University of Utah Press, 2007 Paper: 978-0-87480-899-5 Library of Congress Classification F869.P18G78 2007 Dewey Decimal Classification 979.497
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Home to former presidents and to movie stars, Palm Springs and its surrounding deserts are among the fastest growing and wealthiest areas of the U.S. But beneath the glitter lies a story of turmoil and a pattern of excess that prefigures many of the issues that face the nation.
The Grumbling Gods surveys the history and allure of Palm Springs, beginning with the Cahuilla Indians, the first historical residents of the region. It includes accounts from the early explorers, a report of mysterious shipwrecks amidst the sand dunes, and selections from the grimly rollicking writings of Raymond Chandler. It penetrates the tinsel of casinos and the placidity of gated golf communities to reveal the painful beauty of deserts and mountains under assault.
Francisco Patencio, the last of the traditional Cahuilla Indians, warned his white neighbors to be careful, that the grim gods inhabiting the canyons around Palm Springs were angry. It is their grumbling, at once chilling and prophetic, and yet sometimes humorous, that we hear from the pages of this book.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Peter Wild is professor of English at the University of Arizona. He is the author of numerous books on the Southwest and its deserts, including The New Desert Reader (University of Utah Press, 2006).
REVIEWS
"The Grumbling Gods is a significant contribution to the understanding of the American West, one that introduces the reader to both a place as well as to the ways in which the human understanding of that place has evolved over the years."—Donald A. Barclay, University of California, Merced
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Teetering on the Edge
1. For My Own People
Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians by Francisco Patencio
2. Life from the Rocks
The Forgotten Artist: Indians of Anza-Borrego and Their Rock Art by Manfred Knaak
3. The Spanish Lewis and Clark: Into the Swallowing Wilderness
Anza?s California Expeditions by Herbert Eugene Bolton
4. We Took Our Bullets in Our Mouths
The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky by James O. Pattie
5. Stuck in the Yuma Dunes: A Sandstorm Envelops a Stagecoach
Six Horses by Captain William Banning and George Hugh Banning
6. Seeing with New Eyes: William P. Blake, Geologist
Report of a Geological Reconnaissance in California by William P. Blake
7. Steamboating across the Colorado
Report upon the Colorado River of the West by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives
8. ?Thou Brown, Bare-Breasted, Voiceless Mystery?: The Desert as Urban Melodrama
?To the Colorado Desert? by Madge Morris Wagner
9. Seeing with New Eyes: John C. Van Dyke, Aesthetician
The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances by John C. Van Dyke
10. More on Van Dyke: The Nasty Young Man on the Imagined Trapeze
The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances by John C. Van Dyke
11. John Muir on the Colorado Desert: In a Flowered Bathrobe
?I Remember John Muir?s Visit? by Helen Lukens Gaut
12. The Runaway River
The Water Seekers by Remi A. Nadeau
13. The Wonderland: Ghosts at the Well
The Wonders of the Colorado Desert by George Wharton James
14. Love along the Irrigation Ditches
The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright
15. A Treacherous Camel at the Train Station
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
16. Out of Revolutionary Mexico: The Three Wealthy White Sisters
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
17. Barbara Worth on the Rampage
?Imperial Earthquake, Million Damage Done?
18. A Desert Village
Our Araby: Palm Springs and the Garden of the Sun by J. Smeaton Chase
19. A Desert Saint?With Cracks: Carl Eytel
?Of Such As These Is the Spirit of the Desert? by Elwood Lloyd; and Letters to Edmund C. Jaeger by Carl Eytel
20. Just What Was Needed: Edmund C. Jaeger
The North American Deserts by Edmund C. Jaeger
21. Two Wealthy Feminists from Cleveland: A Great Hole Full of Blue Mist
The White Heart of Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors by Edna Brush Perkins
22. A Tiny Figure Wavering in the Blue Mists
California Desert Trails by J. Smeaton Chase
23. The Ansel Adams of the Desert: Stephen H. Willard
?Stephen H. Willard: Photography Collection and Archive? by Christine Giles
24. The Excitements of Celluloid: The Camel?s Nose
Hollywood Saga by William C. deMille
25. The Excitements of Celluloid: The Camel Victorious
California: A Guide to the Golden State
26. After God . . . Gen. George S. Patton!
Patton?s Desert Training Center by John S. Lynch, John W. Kennedy, and Robert L. Wooley
27. Desert Magazine and Marshal South: Living like Indians
?Desert Refuge? by Marshal South
28. Pegleg Smith: A Legend Found?Then Lost Again
?Black Nuggets in the Valley of Phantom Buttes? by John D. Mitchell
29. Sands that Blossom into Viking Ships
?Ships That Pass in Desert Sands? by Choral Pepper
30. The Death of Chuckawalla Bill
The Man from the Cave by Colin Fletcher
31. Murder in Fru-Fru Land
Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker
32. Consequences: The Sea of Poisons
Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California by William deBuys
33. The Preserved Lands: Ecstasy and Agony
All the Wild and Lonely Places: Journeys in a Desert Landscape by Lawrence Hogue
34. Bighorn Sheep
All the Wild and Lonely Places: Journeys in a Desert Landscape by Lawrence Hogue
35. In the Vineyards: ?T¡o, I Need Some Work?
Highwire Moon: A Novel by Susan Straight
36. Any August Day a Hundred Years Ago: In the Cool Pines
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
37. Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Las Mentiras
Palm Springs: First Hundred Years by Frank M. Bogert
Epilogue: A Beam of Dawn Light
?A Landmark Fades? and ?The No-Girls Club? by Ann Japenga
Bibliography
Permissions
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Utah Press, 2007 Paper: 978-0-87480-899-5
Home to former presidents and to movie stars, Palm Springs and its surrounding deserts are among the fastest growing and wealthiest areas of the U.S. But beneath the glitter lies a story of turmoil and a pattern of excess that prefigures many of the issues that face the nation.
