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Show Essays of the American West, 1974-75. Edited by THOMAS G. ALEXANDER. Charles Redd Monographs in Western History, No. 6. (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Press, 1976. V + 147 pp. Paper, $4.95.) The essays in this volume were presented as part of the Charles Redd Lectures on the American West at Brigham Young University during the 1974-75 academic year. As the introduction to the volume indicates they "deal with various aspects of Western development" and reflect a wide "diversity of Western experience." The essays, in order of their appearance in the volume, are: "The Western Experience of Henry Adams," Richard A. Bartlett; "The Eliza Enigma: The Life and Legend of Eliza R. Snow," Maureen Ursenbach Beecher; "McCarthyism in the Mountains, 1950-54," F. Ross Peterson; "Social Accommodations in Utah," Clark S. Knowlton; "Comparative Frontiers: China and the West," Paul V. Hyer; and "The Paradox of Mormon Folklore," William A. Wilson. After a brief but interesting biographical sketch of Henry Brooks Adams, Mr. Bartlett reviews in a perceptive manner Adams's five trips to the American West during the period 1871 to 1894. Fie also calls attention to Adams's attendance at the World's Fairs (Expositions) at Chicago and Saint Louis in 1893 and 1904 respectively. Fie examines his western experience via family contacts, particularly through his brother, Charles Francis Adams, and through western friends who included Clarence King, Bret Flarte, John Flay, and Theodore Roosevelt. Bartlett appears disappointed that Adams saw no great lessons nor historical implications in his western experience such as James Bryce, Henry George, and Frederick Jackson Turner expressed in their writings. Perhaps this was too much to expect of a person whose total experience in the West was less than six months and whose historical interests were oriented more toward the eastern seaboard and Europe as reflected in Adams's nine-volume History of the United States during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison and the volume on Mont-Saint- Michel and Chartres. Ms. Beecher, under the headings of "poetess," "prophetess," "priestess," and "presidentess," and with effective and illustrative examples, provides the reader with an excellent insight into the character and accomplishments of Eliza R. Snow. The significance of Eliza R. Snow's efforts are clearly indicated, even though the essayist gives her little credit for innovation and creativeness. Yet her ability to take ideas and make them become meaningful and real and to implement them were clearly consequential. This essay is interesting as a backdrop for the women's movement in the contemporary era. "McCarthyism in the Mountains, 1950-54," is a thoughtful presentation on a regional basis of what was a national phenomenon. The impact of this movement on the political and personal lives of outstanding western leaders is clearly and effectively outlined and documented. The movement succeeded in removing from political life Glen 204 Utah Historical Quarterly Taylor in Idaho and Elbert Thomas in Utah. It had even more tragic consequences for Lester C. Hunt in Wyoming. In spite of its unfortunate impact, Alike Mansfield and James Murray survived it in Montana, as did Joseph O'Mahoney in Wyoming, suggesting that McCarthyism was not a guarantee for political victory in the Mountain West. Clark S. Know4ton's "Social Accommodation in Utah" is an essay which, as the author suggests, focuses more upon questions than answers. Yet the questions are important and provocative and need to be studied and answered. Because of the long-standing Mormon-non- Mormon issues, the cultural diversity in the state, the expansion of Mormonism via its worldwide missionary system, social accommodation becomes consequential both internally and externally. How can the predominantly Anglo-American culture in Utah accommodate the growing cultural consciousness of its Indian population? its Mexican-American citizens? its Black population? How can Mormonism with its Anglo-American orientation relate, in the long run, to the growing number of converts in diverse cultures all over the world? These are the types of meaningful questions raised in the essay. One of the more important impacts of Mr. Knowlton's essay may be to provide new vistas for social science researchers. There would appear to be a fertile field for their endeavors in the area he has explored. Mr. Hyer's essay on "Comparative Frontiers: China and the West" suggests contrasts as well as comparisons. Whereas the American and Russian frontiers brought changes to old institutions and ideas, often effecting a new-style of life, Chinese institutions were little changed as they extended into the frontier. American character has been significantly influenced by its