Sky Determines, An Interpretation of the Southwest

by Ross Calvin

"Sky, says Ross Calvin, determines everything in the weather, landscape, plant and animal forms, human types, even art and architecture, religious rites and manner of dress.... Altogether this is an authentic book, valuable as an introduction to a region of strange beauty and as an exposition of some little understood aspects of our history." -- thus New York Herald-Tribune appraised the first edition of 'Sky Determines,' which has become a regional classic. In this revised edition, the author has renewed the book with fifty pages of fresh materials, drawn from decades of observing the Southwest. In a long passage on desalinization contributed to the book, Senator Clinton P. Anderson "My mind has been constantly attracted to the suggestion of Ross Calvin that in our Southwest 'Sky Determines.' Sky decides what areas can be habitable, what agricultural lands can be grazed..... But is there a new force ahead of us? Will there be a day when sky no longer completely determines and rain clouds will not be so totally important to us? Will the desalinization of the brackish water in our State and the conversion of saline water in coastal areas change the water supply picture? I think so...."

Genres: History, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1965