Book Notices

Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State.

Edited by GERALD W HASLAM. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1992 xi + 389 pp Cloth, $32.50; paper, $14.95.)

"California is elusive. That's true largely because so many who look for it think they already know where and what it is. Outsiders are often more certain of their versions than are natives because outsiders are seldom burdened by facts or knowledge of the state's actual diversity. They don't know the many Californias." So writes Gerald W. Haslam, professor of English at Sonoma State University, in his introduction to this anthology Perhaps his assertions are true of any state. Utah, too, has a diversity that outsiders unburdened by facts usually fail to see Nevertheless, Haslam's point is important. The literature of California is as complex and lusty as a vintage Sonoma cabernet.

More than half of the book is devoted to the works of contemporary writers, ranging from Joan Didion, Gary Snyder, and Amy Tan to a group called "the Fresno poets." The latter symbolize, geographically and otherwise, aspects of California that continue to surprise and delight. Fresno, readers are told on p 177, has rebounded from its former designation by Rand-McNally as "the worst city in America" and is now "the hub of America's most productive agricultural county . . . [and] fastest-growing city. ... " With that nugget of knowledge in place it ceases to amaze one that a coterie of recognized writers stroll the streets of an urbanized Fresno in much the same way (but no doubt less flamboyantly) as the Beat poets of the late 1950s cruised San Francisco's North Beach

Many Californias is a unique anthology that will appeal to cultural and ethnic historians aswell as general readers.

Cowgirls: Women of the American West.

By TERESA JORDAN. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. xxxix +309 pp Paper, $12.95.)

Author Teresa Jordan, a former Salt Lake City resident, traveled some 60,000 miles in the American West to interview more than 100women running ranches and performing in rodeos Originally published in a hard-cover edition in 1982, this reprint contains a new preface andan updated bibliography Among the new information presented one finds this somewhat startling fact on p. xvii: "Over 10,000 more women operated farms and ranches in 1987 than in 1982, an increase of over 8 percent in only five years, even though the total number of operations decreased by nearly 200,000 during the same period."

Readers unfamiliar with the role of women in rodeo (other than as decorative adjuncts to male stars) will enjoy reading about famous performers like Pearl Mason and Fern Sawyer in the years before World War II and the development of the Women's Professional Rodeo Association in more recent times.

None to Give Away.

By ELSIE DOIG TOWNSEND (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992 222 pp Paper, $9.95.)

A young widow with five children— including two sets of twins—ran agas station and taught school to keep her family together in Montana in the 1940s. She faced this daunting task with a large dose of humor and an honesty that allowed her to admit that it is sometimes harder to live than to die.

The Travels of Jedediah Smith: A Documentary Outline, Including His Journal.

By MAURICE S SULLIVAN (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. xiv + 195 pp. Paper, $9.95.)

This is a reprint of Sullivan's pioneering work of 1934 that contributed to the rediscovery of the now-famous trailblazer Jedediah Smith.

Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856-1860.

By LEROY R. HAFEN and ANN W. HAFEN (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992 328 pp Paper, $12.95.)

This classic account of the Mormon handcart migration, first published in 1960, draws on diaries and reports of the participants as well as company rosters and songs.

Sending My Heart Back across the Years: Tradition and Innovation in Native American Autobiography.

By HERTHA DAWN WONG. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 x + 246 pp $35.00.)

Professor Wong traces the adaptation and transformation of Native American autobiographical narratives from the pictographic diaries of ZoTom, Howling Wolf, andWhite Bull to collaborative life histories of individuals like Mountain Wolf Woman and Black Elk, personal narratives ofSam Blowsnake and Charles Eastman, and contemporary accounts of N Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko.

In all, she provides a new andexpansive vision of autobiography.