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The House at Otowi Bridge: The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos
This is the story of Edith Warner, who lived for more than twenty years as a neighbor to the Indians of San Ildefonso Pueblo, near Los Alamos, New Mexico. She was a remarkable woman, a friend to everyone who knew her, from her Indian companion Tilano, who was an elder of San Ildefonso, to Niels Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer, and the other atomic scientists who worked at Los Alamos during World War II.
"A finely told tale of a strange land and of a rare character who united with it and, without seeming to do anything to that end, exerted an unusual influence upon all other lovers of that soil with whom she came in contact. The quality of the country, of the many kinds of people, and of the central character come through excellently." --Oliver La Farge
"A finely told tale of a strange land and of a rare character who united with it and, without seeming to do anything to that end, exerted an unusual influence upon all other lovers of that soil with whom she came in contact. The quality of the country, of the many kinds of people, and of the central character come through excellently." --Oliver La Farge
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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October 3, 2024
The House at Otowi Bridge: The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos was a dual memoir by author Peggy Pond Church, not only of her early childhood experiences in the high Pajarito Plateau where her father founded the Los Alamos School for Boys, but the memoir of Edith Warner who witnessed the changes coming to this beautiful and remote part of the country.
"The Pajarito Plateau opens like a huge fan from an arc of blue mountains in northwestern New Mexico. From a distance, it looks almost level, covered with a dark blanket of yellow pine. It is grooved by canyons that radiate from the mountains like crudely drawn spokes of a wheel. The canyon walls rise through many-colored layers of hardened volcanic ash, pink and rose and buff, like petrified waves."
This is the story of Edith Warner coming in 1928 at age thirty-five from Pennsylvania to northern New Mexico, renting a house in the shadow of Los Alamos and opening a tea room. This beautiful and remote place was soon to be famous throughout the world.
"It was Edith Warner in her little house by the bridge on the way to Los Alamos, who saw it all happen. Through the years of upheaval she and Tilano guarded for us all the changeless essence. It brought us a feeling of calm to know she was still there. It was as though we still had a little corner of the Pajarito land we could call our own. She kept watch for us all over the circling seasons and listened for us to the music of the river."
Ultimately the United States Government during World War II, came to this remote area and took over the Los Alamos Ranch School in Otowi, New Mexico, much of it already on federal land, for the Manhattan Project, headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
"The scientists who took our place at Los Alamos became her friends. It was one of the strange aspects of Edith Warner's fate that brought these men and their wives from many nations to gather around her table. Among them were some of the greatest minds in Europe and America, and their work was to change the world beyond believing. Edith's house became a kind of sanctuary for them in the tense years before Hiroshima."
The irony was that this where J. Robert Oppenheimer came as a very young man, falling in love with the beauty and isolation of northern New Mexico, ultimately suggesting this remote and mystical locale as the site for the Manhattan Project.
"This man too had come back. There was something about him that she liked. His senses were alert as some creature of the woods. He had a poet's face, with eyes as blue as gentians and a mouth that was at the same time firm and a little wistful. She learned that he was a professor of physics at a California university. It was not until 1945, after the atomic bombs had been exploded at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that she could tell us that this was Robert Oppenheimer."
"Oppenheimer persuaded the military authorities to let small groups of men and women come down from 'The Hill' for dinner at the little house by the river. Perhaps from his own experience he knew that those whose daily thoughts were involved with techniques of destruction would find healing for their divided spirits at the place-where-the-river-makes-a-noise."
This was a lovely book with beautiful prose and poetry and a softer, more humanistic view of Los Alamos, one that I will cherish.
"The Pajarito Plateau opens like a huge fan from an arc of blue mountains in northwestern New Mexico. From a distance, it looks almost level, covered with a dark blanket of yellow pine. It is grooved by canyons that radiate from the mountains like crudely drawn spokes of a wheel. The canyon walls rise through many-colored layers of hardened volcanic ash, pink and rose and buff, like petrified waves."
This is the story of Edith Warner coming in 1928 at age thirty-five from Pennsylvania to northern New Mexico, renting a house in the shadow of Los Alamos and opening a tea room. This beautiful and remote place was soon to be famous throughout the world.
