This is the first book-length collection of essays on Mary Austin's work that covers the range of her writing in varied genres. Austin is revealed as a writer wrestling with issues that continue to challenge us today, including water in the arid West; social and environmental justice as it relates to indigenous peoples, women, and the working class; and the consequences of rigidly hierarchical thinking for western lands and people.

Melody Graulich is a professor of English at Utah State University and the editor of Western American Literature.

Betsy Klimasmith is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, she co-edited Exploring Lost Borders: Critical Essays on Mary Austin with Melody Graulich (1999). Her most recent book is At Home in the City: Urban Domesticity in Modern American Literature and Culture (University Press of New England, 2005).