVE PROCESS

*Gilbert, Elizabeth. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Wondrously, brilliantly wonderful.

*Newport, Cal, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
Outstanding and oftentimes surprising advice from a successful academic and best-selling author. Read my post about this book here.

—— Digital Minimalism
Ye Bible.

*Pressfield, Steven, The War of Art: Winning the Creative Battle
The best. If you’re blocked and you want to buy one book to help yourself, this is the one. P.S. be sure to check out his website and blog.

*Ricco, Gabriele Lusser, Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers
Revolutionary.

AND BY THE WAY,
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CREATIVE PROCESS
(NOT A BOOK BUT THE TRANSCRIPT OF A TALK):

*Mayo, C.M. “On Seeing as an Artist or, Five Techniques for a Journey to Einfuhlung.”
Not a book but a transcript of remarks for the panel on “Writing Across Borders and Cultures,” Women Writing the West conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 15, 2016.

MORE RECOMMENDED READING:

Brown, Rita Mae: Starting From Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual

Burnham, Sophy, For Writers Only
Easy to dip into. Wise words.

Baum, Kenneth, The Mental Edge: Maximize Your Sports Potential
with the Mind-Body Connection
Read my mini-review here.

Benke, Karen, Rip the Page! Adventures in Creative Writing
For creative children— of all ages. Read her guest-blog post for “Madam Mayo” here. (Link goes to old blogger platform, will be corrected shortly.)

Cameron, Julia, The Artist’s Way
New Agey (and so not for everyone) but also highly practical. Her concept of the “artist date” I have found brilliantly effective.

— , The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch
Thoughtful, elegant, and inspiring mini-essays.

Dillard, Annie, Living by Fiction
A book about the world.

Flack, Audrey, Art & Soul: Notes on Creating
Deep. The artist as shaman.

Friedman, Bonnie, Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life
From the trenches.

Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
A very popular book. Packed with fun writing exercises.

Iglesias, Karl, The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider Tips from Hollywood’s Top Writers
Useful tips for any writer.

Kingston, Karen, Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui
Because… maybe… that’s what you need to do!

Lamott, Anne, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Hilarious. For anyone at any stage in their writing.

Leonard, George, Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment
Zen.

Maisel, Eric, PhD., Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide to Starting and Completing Your Work of Art
Dr Maisel specializes in helping artists, and he’s a prolific writer himself. Wise advice.

Palmer, Amanda, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
It might seem that this book is about about asking for help and money and then, as Palmer puts it, “taking the donuts,” but it’s really about the artist as shaman.

Rattner, Donald M. My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation
Read my post about this book here.

Rhodes, Richard, How to Write: Advice and Reflections
Good advice from a highly accomplished and prolific writer.

See, Carolyn, Making a Literary Life
Good advice from another highly accomplished and prolific writer — this one from LA. It’s a hoot.

Soojung-Kim Pang, Alex, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
Read my post about this book here.

Ueland, Brenda, If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit
A classic that has proven especially popular with my writing workshop participants.

This Writer’s PFWP and NTDN Lists:
Two Tools for Resilience and Focus

Q & A with Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy
of German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

Translating Across the Border

My new book is Meteor

From the Texas Bibliothek: The Sanderson Flood of 1965; Faded Rimrock Memories; Terrell County, Texas: Its Past, Its People

Writes Craig Childs in his masterful The Secret Knowledge of Water, “There are two easy ways to die in the desert: thirst and drowning.” It does indeed rain in the desert, not often of course, but when it does, with so little vegetation to catch it, water can rage through canyons with killing power. In Far West Texas a standout tragedy of the 20th century was the June 11, 1965 flash flood that killed 26 people and devastated the little railroad town of Sanderson.

But this post isn’t about the Sanderson flood, rather, the matter of books in a writer’s working library. Back when I was writing Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, my first book of creative nonfiction, I learned the painful way to never, as in, never ever, let pass the chance to snap up a book of local history. These histories, which often offer the richest of detail, unique voices, and personal memories, are vital reading for such a work as mine—as those of you who follow this blog well know, I’m now working on a book about Far West Texas.

