Sandpapers: The Lives and Letters of Eugene Manlove Rhodes and Charles Fletcher Lummis

by Frank M. Clark

Two great one a brilliant author and the other a skilled editor, photographer, and self-taught archeologist. Together they laid out the vast beauty, mystery and grandeur of the land known as the American Southwest. Both were scrappers--Rhodes with words and occasionally fists, and Lummis with his rapierlike editorials. In their time transportation was not easy, friends often saw little of each other and letter writing was not taken lightly. The author weaves a story of these two literary greats through their letters. The book reveals much about their characters and their era. Rhodes and Lummis put much of themselves into their skilled and expressive correspondence. We feel the great compassion, courtesy, kindness and genuine concern for those they held dear in this book that is as much about the lost art of civility as it is about the men who worked to preserve it.

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got interested in Rhodes after seeing a movie based on his short story Paso Por Acqui. Rhodes wrote mostly about New Mexico, which is just about my favorite place outside of New England. Lummis was his editor and friend.

The most memorable anecdote in the book so far is about how Rhodes permanently injured one of his eyes. As a child he saw a hired hand take out his glass eye, clean it, and put it back in. The young Rhodes tried to do it with his own eye.

In a letter to Rhodes, Lummis counsels him against being despondent. I won't try to summarize it, but Lummis writes eloquently about the uselessness of maintaining a somber attitude.

Lummis walked from Ohio to California. Hardcore!