frontier experience. Apparently, the frontier experience of the Chinese had little real influence on Chinese personality and attitudes. Until recently, Chinese penetration of the Mongol frontier was rather shallow, while there was broad and deep penetration of the American and Russian frontiers. There were similarities on the frontiers in that the expanding nationalities tended to impose their will and culture on the frontier peoples. Other similarities involved expansion via individual entrepreneurs as well as by organized governmental political action. Occupation of frontiers also occurred in the interest of national security, real or imagined. Lawlessness appears to be a standard feature of frontiers everywhere. The last part of Mr. Hyer's essay is devoted to case studies of a private land developer. Wang T'ung-Ch'un, and a government colonization promoter, I Ku. This part would be of particular interest to students of Chinese frontier history. Comparative studies of frontiers of the nature of Mr. Hyer's should help provide greater insight into particular frontiers: for example, our own experience in western America. A major thesis of Mr. Wilson's "The Paradox of Mormon Folklore" is that folklore is the unofficial part of Mormon culture that is maintained through the process of oral transmission. He rather effectively supports this thesis with a variety of interesting examples. Through folklore, suggests 'Wilson, important attitudes, aspirations, desires, and concerns are expressed and/or discovered. Folklore serves as a means of social regulation and a source of psychological release, both important and necessaiy in any culture. Of particular interest in Mr. Wilson's essay are the folklore illustrations associated with the Three Nephites and the J. Golden Kimball stories. The paradox of Mormon folklore is: "On the one Book Reviews and Notices 205 hand it persuades members to accept and support church dogma and practice; on the other it provides them with the means of coming to terms with the tensions such support at times imposes upon them." Because of its nature, folklore is universal and has universal appeal. It provides color and interest for the historian, but it also poses challenges in the process of ascertaining facts and arriving at truth. All the essays are well documented. Because of their variety they should have appeal for a wide spectrum of readers. The serious student and scholar along with the general reader will find food for thought and enjoyment. Perhaps the most impressive feature of the volume is the succinct and incisive statement of the editor which precedes each essay. Each thoughtful editorial statement provides the reader excellent insight with which to approach the reading of the essay. DELLO G. DAYTON Weber State College Fort Supply: Brigham Young's Green River Experiment. By [FRED R.] GOWANS [EUGENE E.] CAMPBELL. (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Press, 1 Iv 4-83 pp. $2.95.) and 976. Probably no more than a handful of motorists who travel that mute concrete band connecting our coasts - called Interstate 80 - are mindful as they cross the southwest corner of Wyoming that they are traversing a region that nearly a century and a half before was the nucleus of Mormon pioneer activity in this yet sparsely settled area of the American West. Today there remains little physical evidence to testify to the industry of pioneer missionaries that labored to develop a center for the outreach of the LDS church among the Indian tribes of the Green River basin. With the publication of this latest work by professors Fred Gowans and Eugene Campbell the silence of the past has been broken, and the role of Fort Supply in the development of the local region is manifest. Overshadowed by the more famous fur trading post built by James Bridger which occupied the same valley, Fort Supply was functioning as a mission outpost for at least two years prior to 1855 when Bridger and Vasquez made their decision to sell their jointly owned fort to the LDS church. The authors convincingly present the thesis that the pioneers who built Fort Supply were instrumental in pacifying and civilizing the Indians, nullifying the influence of the mountain men to monopolize the lucrative Green River ferry business, and extending church control to the area immediately east of Zion, in the Salt Lake Valley. As an adjunct to their mission, Fort Supply was to lend logistical support to the plan for the immigration of Mormon converts to Utah from the East and Europe. More than likely, it was the latter function that was the most appreciated, for Mormon pioneer literature abounds with tribute to the Saints who manned the outpost. During the period 1853-57, faithful members of the church responded to the repeated calls of the authorities for service at the wilderness fort. Unfortunately, optimistic