Sue's Audio Books
  • Home
  • Arts
    • Painting
    • Poetry
    • Nature & Science
  • Memoirs
    • African Americans
    • Artists & Intellectuals
    • Explorers
    • Native Americans
    • Pioneers
    • Travelers
    • War & Military
    • Women
  • American History
    • American Revolution
    • American West
    • Civil War
    • Gold Rushes
    • Immigration
    • Slavery & Abolition
  • Miscellany
    • Odd Bits & Tangents
    • Nonfiction Collection
  • Me
    • About
    • Bookish (the Blog)
    • Sidney’s Brooklyn (1941-1960)
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
View from Acoma

The Desert, Further Studies in Natural Appearances

Nature & Science American West, audiobooks, John Charles Van Dyke, librivox, nature

John Charles Van Dyke (1861–1931)

Above: Looking out from the top Acoma, New Mexico, 1990

The Desert by John Charles Van Dyke, published in 1901, is a lush, poetic description of the natural beauty of the American Southwest. “What land can equal the desert with its wide plains, its grim mountains, and its expanding canopy of sky!”

Listen here:
Read the book on-line:

Van Dyke, a cultivated art historian, saw “sublimity” in the desert’s “lonely desolation,” which previous generations had perceived only as a wasteland, and his book has a conservationist flavor which seems distinctly modern. “The deserts should never be reclaimed,” he writes. “They are the breathing spaces of the west and should be preserved for ever.”

The changing colors of the sky, hills, and sand impress Van Dyke, as do the mirages. He celebrates the “long overlooked commonplace things of nature”— cactus and grease wood, desert animals, and “winged life,” the birds and insects. His writing has a philosophical undertone. “Not in vain these wastes of sand … simply because they are beautiful in themselves and good to look upon whether they be life or death.” Anyone who views with equal awe fiery sunrises and weeds growing out of pavement cracks will enjoy this reading of Van Dyke’s The Desert.


If you enjoyed The Desert, you might like
The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Hunter Austin
The White Heart of Mojave, by Edna Brush Perkins
The Journey of Coronado, by Pedro de Castañeda

The Land of Little Rain An American in the Making, the Life Story of an Immigrant

Related Posts

Sketch of tidal wave approaching U.S. warship Wateree, 1868

Nature & Science

Peruvian Earthquakes of 1868

A Midwestern summer sky

Nature & Science

Cloud Identification

Japanese beetles on soybean leaf

Nature & Science

Japanese Beetle Control

Milkweed in Bloom

Nature & Science

The Common Milkweed

Simulated deuteroanopia

Nature & Science

Color Blindness, John Dalton, 1794

Watercolor paintings of cochineal, 1775

Nature & Science

Travels to Oaxaca (1776)

Racoons

Nature & Science

Raccoons

dew drops on spider web

Nature & Science

When the Dew Falls

Samples of Cochineal Dyed Fabric

Nature & Science

Cochineal Red

2 paintings,, one blue green, one red

Nature & Science

The Science of Color

Recent Posts

  • Trees in Landscape Painting, Considerations of Balance
  • Peruvian Earthquakes of 1868
  • Abstracts in Ink from the Right Hand Desk Drawer, 2020-2021
  • Chicago Race Riots of 1919, Coroner’s Official Report
  • Chickens, Cats, & Self-Perception: On Drawing

Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016

Categories

Tags

Alfred East American History American West anti-semitism Arthur L. Guptill audiobooks August Jaccaci birds Brooklyn California Chicago Christopher Whall Civil War cochineal Constantine Panunzio constantinople Edward Carpenter Frontier Nursing Society Gold Rushes Illinois immigrants Immigration John Muir judaism letters librivox memoirs Mexico Mt. Rainier nature nonfiction collection Ohio painting pioneers poetry race riot Rex Vicat Cole Sidney Gross sketching Slavery & Abolition Spain Spanish Borderlands war and military women World War I
  • Home
  • Arts
    • Painting
    • Poetry
    • Nature & Science
  • Memoirs
    • African Americans
    • Artists & Intellectuals
    • Explorers
    • Native Americans
    • Pioneers
    • Travelers
    • War & Military
    • Women
  • American History
    • American Revolution
    • American West
    • Civil War
    • Gold Rushes
    • Immigration
    • Slavery & Abolition
  • Miscellany
    • Odd Bits & Tangents
    • Nonfiction Collection
  • Me
    • About
    • Bookish (the Blog)
    • Sidney’s Brooklyn (1941-1960)
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
© Sue's Audio Books 2021
Copyright: Sue Anderson. All rights reserved.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy