SOUTHWEST By Laura Adams Armer [SOLD]

This unusual book of Mrs. Armer’s is not a travel book, not a guide book—and yet, for anyone who would know the Southwest, it is indispensable.  For here, in fine prose and beautiful pictures, is the distilled essence of the individual’s life in the Southwest, the product of years of living, sensitive experience.  The desert, the mountains, the Indians and their desert-born lore, the historical background: all are interpreted through the feeling heart and the seeing eye of a woman who is mistress of an able pen and a skilful brush.   Excerpt from the Preface

“Armer was born Laura May Adams in Sacramento, California. While studying at the California School of Design in San Francisco, she met her future husband, Sidney Armer. From around 1900, she had her own business in the city as a portrait photographer and displayed her works at exhibitions. Her photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown (c. 1900) are in the collection of the California Historical Society.  Her special interest in the Navajo and the Southwestern United States led to a silent film The Mountain Chant (1928) and to photographs of the day-to-day activities of the Navajo including sandpainting.” Wikipedia

Condition: Dust jacket has a few tears.  Interior pages are in very good condition.

Photo of the author below from back of dustjacket of her book: SOUTHWEST

Table of Contents: 

I.The Deep Center

II. Born of the Sun

III. Caverns and Skyscrapers

IV. Hats off in Mexico

V. Drought

VI Replenishment

VII. A Navajo Healing

VIII. Erosion

IX. Eternal Meanings

X. Home Builders

XI. Cypress and Palm

XII. Wisdom of Serpents

XIII. The Eight-sided House

XIV. Ta-ta-teen

XV. Greatness is Unsearchable

XVI. Soledad, Mother of Four

XVII. We Want to Draw

XVIII. The Voice of Silence

XIX. Salon of the Desert

XX. Dealing with Love

XXI. The Drought Continues

XXII. Mosie the Cat

XXIII. Who Knows?

XXIV. Festivals

XXV. Sands of the Sea

XXVI. Ganado

XXVII. Wizardry of Words

XXVIII. On the Summits of the Clouds I Sought the Gods and Found Them