plans for the expansion of the physical plant and its mission operations were abruptly, if not tragically, terminated upon the approach of federal troops in 1857, dispatched to quell a largely imagined Mormon rebellion. The incident (termed by some the Utah War, while others prefer the Utah Expedition) caused the church to abandon and destroy the product of five years of hard labor. The long-range effect of that act was the postponement 206 Utah Historical Quarterly of the development of permanent agriculture in the region for another generation. Gowans and Campbell, members of the History Department at Brigham Young University, have based their work on previously published pioneer diaries and reminiscences, on untapped manuscript journals, and on official correspondence gleaned from careful sifting of LDS sources in Salt Lake City. and Provo, Utah. Contemporary illustrations and photographs of prominent pioneers, LDS officials, military persons, and Indian leaders gathered from archival sources, coupled with recent photographs and artist-rendered scenes of the landscape and physical structures ably serve to acquaint the reader with the personalities and places associated with the history of Fort Supply. The persons who will be disappointed in this work because of oversights committed by the authors, or the publisher, divide themselves into three groups: T h e first will be the librarians, who will experience difficulty in cataloging this book, for the full names of the authors have been omitted from the title page. The second group will be composed of researchers who, with regret, will discover that information contained in the volume cannot be readily retrieved, for there is no index. And, the third group will be composed of those readers unfamiliar with the landscape on which the drama of the Fort Supply story unfolds, for the maps do not match the quality of the narrative. It is the latter deficiency that most detracts from the scholarly value of the book; and, in this regard, the authors and the publisher will have to bear the responsibility for accepting maps that decorate rather than illuminate. The large format of the publication certainly offered ample opportunity for the inclusion of any number of appropriate maps of historical or topographical design. Instead, the reader is offered maps cannibalized from the authors' earlier works that rather thinly depict the landscape from a planimetric-hydrographic perspective, overlooking the region's many salient topographical features. Modestly priced, the book should find wide circulation for this fact alone. However, the real value of this work is that it illuminates a corner of LDS church history, as well as local history, that has for too long been neglected. Its focus upon ordinary men whose cooperative efforts produced unordinary results presents a contrast refreshingly different to a modern age marked by discord and cynicism. TODD I. BERENS Santa Ana, California Colonization on the Little Colorado: The and J. MORRIS RICHARDS. (Flagstaff, pp. $12.50.) George S. Tanner, a retired LDS Institute instructor and son of one of Joseph City's original pioneers, has spent many years collecting primary source material, principally in the form of diaries and journals, on Mormon colonization of the Little Colorado region of northern Arizona. These materials have been made available to major libraries in Utah, Arizona, and California. This book represents a culmina- Joseph City Region. By GEORGE S. TANNER Ariz.: Northland Press, 1977. Xvi + 200 tion of Tanner's long-standing interest and firsthand acquaintance with the Arizona colonies. He teamed up with J. Morris Richards, a colleague at Brigham Young University and also a resident of northern Arizona, to produce this chronicle. Richards acted chiefly as an editor and rewrote portions of the manuscript. Dr. Carol Rainey of the Northern Arizona University library staff also assisted in editing the manu- Book Reviews and Notices 207 script and preparing it for publication. The result is a very readable and enlightening account of Mormon colonization on the Little Colorado. The main purpose of the book is to give the reader a glimpse of the colonization process, the trials and tribulations resulting in the failure and abandonment of three of the four colonies founded in 1876, and the life-style of these pioneer colonists. In this the authors succeed. The general reader will gain greater insight into and an appreciation for the difficulties experienced by the pioneers, their tenacity in the face of natural disasters of flood and drought, their forms of recreation and entertainment, the functioning of the United Order, the problems of isolation, the internal dissension present in some settlements, and the final dissolution of three colonies. The reader cannot help but empathize with these struggling pioneers