Oftentimes local histories are self-published, and in the days before amazon and print-on-demand, only available locally and in limited numbers. Try to find such a book later, and chances are… you won’t. So when I wandered into the Sanderson Visitors Center and saw them, I snapped up Tales of the Flood, a collection of oral histories by C.W. (Bill) Smith, along with Russell Ashton Scogin’s history, The Sanderson Flood of 1965: Crisis in a Rural Texas Community (Sul Ross State University, 1995), and Terrell County, Texas: Its Past Its People (Rangel Printing, Fourth Printing, 2008).

Sanderson is the seat of Terrell County, a county best known for its hunting ranches with fabulous vistas, its cactus, and sheep ranching. One of the more remote towns in Texas, from El Paso Sanderson lies a 4 and a half hours drive east, and from Austin a 5 and a half hours drive west. If you live anywhere in the county outside of Sanderson, you’ll want a rifle. It’s infested with rattlesnakes.

Here’s my map of Far West Texas (that is, Texas west of the Pecos River), showing Sanderson just above the US-Mexico border between Langtry and the Big Bend National Park.

In the Sanderson Visitors Center C.W. (Bill) Smith granted me a fascinating and wide-ranging interview on Sanderson’s history–which of course included much discussion of the 1965 flood. The podcast of this interview has been a long while in production, but I’ll be posting it shortly. (You can listen in to the other 21 podcasts apropos of this book posted to date here.)

From C.W. (Bill) Smith’s Tales of the Flood, from “Genaro’s Story”:

Sometimes a moment of mirth turns to disaster in seconds. Genaro Valles and his wife of Del Rio were just in town visiting. They had found an older wooden house near the Dairy King to stay in while there and spent a restless night from the pounding rain and the roar of the nearby creek. Early that morning Genaro awoke to the sound of water running. He teased his wife for letting the water run in the old toilet. But as he turned over to return to sleep his hand dropped by the side of the bed and fell into cold water…

If memory serves me, I found Joe Brown’s Faded Rimrock Memories in one of the Big Bend National Park ranger station bookstores. A Sanderson, Texas native, Brown grew up “all over West Texas, doing whatever to survive.” His ranch stories and cowboy poetry are lively examples of the genre, and his rattlesnake stories alone are worth the price of the book.

From Faded Rimrock Memories by Joe Brown:

A Texans Version of Jesus Birthplace

Jesus was born in Texas, this I know,
Listen and tell me this is not so.
His mother rode into town on an ass,
His father walked, they had no cash

(end of excerpt)

As for the Terrell County book, a hardcover that clocks in at over 700 pages, that was a bit pricier, and dicier to pack into my luggage. But I’m glad I did, for it is a superb reference on the region, with innumerable family and business histories, and it includes local newspaper clippings from the 1965 flood—and earlier and also devastating floods.

So what is the Texas Bibliothek? That’s what I call my working library for my book-in-progress, tentatively titled World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas. Texans are rather more prolific on the literary front than bajacalifornianos, so keeping the Texas Bibliothek in order has been, shall we say, a learning experience. But my bookmark organizing method, which I blogged about here, is keeping me away from the Advil.

Next month for my first-of-the-month post on Texas books I’ll be blogging about using archive.org and assembling an online library for out-of-copyright books, that is, books that are now in the public domain. Reading a book online is never the ideal option, but oftentimes necessary.

A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek

Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America by Richard Parker

“Dear Mother, Am feeling hard as a rock and brown as an Indian”:
More Postcards from the US-Mexico Border Circa 1916

My new book is Meteor

Melanie Kobayashi’s Champagne Kegger — Plus From the Archives: Ruth Levy Guyer’s “A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day”

This finds me working on my Far West Texas book and, after hours, bit by itty bit, that is, post by post, still migrating my old Blogger blog over here to self-hosted WordPress, a project I began a couple of years ago because… hmm, yes, deplatforming, in the news! The potential for deplatforming has been a concern for me, although not because I blog on touchy political subjects. Some years ago I started to feel uncomfortable with Google’s ever-changing and opaque algorithms (one of which, for reasons known only to itself, temporarily froze access to my blog) and Google’s outsize power. Therefore, rather than continue to rely on Google’s free Blogger platform for Madam Mayo blog, I opted to shell out for a domain name and hosting, all under my own control here at www.madam-mayo.com. I’ve been blogging 2006, so it has been quite a job* to select the posts worth the bother to migrate, and then, of those selected posts, update the links.

It has been a sobering education to find so many links that I had pointed to now dead. Yes, some webpages can be retrieved on archive.org. But a lot of things, from home pages to individual essays to interviews, are just… poof.

By the way, might this Monday find you yearning for post-pandemic fun times? Well, who needs a “bucket list” of things to see and do when you can have, à la Melanie Koyabashi, a champagne kegger! Check out her post and see if doesn’t make you feel better. (Ooh, that even rhymes, sort of.) You can also watch her dispatch, in her unique manner, a sculpture made of Cheetos.

*(Yes, I know about the software that could help me, and to those of you have pointed to various programs, though these are not going to work for my particular situation at this point, please know that you have my very sincere thanks.)

The rest of this Monday’s post is from the archives– a short post about an excellent and haunting biography of the victim of an epidemic. …hmm, yes, epidemics, in the news!

Ruth Levy Guyer’s
A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day

By C.M. MAYO
Originally posted on Madam Mayo blog September 26, 2012

A few weeks ago I happened to be wandering around Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington DC’s venerable go-to place for the latest chewy policy tomes, when, in the second room, I came upon Opus, the book-making contraption. It struck me rather as a beached whale. Not breathing. But there was a little stack of books that had come out of its maw… I picked up the one on top, A Life Interrupted by Ruth Levy Guyer,and began reading. By the time I got to page 10 or so, I realized, ah, time to buy it and go finish it over a cup of coffee. Or three. Or four.

Wow.

First of all it’s beautifully written, very deeply researched, and strange. It’s the true story of Marjorie Day, “Daysey,” a bright Wellesley graduate studying in England in the 1920s who came down with sleeping sickness which left her zombie-like and beset by delusions. And then… seventeen years later, after a horrifying odyssey of hospitals and mental institutions, she woke up. Permanently. She then proceeded to have a very nice and very long life as a teacher and then retiree in Georgetown, DC. Even more bizarrely, she never knew that what she’d been suffering from all those years was encephalitis lethargica– neither her doctor nor her family told her.

The author wrote to Oliver Sacks, whose book and the movie based on his book, tell the story of the victims of sleeping sickness who were woken up, decades later, but only temporarily, by L-dopa. To quote:

I asked Sacks if he had ever seen a patient like Daysey, who had recovered completely and permanently.

“I have never seen anything like this in my own practice,” he wrote back.

(What in blazes is the state of U.S. publishing that a book of this quality is self-published?)

UPDATE: Interesting 2014 essay about the 1915-1927 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica.

Q & A with Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy of
German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

A Writerly Tool for Sharpening Attentional Focus or, The Easy Luxury
of a Lap Desk

A Review of Claudio Saunt’s West of the Revolution:
An Uncommon History of 1776

My new book is Meteor

A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek

Happy New Year! This first Monday of 2021 finds me rolling along at 80 MPH with writing my book about Far West Texas and, concurrently, editing the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project episode # 22 about Sanderson (listen in to the other 21 Marfa Mondays podcasts here). Those of you who follow this blog well know that I’ve been at work on this book and the related podcast series for a whale of a while. One of many reasons for that is, to quote J.P. Bryan, a past president of the Texas State Historical Association, “More books have been written about [Texas] than any state in the union. In fact, there are more books about Texas than all the rest of the states combined.” Having been reading intensively about Texas for some years now, I believe it.

Starting this year, 2021, I’ll be dedicating the first Monday of the month to sharing with you some of the more interesting books in my working library. This post features a trio of biographies, two recent, and one I’d call an oldie but yummie.

Michael Vinson’s Bluffing Texas Style: The Arsons, Forgeries, and High-Stakes Poker Capers of Rare Book Dealer Johnny Jenkins (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020).
Splendidly well-written and deeply researched, this page-turner about criminal rare book dealer Johnny Jenkins is by none other than Michael Vinson, a leading rare book dealer himself, and so a biographer with an insider’s knowledge of the business. Rare books and documents are the DNA of the stories we tell about our history; burning them or presenting forgeries is to mess with something sacred. This is not a simple story, and the subject was an extremely unusual person.

Gene Fowler’s Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters (University of Texas Press, 2008). I cannot recall how I first came upon Fowler’s work, but whenever it was, count me a fan. He writes high faultin’ art criticism and is himself a performance artist (e.g., “Astroturf Ranchette”). Now that I think about it, it may have been his wild-ride of a book, Border Radio… Or maybe it was Mystic Healers and Medicine Shows… or Crazy Water? (P.S. Maverick Bobcat Carter just might decide to pop into my book.)

Brad Rockwell’s The Life and Times of Alberto G. Garcia: Physician, Mexican Revolutionary, Texas Journalist, Yogi (Alegría Press, 2020)
I was delighted to give this book a blurb:
“Dr. Alberto G. Garcia was Texas’ pioneer yogi, and so much more… This first biography of this extraordinarily accomplished man opens a new and strange window onto Austin history, Texas history, Mexican-American history, the Mexican Revolution, and the transnational development of esoteric movements and philosophies.”–C.M. Mayo

What can you find here at ye olde Madam Mayo blog in 2021? As noted above, this year I am dedicating the first Monday of the month to selected treasures in the Texas Bibliothek, that is, my personal working library. As in 2020, the second Monday of the month will be for my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing; the third Monday for my podcasts and publications, should I happen to have a new one; the fourth Monday Q & A with a fellow writer; and the fifth Monday, when there is one, for my newsletter and cyberflanerie.

A Visit to El Paso’s “The Equestrian”

Q & A: Carolina Castillo Crimm,
Author of De León: A Tejano Family History

In Memorium:
William C. Gruben and his “Animals in the Arts in Texas”

Timothy Heyman on B. Traven in “Literal,” Christina Thompson’s “Sea Peoples,” Cal Newport’s “Deep Questions” Podcast & More Cyberflanerie

Literal Magazine has just published my interview with Timothy Heyman about the incomparable legacy of German-Mexican novelist B. Traven— and the mystery, apparently solved, of Traven’s true identity. You can also read Heyman’s essay “Traven’s Triumph” here.

Earlier this month I published my annual top books read list, so I’ll have to add Christina Thompson’s Sea Peoples: The Puzzle of Polynesia, which I am only a couple of chapters away from finishing, to the 2021 list. What a delight it is! More delightful still to discover Thompson’s webpage with podcasts and YouTube interviews galore.

This is the time of year for cooking, and with the pandemic, that means even more cooking. My partners in this endeavor, otherwise employed as my writing assistants, communicate by means of dagger-looks which I, by long experience, know to translate as “Gimme me the ham!” and then again, “Gimme the ham!” And then: “Gimme the ham!” Thank goodness for podcasts!

My go-to podcast for the past week has been Cal Newport’s “Deep Questions.” He’s the Joyce Carol Oates of best-sellerdom, that is, to say, how in thundernation does he manage to do so much (and be a tenured professor of computer science)? He tries to explain it in his podcast! As I stir soup and chop the potatoes (…and, as commanded, distribute tiny bites of ham…) I find his podcast strangely soothing.

More cyberflanerie:

My amiga poet, essayist and translator Patricia Dubrava has posted her top books read list here; and novelist, short story writer and essayist Leslie Pietrzyk has posted hers here.

Recommended by my writing assistants:
Pugsnuggly, PugNotes (love the Bummlies!), and the ever-wonderful Apifera Farm and shop of artist Katherine Dunn.

A Glimpse of the New Literary Puzzlescape

Consider the Typewriter

What Is Writing (Really)?
Plus A New Video of Yours Truly Talking About
Four Exceedingly Rare Books Essential
for Scholars of the Mexican Revolution