The Lizard Woman

by Frank Waters

“The novel was begun in 1926, when I was twenty-four years old and working as a telephone engineer in Imperial Valley, on the California-Baja California border. During my stay there I made a horseback trip down into the little-known desert interior of Lower California. After having lived all of my early years in the high Rockies of California, I was unprepared for the vast sweep of sunstruck desert with its flat wastes, clumps of cacti, and barren parched-rock ranges. Its emotional impact was so profound, I was impelled to give voice to it with pencil and paper.”

— Frank Waters

First published in 1930 under the title Fever Pitch, The Lizard Woman is Frank Waters’ first novel. It foreshadows a theme central to Waters’ later work: that we must attune our spirits to the land to fully understand our places in the natural order.

Genres: Fiction

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Frank Waters was an American novelist, essayist, and cultural historian best known for his profound explorations of the American Southwest and Native American spirituality. Deeply influenced by his Cheyenne heritage and early experiences on the Navajo Reservation, Waters wove themes of indigenous identity, mysticism, and the clash between tradition and modernity into much of his work. His celebrated novel The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) is considered a cornerstone of Southwestern literature, offering a powerful portrayal of a Pueblo man’s internal struggle with cultural dislocation. Over the decades, Waters produced an impressive body of work, including both fiction and non-fiction, such as Book of the Hopi, Mexico Mystique, and The Colorado, which blended mythology, history, and esoteric thought. A strong advocate for the arts, he held various editorial and academic positions and was honored with several awards. His legacy lives on through the Frank Waters Foundation, which supports writers and artists in the spirit of his creative vision.

Reviews

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a Waters fan for a long time so was happy to find this early novel in a Santa Fe bookstore a couple of years ago -- perfect for desert driving.