Tony Hillerman: New Mexico, Rio Grande and other Essays (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
Tony Hillerman has created another great read for all fans who love his fiction and nonfiction writing. NEW MEXICO, RIO GRANDE AND OTHER ESSAYS contains some of Hillerman's best nonfiction work. Readers from around the world continued to request the 1974 book, NEW MEXICO, he and photographer David Muench created. This successful, large-format title sold more than sixty-five thousand copies before it went out of print. Here, then, is that popular text along with RIO GRANDE, a lesser-known, but equally compelling large-format book he did with photographer Robert Reynolds in 1975. Both essays are full of feeling, the first about Hillerman's state, "The Land of Enchantment," and the second about one of the great rivers of the Southwest which runs near his home in Albuquerque.

Hillerman recommended including two other nonfiction essays that were frequently requested and not available in book form. "A Canyon, an Egret, and a Book" is a delightful description of how Hillerman sees his fictional characters in the real landscapes and places of the American Southwest. This essay tells about one place in Arizona that inspired several scenes in his award-winning novels. In the second piece, "Places for Spirits, Places for Ghosts," Hillerman shares the Native American perspective of earth and its sacredness, a point of view he incorporates in his fiction.

Complementing each of Hillerman's essays are related portfolios of new images by the men who illustrated the two exhibit-format books, NEW MEXICO and RIO GRANDE. Photographer David Muench has gained national prominence since 1974 with his magical work in color landscape photography. In April of 1991, he was name§by the photographic industry as one of America's ten best living photographers. Robert Reynolds is a professional photographer and painter, but is best known today as a book designer.

NEW MEXICO, RIO GRANDE AND OTHER ESSAYS gives the reader a deeper appreciation of how Tony Hillerman sees the land he loves, as well as the places from which he draws his inspiration, and his intimate knowledge of the backgrounds upon which he casts the characters of his mysteries.

Tony Hillerman: New Mexico, Rio Grande and other Essays. Photography by David Muench and Robert Reynolds. Portland, Or.: Graphic Arts Center Pub. Co., 1992, ISBN: 1558680934, 112 p., $27.50.