The Desert
John C. Van Dyke
(c) 1980 by Peregrine Smith, Inc. - Second Printing 1987 - Reprint of the 1901
edition published by Scribner, New York
ISBN 0-87905-073-X
This book is a classic account of the esthetics of the desert. First published in 1901 it has been widely acclaimed by noted authors such as Edward Abbey and Joseph Krutch. John Van Dyke was a professor of Art History at Rutgers University. In 1898 he ventured into the desert for two years to address the esthetic qualities of what he saw. Although his wanderings took him into the Sonoran Desert, many of his impressions relate quite well to the Great Basin Desert and particularly to the Colorado Plateau. His acute visual perceptions of the desert environment stem from his life’s work concerning art theory and visual perception. His eloquent use of language serves as the perfect vehicle for conveying the mesmerizing beauty of the desert. Here is a sample from the book:
"...In sublimity - the superlative degree of beauty - what land can equal the desert with its wide plains, its grim mountains, and its expanding canopy of sky! You shall never see elsewhere as here the dome, the pinnacle, the minaret fretted with golden fire at sunrise and sunset; you shall never see elsewhere as here the sunset valleys swimming in a pink and lilac haze, the great mesas and plateaus fading into blue distance, the gorges and canyons banked full of purple shadow. Never again shall you see such light and air and color; never such opaline mirage, such rosy dawn, such fiery twilight. And wherever you go, by land or by sea, you shall not forget that which you saw not but rather felt - the desolation and the silence of the desert..."
The Desert (Le Desert)
Pierre Loti
(c) 1993 - University of Utah Press - 1896 Calmann Levy
ISBN 0-87480-427-2
Based of the 1896 Calmann Levy edition of Le Desert, this beautifully written book is a diary that Pierre Loti kept as he traveled from Suez to Jerusalem on camelback through the Sinai deserts. The motivation for his trip was his recent conversion to atheism. In an attempt to recover his faith, he decided to visit the holy land, not the easy way by sea, but by the open desert with its inherent hardships and perils. However, the book does illustrate that hardship can be a relative thing. Loti was extremely wealthy and brought two traveling companions, a caravan of twenty camels loaded with amenities such as food, water, tents, Persian rugs, furniture and even servants! None-the-less, his extravagance poured over into his writing which contains rich descriptions of vivid desert landscapes. Originally written in French, the book was wonderfully translated by Jay Paul Minn, who went to great lengths to preserve the enchanting quality of Loti’s prose.
There is common thread of experience that bonds all desert travelers. I cannot help but to think of southern Utah when I read the following…
"All morning long we continue as before, among titanic ruins of ramparts, temples, and palaces… For thousands and thousands of years, weather, rain, and landslides must have worked here with incredible slowness, laying the hardest seams bare, destroying the softer veins, digging, sculpting, crumbling, with the guile of art and symmetry, to create this frightening and superhuman impression of an endless city."
Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey
(c) 1968 Edward Abbey
ISBN 0-345-32649-0
Edward Abbey has been described many ways - desert anarchist, rebel, eccentric, twentieth-century polemicist, irreverent and even a legend. During his carrier he wrote passionately in defense of the West. Through his novels he consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the preservation of wilderness. Abbey authored twenty-one books in his lifetime, including the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activists. Desert Solitaire is a nonfictional account of his two years as a Park Ranger in Arches National Park. It’s not only a fantastic book about one man’s love of wilderness, it’s also simply a fantastic book - extremely well written and full of passion. This is a must-have for anyone who ventures into southern Utah. Here's a small taste of why this book has become a classic:
- "The restless sea, the towering mountains, the silent desert - what do they have in common, and what are the essential differences? Grandeur, color, spaciousness, the power of the ancient and elemental, that which lies beyond the ability of man to wholly grasp or utilize, these qualities all three share. In each there is the sense of something ultimate, with mountains exemplifying the brute force of natural processes, the sea concealing the richness, complexity and fecundity of life beneath a surface of huge monotony, and the desert - what does the desert say?"
- "The desert says nothing. Completely passive, acted upon but never acting, the desert lies there like the bare skeleton of Being, spare, sparse, austere, utterly worthless, inviting not love but contemplation. In its simplicity and order it suggests the classical, except that the desert is a realm beyond the human and in the classicist view only the human is regarded as significant or even recognized as real."
- "Despite its clarity and simplicity, however, the desert wears at the same time, paradoxically, a veil of mystery. Motionless and silent it evokes in us an elusive hint of something unknown, something unknowable, about to be revealed. Since the desert does not act it seems to be waiting - but waiting for what?"
- "...Even after years of intimate contact and search this quality of strangeness in the desert remains undiminished. Transparent and intangible as sunlight, yet always and everywhere present, it lures a man on and on, from the red walled canyons to the smoke-blue ranges beyond, in a futile but fascinating quest for the great, unimaginable treasure which the desert seems to promise. Once caught in this golden lure you become a prospector for life, condemned, doomed, exalted."
