THERE IS no chart to the Life and Literature of the Southwest. An
attempt to put it all into an alphabetically arranged encyclopedia would
be futile. All guides to knowledge are too long or too short. This one
at the outset adds to its length--perhaps to its usefulness--by citing
other general reference works and a few anthologies.
_Books of the Southwest: A General Bibliography_, by Mary Tucker,
published by J. J. Augustin, New York, 1937, is better on Indians and
the Spanish period than on Anglo-American culture. _Southwest Heritage:
A Literary History with Bibliography_, by Mabel Major, Rebecca W. Smith,
and T. M. Pearce, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1938,
revised 1948, takes up the written material under the time-established
heads of Fiction, Poetry, Drama, etc., with due respect to chronological
development. _A Treasury of Southern Folklore_, 1949, and _A Treasury of
Western Folklore_, 1951, both edited by B. A. Botkin and both published
by Crown, New York, are so liberal in the extensions of folklore and so
voluminous that they amount to literary anthologies.
Of possible use in working out certain phases of life and literature
common to the Southwest as well as to the West and Middle West are the
following academic treatises: _The Frontier in American Literature_,
by Lucy Lockwood Hazard, New York, 1927; _The Literature of the Middle
Western Frontier_, by Ralph Leslie Rusk, New York, 1925; _The Prairie
and the Making of Middle America_, by Dorothy Anne Dondore, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, 1926; _The Literature of the Rocky Mountain West
1803-1903_, by L. J. Davidson and P. Bostwick, Caldwell, Idaho, 1939;
and _The Rediscovery of the Frontier_, by Percy H. Boynton, Chicago,
1931. Anyone interested in vitality in any phase of American writing
will find Vernon L. Parrington's _Main Currents in American Thought_
(three vols.), New York, 1927-39, an opener-up of avenues.
Perhaps the best anthology of southwestern narratives is _Golden Tales
of the Southwest_, selected by Mary L. Becker, New York, 1939. Two
anthologies of southwestern writings are _Southwesterners Write_, edited
by T. M. Pearce and A. P. Thomason, University of New Mexico Press,
Albuquerque, 1946, and _Roundup Time_, edited by George Sessions Perry,
Whittlesey House, New York, 1943. Themes common to the Southwest are
represented in _Western Prose and Poetry_, an anthology put together by
Rufus A. Coleman, New York, 1932, and in _Mid Country: Writings from the
Heart of America_, edited by Lowry C. Wimberly, University of Nebraska
Press, Lincoln, 1945.
For the southern tradition that has flowed into the Southwest Franklin
J. Meine's _Tall Tales of the Southwest_, New York, 1930, OP, is the
best anthology published. It is the best anthology of any kind that I
know of. _A Southern Treasury of Life and Literature_, selected by Stark
Young, New York, 1937, brings in Texas.
Anthologies of poetry are listed under the heading of "Poetry and
Drama." The outstanding state bibliography of the region is _A
Bibliography of Texas_, by C. W. Raines, Austin, 1896. Since this is
half a century behind the times, its usefulness is limited. At that,
it is more useful than the shiftless, hit-and-miss, ignorance-revealing
_South of Forty: From the Mississippi to the Rio Grande: A
Bibliography_, by Jesse L. Rader, Norman, Oklahoma, 1947. Henry
R. Wagner's _The Plains and the Rockies_, "a contribution to the
bibliography of original narratives of travel and adventure, 1800-1865,"
which came out 1920-21, was revised and extended by Charles L. Camp and
reprinted in 1937. It is stronger on overland travel than on anything
else, only in part covers the Southwest, and excludes a greater length
of time than Raines's _Bibliography_. Now published by Long's College
Book Co., Columbus, Ohio.
Mary G. Boyer's _Arizona in Literature_, Glendale, California, 1934, is
an anthology that runs toward six hundred pages. _Texas Prose Writings_,
by Sister M. Agatha, Dallas, 1936, OP, is a meaty, critical survey. L.
W. Payne's handbook-sized _A Survey of Texas Literature_, Chicago, 1928,
is complemented by a chapter entitled "Literature and Art in Texas" by
J. Frank Dobie in _The Book of Texas_, New York, 1929. OP.
_A Guide to Materials Bearing on Cultural Relations in New Mexico_,
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1944, is so logical and
liberal-minded that in some respects it amounts to a bibliography of the
whole Southwest; it recognizes the overriding of political boundaries
by ideas, human types, and other forms of culture. The _New Mexico
Quarterly_, published by the University of New Mexico, furnishes
periodically a bibliographical record of contemporary literature of the
Southwest. _New Mexico's Own Chronicle_, edited by Maurice G. Fulton and
Paul Horgan (Dallas, 1937, OP), is an anthology strong on the historical
side.
In the lists that follow, the symbol OP indicates that the book is out
of print. Many old books obviously out of print are not so tagged.