The Land of Little Rain

Mary Austin first published The Land of Little Rain in 1903. The work highlighted the life of the desert at a time when the popular imagination pictured the desert as empty and lifeless. At the time of writing there was much debate between those that wanted to anthropomorphize nature and present an idealistic view from animal perspectives, pejoratively referred to as “nature fakers,” and those that wanted to provide a clear and accurate view of the natural world. The Land of Little Rain takes a creative approach but resists the pull to make the flora and fauna of the region more human-like, and instead faithfully presents them in their environment as the author observed them.

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