Capturing the essence of the Southwest in 1915, Oliver La Farge's Pulitzer Prize-winning first novel is an enduring American classic. At a ceremonial dance, the young, earnest silversmith Laughing Boy falls in love with Slim Girl, a beautiful but elusive "American"-educated Navajo. As they experience all of the joys and uncertainties of first love, the couple must face a changing way of life and its tragic consequences.

Imagine yourself in a secluded green valley high in the mountains of northern New Mexico. You are one of a large family who own a sheep and cattle ranch surrounding the little village of Rociada. Your father, a Spaniard, is the revered and distinguished Jose Baca, and your mother, Dona Marguerite, is of French descent. Everyone in the village loves and respects your family as their patrones, appealing to them in times of trouble and bringing them gifts at Christmas. Out of the everyday life of the Baca family, the village people, their customs and superstitions, Oliver La Farge has drawn, for example, the touching story of young Pino's disillusionment with his hero, the horse thief Pascual. Or there is the account of the wedding shoes that pinched until the bride was in tears. Then there is Carmen's discovery of treachery in the unlit hovel of the blind religious and the amusing tale of how Pino was punished for his arrogance the night the Archbishop came to dinner. But beneath this rippling surface of adventure, tenderness, and humor rides the gradual encroachment of the outside world on Rociada, one of the last survivals of the ancient Spanish way of life in the United States. Finally, this idyllic village succumbs to the invasion of tourists and the machine, and Rociada becomes only a dream of the past. Born in 1901, Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge is ranked among the literary lions of Southwestern letters. Since he died in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. "Laughing Boy," a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30. Of his many books, "Behind the Mountains" has earned the affection of Santa Feans and New Mexicans, who continue to regard the book as a regional classic. Santa Fe has changed a great deal-more than most people are prepared to acknowledge-since Oliver La Farge died. The small-town atmosphere with "its warmth and rewards" he often spoke of and admired is swiftly becoming a thing of the past. But with his name appropriately enshrined over the doorway of a library in Santa Fe, perhaps the Modern Age will not be inclined to forget his love for the city and for the people of the American Southwest.

Describes the summer the mother ditch went dry, a time of crisis for the Romero family, who grow fruits and vegetables by irrigation in the dry Cerrito region of New Mexico.

This is the true story, told in fictional form, of one of the greatest of all American Indian chiefs, Cochise of the Chiricahua Apaches. Indians were once thought of as warlike, and the encroaching white men as wanting peace, but it was the white men who forced Cochise into war against his will. History tells us that Cochise and his tiny band of warriors not only held the United States Army at bay for more than ten years, but they were often on the offensive. It is a heroic and extraordinary story. The story ends with the equally extraordinary way in which peace was made, when Major General Howard, the bible-reading soldier, and Cochise, the religious-minded warrior, found that they could trust each other. The many illustrations are by L. F. Bjorklund, well-known for the accuracy of his interpretation of Indian scenes. Born in 1901, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY LA FARGE is ranked among the literary lions of American Southwestern letters. Since his death in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. Laughing Boy, a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30.

From 1950 until just before his death in 1963, Pulitzer Prize-winner La Farge wrote weekly columns for "The Santa Fe New Mexican." This edition collects the writings as edited by his friend, Winfield Townley Scott.

In his first book, the Pulitzer Prize novel "Laughing Boy," Oliver La Farge gave us a superb lyrical story of Navajo Indian life. In the fullness of his maturity as a writer, he later returned to the Navajo scene with "The Enemy Gods," a richer, deeper book than he had written before and its theme, both an absorbing story and a living social document, is nearer to his heart. It centers around Myron Begay-Divine Arrow is his Indian name-a young Navajo who is apparently won away from his tribe until he believes that he can solve the problem of life by making an imitation white man out of himself. Never able to escape from what he really is-a potential leader of his own people-he becomes more and more confused until he finally breaks down and commits murder. As one under a curse, Myron instinctively goes back into the Navajo country where he drifts as a lost soul. Through a series of superb scenes, the story rises to the final emotional crisis leading to the solution of his life. Born in 1901, Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge is ranked among the literary lions of American Southwestern letters. Since his death in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. "Laughing Boy," a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30.

Oliver La Farge covers many aspects of everyday life in these sixteen stories, which range from an old man facing death alone in the Mexican bush to some boys facing the responsibilities of life at St. Peter's school; from the science fiction world of computing machines to the world of gourmets; and from the violent death of a man off the Rhode Island coast to the quiet death of a marriage in New Mexico. The variety of stories in this wide-ranging collection are sure to fit the taste and mood and any reader interested in the human condition through the clear grace of La Farge's timeless writing. Born in 1901, Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge is ranked among the literary lions of American Southwestern letters. Since his death in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. "Laughing Boy," a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30.

The long, uneasy armistice between two world wars was a trying time for literary artists, particularly for those young men who came to maturity in that period of economic and social upheaval. Oliver La Farge's frank and honest personal narrative is a typical life of one born into the easy world of Newport, New York, Groton, and Harvard, dumped into the melting pot of the Great Depression, and then slammed up against the global war. His purpose "to record the America of one individual" and to set down the raw material from which the writer derives the finished product he offers to the world, is vividly fulfilled in this book. In an Appreciation appearing in this new edition, John Pen La Farge says: "In his autobiography, "Raw Material," Father wrote a superior account of one man's life. As Mother pointed out, it was superior because it was not a mere accounting of what, when, how, and in what order, rather, it was the account of how the raw material of one boy grew into a man, a man whose life both displayed and sought out true integrity." Born in 1901, Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge is ranked among the literary lions of Southwestern letters. Since he died in 1963, his reputation has continued to grow and new honors have been added to his name. "Laughing Boy," a novel of Navajo life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930, putting his name in lights before he was 30.