as they build dams, dig canals, plow and plant only to have the fruits of their labors wiped out by flash floods time and time again. Their story tugs at the heart strings. Yet, the serious scholar will find the look at colonization on the Little Colorado offered by this book less than satisfying. The brevity of treatment too often merely scratches the surface rather than plows the ground. Such chapter headings as "Why They Came," "How They Came," "What They Found," and "Land Problems" suggest penetrating and substantive research and analysis that would allow the authors to arrive at definitive conclusions concerning such questions and topics. However, each of these chapters consists of only four to ten pages and often includes one or more pages of quotes from diaries or journals. Surely such topics deserve more careful and extensive examination. Such superficial treatment sometimes leads to unsupported generalizations. Concerning the reason for 200 families coming to the Arizona colonies, the authors make this statement: The 200 men themselves felt that they were being called to be missionaries. Those who went to Arizona and stayed did so in the firm conviction that their "call," had come from a prophet of God, and therefore was as binding as though God himself had spoken to them. They remained for the rest of their lives because their leaders wanted them to establish permanent settlements in the areas to which they were sent (p. 135). Although the above statement is no doubt true of some Arizona pioneers, it is also overly simplistic. If it were universally true, why did three of the four settlements fail and the large majority of the initial settlers in every community leave? Is it safe to assume that those who did not stay viewed their "call" with less conviction and thought it less binding than those who did stay? I suspect that comparative prosperity may have had as much to do with who stayed and who left as differences in commitment to the cause. Furthermore, spiritual commitment to the mission call was probably not the only reason for coming to Arizona. My own research concerning Mormon settlement elsewhere would lead me to believe that at least some of those who accepted the mission call to Arizona were motivated secondarily, if not primarily, by the perceived opportunity to improve their socio-economic status by getting in on the ground floor of a newly founded colony and that the companies probably included a number of volunteers. John R. Young's letter to the Arizona mission leaders January 10, 1877, offers some support for this view: "Some of the brethren in your camps have developed an inclination to come without being called and to run when they are not sent." In a chapter entitled "Why They Came" it would seem that these possibilities should be examined along with a more thorough analysis of why Brigham Young insisted on establishing colonies on the Little 208 Utah Historical Quarterly Colorado in spite of negative reports from previous exploration parties. Numerous other examples could be cited illustrating the need for greater depth in examining Mormon colonization in Arizona than is offered in this book. Like many other local histories, it would benefit from an effort to put local events into perspective by relating them to what is happening elsewhere in the state and in the nation. It would also benefit from the addition of more detailed maps. Yet, one should keep in mind that this book is written for the layman, not the professional scholar. Anyone familiar with the area and its people will enjoy this book. For one who is personally acquainted with the descendants of these first settlers, many of whom will no doubt read the book, Tanner is surprisingly open and frank in discussing the abrasive personality traits of Lot Smith and other local church leaders. He pulls no punches in identifying dissension as a major contributing cause to the demise of Obed and Brigham City. On balance, it is a welcome addition to settlement literature. The publisher is to be commended for the high quality job of printing, binding, and photo reproduction. WAYNE L. WAHLQUIST Weber State College The Bonanza Kings: The Social Origins and Business Behavior of Western Mining Entrepreneurs, 1870-1900. By RICHARD H. PETERSON. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977. Xvi + 191 pp. $9.95.) In the years since they acquired their riches and fame, those men known as bonanza kings have been the subject of much interest and have used up a lot of printer's ink. Richard Peterson has selected fifty of these individuals who made millions, or nearly so, in western mining and smelting and then analyzed their business and social behavioral characteristics. What made a successful mining entrepreneur is the book's main theme. Primarily, Peterson examines the causes of their economic success in an attempt to "determine how mining entrepreneurs secured and managed property, labor, capital and technology in order to succeed" (p. xiv). One of his best chapters is entitled "Capital and Technology: Business Alliances." Perhaps because the author felt more comfortable with this subject, or because it fit his thesis best, he presents a fascinating look into this key to the success or failure of western mining. The Bonanza Kings is not an easy book to review; it raises many questions. Its greatest significance will be for the interested layman, because Peterson has pulled together many secondary sources and a great deal of information and worthwhile conclusions. The book reads easily, and the author does not dwell extensively on any issue. There are, however, weaknesses in this approach that limit the book's usefulness. For instance, Peterson has a sublime grasp of the obvious, which anyone who has spent any time in western mining history will realize instantly. Some of the ideas he apparently believes are new are not. He is also forced into the corner by making some sweeping generalizations with too few examples to support them. Does, for example, what he has to say about the extraordinary few hold true for other mine owners? Even among the bonanza kings, is the sampling valid? His reliance on secondary sources means that he prospects rather than digs directly on the vein, a concept that in itself is not a bad idea. This leaves the author, though, at the mercy of his sources, some of which may be questioned as self-serving or unreliable, a trap into which he stumbles. Other books have been published recently that Book Reviews and Notices 209 discuss in depth some of the ideas of this volume. They throw sharper insight on the questions than Peterson does. The Bonanza Kings raises a host of questions and, for that reason if no other, deserves to be read. It is suggestive, rather than definitive. Peterson undoubtedly intended no more. The interested buff or student could make a fair start with this volume, but he should then go on to test the ideas. DUANE A. SMITH Fort Lewis College Durango, Colorado The Wetherills of the Mesa Verde: Autobiography of Benjamin Alfred Wetherill. Edited by MAURINE S. FLETCHER. (Rutherford, N.J.: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1977. 333 pp. $18.00.) In 1880-81 the family of Benjamin Kite Wetherill arrived to establish a homestead, the Alamo ranch on the Mancos River near the Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado. In addition to ranching and mining activities, Ben's sons, John, Richard and Benjamin Alfred (Al), and son-in-law Charles C. Mason began exploring the archaeological ruins of the Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, and others - as well as other ruins in the Four Corners area. They established an artifact museum at the ranch and for a number of years guided many tourists - including archaeologists Jesse Walter Fewkes, Gustof Nordenskiold, T. Mitchell Prudden, members of the F. E. Hyde Expedition, and botanist Alice Eastwood -• to the Mesa Verde ruins and throughout the Four Corners region. In 1902 Al Wetherill and his wife abandoned the heavily mortgaged Alamo ranch and moved away. The other brothers had earlier left to become Indian traders or follow other pursuits. The role played by the Wetherill family in the discovery and excavation of the Mesa Verde ruins, especially the spectacular Cliff Palace, has long been a matter of controversy. In 1948, rankled and deeply hurt by what he considered unfair allegations of "pot-hunting" -• i.e., unsystematic excavation, selling of artifacts for large sums, and misinformation as to the chronology of discovery of Mesa Verde sites - Al Wetherill, then eighty-two years old, pulled together notes and materials written by him over a period of nearly fifty years to "set the record straight." The result, carefully edited and annotated by M. S. Fletcher, forms the present work. It provides a graphic and colorful narrative of the Wetherills' trials and good times as ranchers, Indian traders, guides, packers, explorers, and nascent archaeologists. Al's language is picturesque, his character portrayals incisive and, at times, puckishly sardonic. His discussions of the archaeological material cultures and ruins of the area and the methods they used indicate that he and his brothers were probably not much better, or worse, than the professional archaeologists of the time whom they guided to the ruins and for whom they worked. Methods of stratigraphy and artifact seriation were not applied in southwestern archaeology until after 1915 in the work of Nels Nelson, A. V. Kidder, Neil Judd, and others. Even J. W. Fewkes's stabilization and reconstruction of the Mesa Verde ruins, done after Mesa Verde became a national park, is questionable in many instances. Al Wetherill's Autobiography is