Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality

This book is so well written ,it kept my interest all the through . It gives a glimpse into the life of the author and how she came to settle in Taos NM. She was quite the character for her time period. I found myself transported in time and felt as though I was experiencing her journey. If you plan on traveling to the Santa Fe Taos area it's a great read.

I found this book intriguing, well-written and hard to put down. In the year of the Russian revolution, Mabel Dodge Sterne, at age 38, newly married to her third husband, artist Maurice Sterne, abandoned her high society life in Florence and New York City and moved to Taos. This, the fourth volume of her autobiographies starts with her arrival by train in Santa Fe. So eager was she to reach her destination that she left the slow train and hailed a car and driver to take her the rest of the way. But when the car breaks down she reboards the train. After a few weeks in Santa Fe she finally goes to Taos and immediately rents an apartment to the consternation of Maurice who plans to return to NY. An unusual woman who doesn't take no for an answer, she slowly adapts some of her ways to the culture of the Indians in Taos Pueblo, and soon she has established an emotional connection with Indian Tony Luhan.There are marvelous descriptions of their adventures, and the purchase of an adobe house and expansion of that house by Tony and his builders. Mabel spends time every day at the pueblo, learning from the Indian way of life and teaching knitting skills to the women. Eventually Mabel knows that she will be connected to Tony for the rest of her life and she gives Maurice a date to move out. After only one year of marriage, Maurice returns to NYC never to see Mabel again. At the end of the book, Tony moves into Mabel's adobe and the blending of their lives and cultures is complete. Yet he still maintains his family relationships with his Indian wife Candelaria and family in the Pueblo. How this was managed is not explained. Mabel's son John, a collector of Spanish folkart, lives with them. Their large house becomes a hub of social and artistic activity as Mabel invites artists, writers and intellectuals as guests. Tony carefully maintains his Indian identity and is usually silent with Anglo guests. Mabel trusts his intuitions completely. He not only builds and maintains their home and guest houses, but also farms the land for alfalfa and oats, and is a respected leader in the Pueblo. They have a farm full of animals. An account of their first year together is written in Mabel's other book, "Winter in Taos" which is a classic. It seems that Mabel Dodge Luhan's great wealth allowed her to create the life she dreamed of, without constraints. Sometimes she could be selfish and cruel toward friends but was at heart a generous woman. Eventually she built a hospital for the town of Taos. Her philosophy of living in the moment and being very alert and aware to everything around her provided her with the keen observations that make for such interesting reading. That philosophy also foreshadows the current 21st Century obsession with living in the moment and minimizing past and future. I sensed the vivid sights, sounds and smells of Taos from her writing. Writings from other Taosenos help to fill in the blanks: Frieda Lawrence, wife of writer D.H., English artist Dorothy Brett, Santa Fe poet Witter Bynner, and Taos bookshop owner Claire Morrill who wrote "A Taos Mosaic" help to round out a picture of the unique people and cultures of northern New Mexico during the early 20th Century.

Absolutely wonderful. There is nothing much I can say that hasn't already been said about this amazing book. The only thing I can add is to consider reading this as a trilogy...1. Start with  Part of a Long Story: "Eugene O'Neill as a Young Man in Love"  by O'Neill's second wife Agnes Boulton2. Followed by  Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant  (was in Russia with husband John Reed)3. Finish with this book by Mabel Dodge "Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality"The women are linked by their relationship with the Greenwich Village group in the early part of the 1910s in America. Mabel Dodge and Louise Bryant both had serious relationships with John Reed (Bryant became his wife) and the Louise Bryant and Agnes Boulton shared O'Neill. Anyway, all three are amazing to read, Mabel's & Agnes's are more like exquisitely written literature, and Louise Bryant's is a traditional biography.Also highly recommend Rudnick's biography on Dodge to fill in some of the details. Of course not written as beautifully but still very enjoyable.  Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds .Mabel Dodge Luhan's house in Taos is now a lodge and one can stay there, I would recommend it, it's lovely.

Mabel Dodge Luhan must have been quite a charasmatic woman and certainly left a strong imprint on Taos, New Mexico during her life there. This book is her 'spiritual' journey from her superficial life on the East and West Coasts to one of more meaning and simplicity in Taos. She is engaging (albeit at times quite repetitive writer) and her scenes of daily life and travel in New Mexico are vivid and appealing. However, to me she comes across as incredibly self-absorbed and insensitive (which she acknowledges in her past life, but claims she's transcended now that she's been exposed to the mysteries of Tony Luhan's inner peace). She treats her third husband like an annoyance, until she packs him off, and has a young son who merits only a few pages where we are assured he's doing just fine, although his mother is certainly almost emotionally completely absent. A large part of her attraction to Tony is that he is the first man she feels and enjoys being completely submissive to. I realize I'm reading a book written in the early 20th century with a 21st century sensibility - so all the mystical awakening is most definitely old hat by now and gender roles still very much called for submission to male authority. In the end, Mabel seems like someone who would certainly be interesting to know, but not someone with whom you'd want to trust your heart.

This is a fascinating autobiography of a woman who completely changed her lifestyle, giving up a sophisticated life in New York to move to undeveloped Taos where she became fascinated by the Indians in the pueblo. She explains how the Indian beliefs and way of life made her feel calm and grounded for the first time in her 40 years. The book is fascinating! However, the book I got from a third party seller did not have this beautiful picture with the deep blue sky on the cover. Get the edition which has this striking picture.