Red Earth: Poems of New Mexico

by Alice Corbin Henderson, Lois Palken Rudnick, Ellen Zieselman

Alice Corbin (1881–1949) was part of an inner circle of writers and artists on the national scene in the early twentieth century. Corbin lived and worked as a writer in Chicago prior to moving to New Mexico for health reasons. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Corbin was a frequent contributor to publications including the Chicago Tribune and the Saturday Evening Post and worked as assistant editor at Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (a publication still in existence). Corbin published several works of poetry in her lifetime. Red Earth: Poems of New Mexico, originally published in 1920 and long unavailable, was a radical book for its time, drawing on poetic techniques of Native American myths and Hispanic culture. This new edition includes a biographical sketch of Corbin’s life and contributions to art and culture. It is illustrated with twenty-nine masterworks, including works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Andrew Dasburg, and Alfred Stieglitz, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Cyndie]

Very NM. I enjoyed the biography style beginning before the poems started. Nice history of a party of NM.

[Hilary]

I loved that this book weaves together Corbin's poetry with visual images of the Southwest because her poems are inherently visual. The poems use traditional elements from Native Americans, Mexican immigrants, and her own European American history. Corbin was editor of Poetry Magazine and was quite involved in literary circles with poets like Pound and Sandburg; she was fascinated by the idea of an emerging American poetry that should be taken seriously and still be applicable and accessible to the masses. I appreciated this book for the way Corbin uses many traditions as well as her own in order to further her message that poetry is for everyone and that a true American literary tradition will incorporate different histories.

[Brent Jones]

The book starts out quoting Tony Hillerman, an author who really reflects New Mexico, stating that that "something about New Mexico not only at attracts creative people but stimulates their creativity". The poems of this book seem to pull from and involve communities from throughout the state. The pictures follow the same approach and reflect a wide diversity.

[Gary Lang]

If someone asks me what New Mexico is like, I tell them to read these poems, many of which are now 100 years old