a useful document toward a history of southwestern archaeology, together with Neil Judd's Men Met along the Trail (1968), the Listers' biography, Earl Morris and Southwestern Archaeology (1968), and Frank McNitt's biography of Al's brother, Richard Wetherill: 210 Utah Historical Quarterly Anasazi (1957). But, the work is also a delightfully informal sketch of a man, his family, the region they loved, and the characters who inhabited, or passed through, the region - in sum, a worthwhile addition to the literature on the Colorado Plateau. DON D. FOWLER Desert Research Institute Reno Frontier America, 1800-1840: A Comparative Demographic Analysis of the Settlement Process. By JAMES E. DAVIS. (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1977. 220 pp. $15.50.) Mr. Davis takes on the ambitious task of studying the demographic characteristics of the northern and southern frontiers during the early period of westward expansion, 1800-1840. Davis's work, virtually the only one of its kind, provides useful insights into this process through a comparison of the two frontiers and their respective settled areas. He attempts to analyze the interrelationships between westward migration and the demographic traits of the frontier. In the effort he defines what constitutes the frontier and demonstrates conclusively that the household was the basic unit in this migration and the subsequent survival of the early settlers. The analysis covers a wide range of variables from sex and age to the occupation and household size of the pioneers and their families. Davis's most useful findings appear in his comparative analysis of the northern and southern frontiers. He discovered that both frontiers had young populations, few single persons, and common household forms of two adults and one or two children. Yet, important differences existed. Based on his research, Davis argues that the patterns of migration differed between the two frontiers. In the northern wilderness group migration was dominant. This pattern and innovations in transportation such as the canal encouraged the presence of marginal persons like the elderly, single women, and children. In contrast, households or extended families constituted the primary units of migration in the southern frontier. Moreover, the south never developed transportation comparable to the northern frontier which further undermined the basis for group migration. Davis also suggests that a reliance solely on family for labor promoted larger households and the presence of Blacks, usually as slaves, in the southern frontier. The presence of slaves and large households, Davis asserts, underscores the backward nature of the southern frontier. While commercial activity and nascent manufacturing emerged in the northern frontier, its southern counterpart remained overwhelmingly agrarian. Southern settlers with less education, less income, and less desire for agricultural improvement than northern pioneers reflected this backwardness. Davis also points out that the occupational structure of the southern frontier was considerably less fluid and diverse than in the northern wilderness. Although Davis has provided us with a unique macro-study of the frontier, his analysis suffers from several prevailing inconsistencies. For example, he spends several pages describing why large families were found in great numbers on the northern frontier, and he suggests that early and continuous marriage of women and a scarcity of labor promoted these large families. He then claims that the average and model size of families was smaller than in the northern settled area and concludes that the frontier was not a place of large households. These inconsistencies are further compounded Book Reviews and Notices 211 by the absence of a single conceptual framework for the book. Each chapter typically begins with a list of hypotheses, often as many as sixteen. Without a framework to tie all of these together for the reader, the book becomes misleading and hard to follow at times. An unclear writing style also adds to the confusion. Last, Davis fails to link the household-based migration into the southern frontier with the agricultural system of the settled area. Plantation owners and their slaves along with white subsistence farmers dominated the rural southeast. The plantation owner was market-oriented while the subsistence farmer was not. Inevitably, the potential for the highly profitable cotton growing drew the plantation owner and his property, the Blacks, to the frontier. The white subsistence farmer who practiced extensive farming techniques moved to the frontier for new land. In neither case was group migration necessary or desired. Moreover, the abundance of rivers and the presence of one crop, cotton, made sophisticated transportation such as the railroad expendable. Despite these problems, Davis does make a substantial contribution to the study of the frontier. Unlike Curti, Owsley, and other scholars who confined their works to specific areas, Davis has presented a systematic overall view of the frontier in change. In the process, he has laid the groundwork for future studies that rely on his ideas and evidence. EDWARD J. DAVIES II University of Utah Upstairs to a Aline. By VIOLET BOYCE and MABEL HARMER. University Press, 1976. 