The Grumbling Gods surveys the history and allure of Palm Springs, beginning with the Cahuilla Indians, the first historical residents of the region. It includes accounts from the early explorers, a report of mysterious shipwrecks amidst the sand dunes, and selections from the grimly rollicking writings of Raymond Chandler. It penetrates the tinsel of casinos and the placidity of gated golf communities to reveal the painful beauty of deserts and mountains under assault.
Francisco Patencio, the last of the traditional Cahuilla Indians, warned his white neighbors to be careful, that the grim gods inhabiting the canyons around Palm Springs were angry. It is their grumbling, at once chilling and prophetic, and yet sometimes humorous, that we hear from the pages of this book.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Peter Wild is professor of English at the University of Arizona. He is the author of numerous books on the Southwest and its deserts, including The New Desert Reader (University of Utah Press, 2006).
REVIEWS
"The Grumbling Gods is a significant contribution to the understanding of the American West, one that introduces the reader to both a place as well as to the ways in which the human understanding of that place has evolved over the years."—Donald A. Barclay, University of California, Merced
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Teetering on the Edge
1. For My Own People
Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians by Francisco Patencio
2. Life from the Rocks
The Forgotten Artist: Indians of Anza-Borrego and Their Rock Art by Manfred Knaak
3. The Spanish Lewis and Clark: Into the Swallowing Wilderness
Anza?s California Expeditions by Herbert Eugene Bolton
4. We Took Our Bullets in Our Mouths
The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky by James O. Pattie
5. Stuck in the Yuma Dunes: A Sandstorm Envelops a Stagecoach
Six Horses by Captain William Banning and George Hugh Banning
6. Seeing with New Eyes: William P. Blake, Geologist
Report of a Geological Reconnaissance in California by William P. Blake
7. Steamboating across the Colorado
Report upon the Colorado River of the West by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives
8. ?Thou Brown, Bare-Breasted, Voiceless Mystery?: The Desert as Urban Melodrama
?To the Colorado Desert? by Madge Morris Wagner
9. Seeing with New Eyes: John C. Van Dyke, Aesthetician
The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances by John C. Van Dyke
10. More on Van Dyke: The Nasty Young Man on the Imagined Trapeze
The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances by John C. Van Dyke
11. John Muir on the Colorado Desert: In a Flowered Bathrobe
?I Remember John Muir?s Visit? by Helen Lukens Gaut
12. The Runaway River
The Water Seekers by Remi A. Nadeau
13. The Wonderland: Ghosts at the Well
The Wonders of the Colorado Desert by George Wharton James
14. Love along the Irrigation Ditches
The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright
15. A Treacherous Camel at the Train Station
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
16. Out of Revolutionary Mexico: The Three Wealthy White Sisters
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
17. Barbara Worth on the Rampage
?Imperial Earthquake, Million Damage Done?
18. A Desert Village
Our Araby: Palm Springs and the Garden of the Sun by J. Smeaton Chase
19. A Desert Saint?With Cracks: Carl Eytel
?Of Such As These Is the Spirit of the Desert? by Elwood Lloyd; and Letters to Edmund C. Jaeger by Carl Eytel
20. Just What Was Needed: Edmund C. Jaeger
The North American Deserts by Edmund C. Jaeger
21. Two Wealthy Feminists from Cleveland: A Great Hole Full of Blue Mist
The White Heart of Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors by Edna Brush Perkins
22. A Tiny Figure Wavering in the Blue Mists
California Desert Trails by J. Smeaton Chase
23. The Ansel Adams of the Desert: Stephen H. Willard
?Stephen H. Willard: Photography Collection and Archive? by Christine Giles
24. The Excitements of Celluloid: The Camel?s Nose
Hollywood Saga by William C. deMille
25. The Excitements of Celluloid: The Camel Victorious
California: A Guide to the Golden State
26. After God . . . Gen. George S. Patton!
Patton?s Desert Training Center by John S. Lynch, John W. Kennedy, and Robert L. Wooley
27. Desert Magazine and Marshal South: Living like Indians
?Desert Refuge? by Marshal South
28. Pegleg Smith: A Legend Found?Then Lost Again
?Black Nuggets in the Valley of Phantom Buttes? by John D. Mitchell
29. Sands that Blossom into Viking Ships
?Ships That Pass in Desert Sands? by Choral Pepper
30. The Death of Chuckawalla Bill
The Man from the Cave by Colin Fletcher
31. Murder in Fru-Fru Land
Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker
32. Consequences: The Sea of Poisons
Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California by William deBuys
33. The Preserved Lands: Ecstasy and Agony
All the Wild and Lonely Places: Journeys in a Desert Landscape by Lawrence Hogue
34. Bighorn Sheep
All the Wild and Lonely Places: Journeys in a Desert Landscape by Lawrence Hogue
35. In the Vineyards: ?T¡o, I Need Some Work?
Highwire Moon: A Novel by Susan Straight
36. Any August Day a Hundred Years Ago: In the Cool Pines
Palm Springs: The Landscape, the History, the Lore by Mary Jo Churchwell
37. Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Las Mentiras
Palm Springs: First Hundred Years by Frank M. Bogert
Epilogue: A Beam of Dawn Light
?A Landmark Fades? and ?The No-Girls Club? by Ann Japenga
Bibliography
Permissions
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE