The Land of Little Rain facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
The Land of Little Rain

title page, 1903
Author	Mary Hunter Austin
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Nature writing
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1903
Media type	Print (Paperback)
ISBN	0-14-024919-2 (modern)

The Land of Little Rain is a famous book by American writer Mary Hunter Austin. It was first published in 1903. The book is a collection of essays about the American Southwest. It describes the land, animals, and people living there. The essays are connected and share a similar style. This book is considered very important for understanding early California writings.

About The Land of Little Rain

The Land of Little Rain is a collection of short stories and essays. They describe the landscape and living things of the American Southwest. A main idea in the book is about protecting nature. It also shares ideas about how people and the land are connected.

What Each Story Explores

The book has many chapters, each like a mini-story or essay. Here are some of them:

The Land of Little Rain (Chapter)

This first essay talks about a place called the "Country of Lost Borders." This area is between Death Valley and the High Sierras. The story paints a picture of a very hot and dry land. Sometimes, strong storms break the dryness. Even though it sounds tough, Austin suggests the land gives people peace. This peace cannot be found anywhere else.

Water Trails of the Ceriso

This part describes the paths animals make to find water. It talks about many wild animals like coyotes, rabbits, and quails. Austin praises how these animals find water where there seems to be none. She believes humans cannot match this skill.

The Scavengers

This essay is about animals that eat dead things in the desert. The most famous ones are buzzards and carrion crows. Eating dead animals is shown as a natural part of the desert's cycle. Many scavengers work together to find food. Austin also points out how human trash is different. It cannot be used by these scavengers. This shows how human waste contrasts with nature's way of recycling.

The Pocket Hunter

A pocket hunter is a miner who looks for small amounts of valuable ore. The story's pocket hunter lives simply off the land. He has little contact with cities. Austin suggests that living close to nature makes him happy. But the hunter wants to get rich and move to Europe. He does achieve this goal. Yet, he eventually returns to the desert. He feels it is where he truly belongs.

Shoshone Land

"Shoshone Land" tells about Winnenap'. He was a Native American medicine man from Shoshone Land. He was captured by the Paiute tribe. The story starts with Winnenap'. But it quickly describes the nature and animals of Shoshone Land. This shows a deep connection between Winnenap' and his homeland.

Jimville—a Bret Harte Town

Jimville is described as a town that would inspire writer Bret Harte. Its people are like the characters in Harte's stories. Austin shows Jimville as a small town in a harsh place. Its people are simple but charming. Even with many difficulties, something keeps them there. It also makes new visitors want to stay.

My Neighbor's Field

This story is about a piece of land that changes owners many times. Austin sees it as a perfect field. She criticizes its owners, like Native Americans and shepherds. Their ways of life, she says, harm the land. In the end, the field is set to become a city. Austin believes it might serve humans more, but it won't be better for the land itself.

The Mesa Trail

This section describes a trail in the American Southwest. It talks about how human actions have damaged the land. Austin criticizes the "ugly scars" left by the Paiute Indians. These include abandoned camps and damaged plants from animals like sheep.

The Basket Maker

This story follows Seyavi, a Paiute Indian woman. She loses her partner and lives alone with her child. She sells baskets to survive. Austin says the Paiutes make the land their home. Mountains are their walls, and wild almond flowers are their furniture. Because of this, Austin argues, Paiutes feel homesick in human-built houses. Humans cannot copy nature's beauty.

The Streets of the Mountains

This essay gives a long description of mountains and their trails. It highlights the beauty of the mountains and their animals. The story also criticizes people who live in man-made houses. Austin believes that the comfort of houses stops people from truly understanding the mountains' beauty.

Water Borders

This essay focuses on streams and lakes in the mountains. They are usually formed from melting snow. The story mentions Oppapago, a mountain in the Sierras. Austin compares the mountain landscape to a meadow outside a forest. The meadow lacks color and beauty because sheep have grazed there.

Other Water Borders

This section focuses more on plants affected by mountain water. It talks about both wild and farmed plants. The story starts with a fight over an irrigation ditch. This ditch is filled with mountain water. Then, it describes the many plants that grow because of the ditch. Austin also mentions how complex civilization has become. She suggests people have lost their natural ability to know about plant remedies.

Nurslings of the Sky

"Nurslings of the sky" are storms. Austin gives them human-like qualities. The story starts with a town destroyed by floods and snow. The blame is not on nature, but on the people who built their town in a bad spot. The story continues with descriptions of storms and their effects on wildlife. It also explains how the land teaches people things. For example, Native Americans learned smoke signals from dust pillars. Austin ends by wishing people would think about the "eternal meanings of the skies." She feels they focus too much on planting crops.

The Little Town of the Grape Vines

This story, also called El Pueblo de Las Uvas, is about simple people. They live peacefully with their environment. Their houses are made of mud. They make their own wine and grow food in gardens. The townspeople live a simple life. They do not have the complex ideas of wealth and class that Austin feels have ruined society. Austin describes their lives as planting, harvesting, eating, making music, raising children, and dancing. The story ends by calling for a return to this simple life. It criticizes those who think they are very important in a world where their actions truly matter little.

How the Book is Written

The Land of Little Rain is known for its "local color" and being non-fiction. It was written for city people in America. Many of them did not know about life in the Mojave desert. The book tries to connect with the reader. It uses "you" (second person) along with "I" (first person) and "they" (third person). Common ideas about the desert are shown and compared to the narrator's own experiences. Real and personal moments with nature are described as if happening now. This helps the reader feel like they are there.

Language and Style Choices

The language in the book is formal but also uses everyday words. It includes slang from the Southwest. Long sentences often connect big ideas to clear pictures of the desert. The descriptions are personal. They can be praising, critical, or funny. Austin also uses many metaphors, similes, and hyperbole (exaggeration).

The book has fourteen chapters. They are short stories and essays about nature. The way the chapters flow might not be obvious at first. The first four chapters describe the desert and its water and animals. The next five chapters talk about different groups of people in the desert. They are all loosely connected by water trails. Austin praises or criticizes these groups. The middle chapter, "Jimville—A Bret Harte Town," makes fun of simple stories about mining towns. The last chapters follow the water back into the mountains. The very last chapter describes an ideal community in the desert.

Main Ideas and Messages

Besides describing life in the Mojave desert, each story has a main message. These messages often include one of three ideas:

• Nature is powerful and special.
• Being disconnected from nature has bad results.
• Being in harmony with nature has good results.

Most chapters end with a clear message. Some use stories to show the point.

Nature's Importance

Nature is a main character in the book. It is given human feelings and intentions. It is also seen as separate from humans. Descriptions of nature are often dramatic and exaggerated. All things spiritual and divine are seen in nature. So, nature is supreme and has higher goals than humans. The spiritual truths in nature are more important than anything human-made.

Humans and Nature

People who live in cities are sometimes described in a negative way. Their way of life, Austin suggests, does not make the world better. Instead, it messes with nature's perfect processes. Also, humans lose their natural knowledge and spiritual connection when they are far from nature.

People who live closer to nature are praised. Native Americans and white people who connect with nature are shown as honest and good. They accept that they are not as powerful as nature. These people create communities that live in harmony. They are free from crime and class differences.

These ideas come together in the last chapter. It describes a perfect town created by simple people. The reader is asked to imagine leaving modern life. They should live close to nature to find peace and harmony. This suggests that connecting with nature can happen through reading and thinking.

Politics and Messages in the Book

Austin does not make strong political statements in The Land of Little Rain. At that time, the nature movement was mostly led by men. Austin's ideas are shown through her beautiful descriptions. The Land of Little Rain itself questions how nature writing was usually done. It shows what Heike Schafer calls an "aesthetic political agenda." Austin's vivid descriptions of the land suggest a "regionalized utopia" (a perfect place). This place needs a deep understanding of the land. Austin believes that for people to live well together, they must work with nature, not against it.

The stories in The Land of Little Rain show how humans harm nature. This includes overgrazing by farm animals and endless mining. These actions damage the land, but not always forever. This suggests that the Southwest's land needs to be healed. And the cultures of the Southwest, which are tied to the land, also need to be renewed.

Austin's focus on the Southwest connects her to other "regionalist" writers of her time. While less direct than some of her other writings, the chapters in The Land of Little Rain aim to show the need to use the land correctly. For example, in "The Water Trails of the Ceriso," Austin describes how desert animals cooperate. They share the watering hole and guide each other. Even hunters let their prey drink first. This helps the whole ecosystem survive. These animals must work within the land's limits for everyone to live.

Austin's work was different from some popular nature stories of the early 1900s. Some writers, like Ernest Thompson Seton, wrote fictional stories about animals. These stories were often not very real. Austin, however, focused on observation. She did not want to make nature seem overly sweet or fake. She used her popularity to promote "true" nature writing, like what is found in The Land of Little Rain.

TV Show Adaptation

The Land of Little Rain was made into an episode of the TV series American Playhouse in 1989. Helen Hunt played Mary Austin in the adaptation.

Images for kids

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  title page, 1903