Yosemite As We Saw It: A Centennial Collection of Early Writings & Art by David Robertson

Abstract

158 WesternAmerican Literature diction) somewhat awe-struck. Many, including me, approached the author and muttered a congratulatory note about the “nobility” of the undertaking: this preservation of Jacobo Romero, guardian of the traditions, gently withering repository of the old ways of El Valle—before the invasions of capitalism and Anglo America. The facts of the book belie its documentary—and symbolic— power. DeBuys, his wife Anne, and Harris move to Las Trampas to begin “their work.” DeBuys in scatter fashion works on what will become Enchantment and Exploitation: TheLife and Hard Times ofaNew MexicoMountain Range (UNM Press 1985); Harris, fresh from his success with Robert Coles (The Old Ones ofNew Mexico, [UNM Press, 1973]) involves himself in a number of photographic projects and experiments; Anne paints. One morning, on a thirty-year-old red horse with no name, the Quixotic septuagenarian, carrying his two walking canes, his mulas, rides into their lives and literally takes over. Jacobo is living documentation of the old ways, but his imaginative adaptive abilities make him the self-appointed tutor of these nouveau researcher-artisans. He manages their hard adventures with the water, the weather, the land, and their neighbors. Eventually, in an extreme break with Hispanic tradition, the gringo Harris will deliver the old man’s graveside elegy. DeBuys’ style, though not without humor, is chiseled; Harris’s photogra­ phy, though ascetically austere, is intimate and casual. Prose and photographs illuminate each other. This is indeed a noblework, both poetic and documentary. The Rio de las Trampas, the vein of life, that runs through it, offers the readerJacobo Romero as a friend for life. The documentary preservation of the man and his times is a noteworthy gift to the art and history of the southwest. If I were a nominating committee of one, River of Trapswould garner many important awards—south­ western and national. I love this book. LEE SCHULTZ StephenF. Austin State University Yosemite As We Saw It: A Centennial Collection ofEarly Writings & Art. By David Robertson, assisted by Henry Berrey. (Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Asso­ ciation, 1990. 100 pages, $34.95.) While climbing the cable trail to the top ofHalfDome in Yosemite National Park, I noticed people of all ages, shapes, and colors participating in a similar pilgrimage. Unwittingly, I became part of the cultural phenomenon known as Yosemite, Mecca of the Outdoors. This collection ofwritings and visual images assembled by David Robertson Reviews 159 testifies to Yosemite’s enduring power for more than a century to inspire pilgrimages and worship. In a previous book, WestofEden:A History oftheArtAnd Literature ofYosemite (1984), Robertson, a professor of English at the University of California at Davis, focused upon the work of well known artists and writers. Here his treatment is more expansive. By anthologizing the work of “ordinary” travelers, diarists, and lesser-known artists—as well as that of more familiar figures such asJohn Muir and Albert Bierstadt—he has nicely complemented his earlier book. And, with incisive commentary on every selection, he has also distinguished himselfas one of the most knowledgeable scholars of the Valley’s rich record of verbal and visual iconography. In the foreword, California cultural historian Kevin Starr states that “Yosemite As We Saw It functions as the most comprehensive anthology of Yosemite literature ever to be made available to the public.”With twenty-four illustrations and over ninety written excerpts the book records in separate chapters many awe-ful responses over the years to the Valley, its monoliths, waterfalls, and giant sequoias. While few of the writings qualify as great litera­ ture, Robertson has performed a valuable service in making readily available these many tributes to one ofAmerica’s most sacred natural temples. Published as part of the Yosemite Centennial Celebration, the book is a wonderful way to help commemorate Yosemite’s first one hundred years as a national park. DON SCHEESE Santa Clara University The Range. By Sherm Ewing. (Missoula: Mountain Press, 1990. 284 pages, $12.95.) Sherm Ewing delves into the ways that men and women (mostly men) have struggled with, and used, the vast, relatively flat, stretch of grassland that extends north from inside Mexico through the United States and deep into Canada. A half century ago...