189 pp. $6.95.) Logan: Utah State The title of this engaging little book is intriguing and surprisingly apt. But what kind of book is it? It is not a novel, although it begins like one, introducing the narrator, Vi, in action in a way to enlist both sympathy and interest. She is subtly there throughout the book, too, a gamine with all five senses wide open and a heart tuned to the dramatic in everyday life and full of love for her hometown and everything that dwells and goes on therein. Even while participating in some of the little dramas, she often exhibits a healthy and childlike sort of skepticism. The stage is set immediately, both physically and emotionally, as we watch the destruction of the Apex mine and are allowed a place at the deathbed of Vi's other old friend, the town of Bingham itself. Neither is the book pure reminiscence, although reminiscence is its charm. Reminiscences rollick from page to page, tumbling from Vi's nostalgic memory and jostling each other in a bid for attention, yet, somehow, manage to give the impression of being marshalled into a semblance of order that keeps them flowing logically and smoothly one into the other. The stories are told in a chatty, often gossipy style, recounted with humor, pathos, and pure enjoyment. But the reminiscences are held firmly in balance around a backbone of solid research in the best tradition of oral history. Facts are sandwiched in here and there to provide background or to enhance action. Never too long and never tedious, always interestingly presented, history fonns the warp with which the tints and shades of the weft of reminiscences are deftly woven to create a lively tapestry of life in a mining town against the background of mountain, canyon, and sky. INEZ S. COOPER Southern Utah State College 212 Utah Historical Quarterly Children of God: An American Epic. By VARDIS FISHER. (Boise, Id.: Opal Laurel Plolmes, Publisher, n.d. Xx + 769 pp. $12.95.) Originally published by Harper and Brothers in 1939, this prizewinning novel of Mormonism's early years has continued to delight, anger, entertain, and provoke readers to the present time. Long out of print, it has been reissued by Opal Laurel Holmes, Fisher's widow, with an enlightening introduction by Joseph M. Flora. Holmes, who perceives a "steadily growing revival of interest in Vardis Fisher," has reissued three of Fisher's works to date and plans to reissue them all. Marketing arrangements have been made with Baker & Taylor. POB 350. Momence, IL 60954. Black Sunshine: The Story of Coal. By OLIVE W. BURT. (New York: Julian Messner. 1977.64 pp. $6.64.) Olive Burt, prolific Utah writer, tells the story of coal to a junior high audience. She details how the fossilized fuel is formed, the history of its use, the job of coal miners in the past and present, and the health problems, strikes, and dangers inherent in mining. The story takes the reader to the present with a discussion of how coal is transported and its current uses. The interesting and factual narrative, well illustrated by photographs, concludes with a helpful glossary and index. Hopi Bibliography. By W. DAVID LAIRD. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1977. Xviii 4- 735 pp. Cloth, $13.50; paper, $7.95.) The bibliographer has taken ten years to produce this thorough work on the Hopi. No matter how comprehensive, however, a bibliography's main strength comes from its indexes: in this work there are title and subject indexes. Nevertheless, in this area the book contains numerous problems. Some of the entries which should come under Utah do, in fact, come under Mormon. The Dominguez-Escalante expedition is indexed only under Escalante, not Dominguez or any other subject heading, while Hillers's diary of the Powell expedition could be found only under the title in that index-not under Hillers or Powell or photography. Mexico's Miguel Caldera: The Training of America's First Frontier (1548- 1597.) By PHILIP WAYNE POWELL. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1977. Xi + 322 pp. Cloth, $14.95; paper, $7.95.) Miguel Caldera's father was a Spanish explorer, participant in Mexico's silver strike era of the late 1500s. His mother was of the Chichimecas, native to Mexico. The notable mixed-blood frontiersman was first a soldier, next a peacemaker, and finally rose to almost magnate status with his discovery of one of the richest of the silver lodes in Mexico at that time. |
