Edwin R. Bingham
Charles F. Lummis
Editor of the Southwest
$19.95, £13.95 paperback
9780873282215
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Charles F. Lummis (1859 -1928) was a colorful, dynamic, and often eccentric crusader for the Spanish heritage of California. The founder and editor of Land of Sunshine—or Out West, as the magazine was known after 1902—he recruited writers such as Mary Austin, Jack London, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman to contribute short stories, poetry, articles, and essays, many of them based on Western themes. Lummis himself wrote editorials extolling the glories of Southern California, decrying racial prejudice, and calling for the preservation of California's historic landmarks.
Bingham examines Out West from a number of angles: as a Western business enterprise, as a promotional vehicle, as an outlet and training ground for regional writers, and as an instrument of reform. His study, first published in 1955, remains an important and absorbing account of Lummis's life and of the magazine he established.
Bingham examines Out West from a number of angles: as a Western business enterprise, as a promotional vehicle, as an outlet and training ground for regional writers, and as an instrument of reform. His study, first published in 1955, remains an important and absorbing account of Lummis's life and of the magazine he established.
"A clear and concise picture of the man as well as of the editor…written in a smooth-flowing style, and well documented, this study will appeal to students of Southwestern culture."—United States Quarterly Book Review
"Bingham writes an important chapter in Western literary history, describing the association of [Lummis] with such writers as Washington Matthews, Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris, Joaquin Miller, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Sharlot M. Hall, and Mary Austin."—American Literature
"Carefully documented and thoughtfully written."—Pacific Historical Review
"The author shows how an aggressive and talented editor projected his personality and translated his ideas into action."—Essential Books
"Bingham writes an important chapter in Western literary history, describing the association of [Lummis] with such writers as Washington Matthews, Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris, Joaquin Miller, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Sharlot M. Hall, and Mary Austin."—American Literature
"Carefully documented and thoughtfully written."—Pacific Historical Review
"The author shows how an aggressive and talented editor projected his personality and translated his ideas into action."—Essential Books
Charles Lummis was not content merely to stand for things. He worked and fought for what he believed. His was the zeal of a crusader, and to a marked degree his magazine became a crusading journal. In the pages of Out West Lummis and others of similar or related convictions inveighed against imperialism, pleaded for regional loyalty and pride, demanded justice for the Indian, campaigned for the preservation of the California mission, urged racial tolerance and political reform, and espoused national irrigation and the reclamation of western lands.
In a sense its editor used Out West to preach a single, persistent crusade—a crusade of locality. Through illustration, through verse, by means of descriptive or interpretive essay, through editorial, advertisement, story, historical sketch, promotional piece, and historical document, the journal exhibited, celebrated, interpreted, and championed southern California, the Southwest, and the West in general. Such regional preoccupation was at once so all-pervasive and so amorphous as to defy analysis. More consistent with the concept of crusade was the role of the magazine with reference to the preservation of historic landmarks and the defense of Indian rights. In these two spheres Out West was a positive force yielding, not infrequently, tangible results.
In a sense its editor used Out West to preach a single, persistent crusade—a crusade of locality. Through illustration, through verse, by means of descriptive or interpretive essay, through editorial, advertisement, story, historical sketch, promotional piece, and historical document, the journal exhibited, celebrated, interpreted, and championed southern California, the Southwest, and the West in general. Such regional preoccupation was at once so all-pervasive and so amorphous as to defy analysis. More consistent with the concept of crusade was the role of the magazine with reference to the preservation of historic landmarks and the defense of Indian rights. In these two spheres Out West was a positive force yielding, not infrequently, tangible results.
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