The
Enchanted Wilderness - A Red Rock Odyssey
Ward J. Roylance
(c) 1986 Ward J. Roylance
ISBN 0-915272-29-6
From the back cover of the book:
"Ward and Gloria Roylance have made their home in the Fremont River Valley near Capitol Reef National Park since 1976. There, on a frontier between high, forested plateaus and the redrock Canyonlands wilderness. they observe and experience nature in its relatively pristine aspects."
"Mr. Roylance is a Utah specialist, having devoted most of his working life to traveling, writing about, and photographing that extraordinary place. Some 20 years ago he and Gloria became enamored with the Colorado Plateau province of the Four Corners states, to which they applied the name Enchanted Wilderness."
"In this book they convey their love and concern for this marvelous, fragile part of our planet, the largest wild or near-wild province still remaining in the 48 contiguous states. Because of its uniqueness, they say, the region deserves the most enlightened consideration."
This book is an autobiography of Ward Roylance, but it goes far beyond that. It documents Ward’s visual awakening to the natural esthetics of Red Rock Country. Through his eyes we are given a new perspective on , and appreciation of, the "Enchanted Wilderness" which is the very same Red Rock Country that this web site is all about. Here is an excerpt from the prologue by Ward…
"This book is a love story that began more than forty years ago with my first journey to the red-rock country of southeastern Utah. The infatuation that saw its beginnings there at Dead Horse Point expanded to include the State of Utah. Eventually, joined in this infatuation by my dear companion Gloria, my love affair grew to embrace the entire Colorado Plateau - the marvelous Enchanted Wilderness - of the Four Corner states."
Ward published this book himself and parts of it have an almost innocent quality which make it a joy to read. However, Ward was a firm environmentalist, and he didn’t beat-around-the-juniper-tree when it came to the preservation of the Enchanted Wilderness. He firmly stressed the need for preservation of the entire Colorado Plateau as an integral region, not just portions of it in widely separated national parks. Again, I quote from the prologue…
"Despite its remarkable concentration of national parks and monuments, state parks, national forests and recreation areas, and Indian reservations, the Plateau as an integrated region of natural wonders beyond comprehension is not known to the public at large. Not being known, it is not appreciated as a region and its destiny is of little concern to the general public. Its fate is being decided by uninspired officials, politicians and special interests, few of whom have an enlightened vision of WHAT SHOULD BE and WHAT MIGHT BE."
This book is one of my most treasured possessions and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Red Rock Country. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest books on this list to find. It’s been out of print for years and I’m not really sure where you can still find copies. I occasionally come across a copy or two in one of the shops around Moab, but even that has become a rarity. If you ever see a copy of this book, BUY IT and SHARE IT!
Check out my Art in Stone page for a collection of excepts from this wonderful book.
Everett Ruess:
A Vagabond for Beauty
W. L. Rusho
(c) 1983 Gibbs M. Smith, Inc.
ISBN 0-87905-210-4
Everett Ruess was perhaps the most poetic wanderer to ever enter Red Rock Country. He was a bold explorer, artist, and writer who disappeared in the Escalante canyons in November of 1934, at the age of 20. This book is a collection of his beautifully written letters, which capture his sense of adventure and near obsession with the splendor of the desert. Full of passion and emotion, his letters convey the thoughts of a man intoxicated with life itself...
- "Music has been in my heart all the time, and poetry in my thoughts. Alone on the open desert, I have made up songs of wild, poignant rejoicing and transcendent melancholy. The world has seemed more beautiful to me than ever before. I have loved the red rocks, the twisted trees, the red sand blowing in the wind, the slow, sunny clouds crossing the sky, the shafts of moonlight on my bed at night. I have seemed to be at one with the world. I have rejoiced to set out, to be going somewhere, and I have felt a still sublimity, looking deep into the coals of my campfires, and seeing far beyond them. I have been happy in my work, and I have exulted in my play. I have really lived."
- "I am drunk with a searing intoxication that liquor could never bring--drunk with the fiery elixir of beauty, the destroying draught of power, and the soul-piercing inevitability of music. Often I am tortured to think that what I so deeply feel must always remain, for the most, unshared, uncommunicated. Yet, at least I have felt, have heard and seen and known, beauty that is inconceivable, that no words and no creative medium are able to convey. Knowing that the cards are stacked, and realized achievements are mere shadows of the dream, I still try to give some faint but tangible suggestion of what has burned without destroying me."
- "Living in the midst
of such utter and overpowering beauty as nearly
kills a sensitive person by its piercing glory…" - "…I have seen almost more beauty than I can bear."
- "You do not know how ridiculous life is unless you have had strange experiences and seen the ineffable absurdity of it all."
- "There is a splendid freedom in solitude...nothing stands between me and the wild."
- "...constantly known beauty so piercing as to be almost unbearable..."