"It was Edith Warner in her little house by the bridge on the way to Los Alamos, who saw it all happen. Through the years of upheaval she and Tilano guarded for us all the changeless essence. It brought us a feeling of calm to know she was still there. It was as though we still had a little corner of the Pajarito land we could call our own. She kept watch for us all over the circling seasons and listened for us to the music of the river."
Ultimately the United States Government during World War II, came to this remote area and took over the Los Alamos Ranch School in Otowi, New Mexico, much of it already on federal land, for the Manhattan Project, headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
"The scientists who took our place at Los Alamos became her friends. It was one of the strange aspects of Edith Warner's fate that brought these men and their wives from many nations to gather around her table. Among them were some of the greatest minds in Europe and America, and their work was to change the world beyond believing. Edith's house became a kind of sanctuary for them in the tense years before Hiroshima."
The irony was that this where J. Robert Oppenheimer came as a very young man, falling in love with the beauty and isolation of northern New Mexico, ultimately suggesting this remote and mystical locale as the site for the Manhattan Project.
"This man too had come back. There was something about him that she liked. His senses were alert as some creature of the woods. He had a poet's face, with eyes as blue as gentians and a mouth that was at the same time firm and a little wistful. She learned that he was a professor of physics at a California university. It was not until 1945, after the atomic bombs had been exploded at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that she could tell us that this was Robert Oppenheimer."
"Oppenheimer persuaded the military authorities to let small groups of men and women come down from 'The Hill' for dinner at the little house by the river. Perhaps from his own experience he knew that those whose daily thoughts were involved with techniques of destruction would find healing for their divided spirits at the place-where-the-river-makes-a-noise."
This was a lovely book with beautiful prose and poetry and a softer, more humanistic view of Los Alamos, one that I will cherish.
May 21, 2016
I entered into the spirit of this book because the spirit of this book seemed to reflect so much my life and goals here in the Gila Valley of New Mexico. Like Edith Warner, I find the sacred in landscape, and I try and fail to live up to this "largeness" everyday. I liked, too, that Peggy Pond Church's understanding of Edith Warner was so kaleidoscopic and so limited. This felt real. We were looking at a photo album. We were given glimpses of a life. Los Alamos, of course, is iconic: the birth of the atomic bomb. That's a story full of famous scientists and war. This is a story about an obscure woman and village life and a simple life and a peaceful death.
May 29, 2013
I read this book in preparation for my fifth journey to New Mexico. I knew I would be visiting Los Alamos and the San Ildefonso pueblo during this trip, so I thought this would be a great way to prepare my mind and attitude. But it was more than I expected.
Not only was I carried back to a semi-familiar terrain, I was also returned to a time when life was simpler but growing inevitably more complicated. Edith Warner, who lived the adopted life of a Native American on the San Ildefonso reservation, inhabited a small home near Otowi bridge – a place that would eventually serve as a refuge for those charged to work on the bombs that would eventually rain on the Japanese near the end of WWII.
Edith lived a simple lifestyle - though with a foot in each of two distinct cultures. Her encounters and friendships with the famous and not-so-famous folks who worked at Los Alamos and her acceptance into the pueblo’s way of life all made for an interesting read. But the salt of this book, for me, was the beautifully poetic way in which the area was described.
“From my north window I can see a storm coming down from the mountains. The white mist spills over the arm of the mountain. I can hear the heavy rain beating across the canyon. Thunder rolls in antiphonal effect from peak to peak. The wind surges down from the mountains, spills into the canyons, wells up with an added strength against the house. The green curtains flatten themselves against the window as if they were hunted things. After all this frenzy of preparation at last only a few silly drops spill onto the metal roof of the garage. Was the storm only a pretense? No, the mist I thought was thinning has gathered again. It is marching nearer like the the gray shadow of an army. A swift flame leaps across it and crashes into thunder. Now the rain wrestles with the wind for mastery in the tree tops. It pours down from the clouds like a river. How strange the trees look, like ghosts caught in a gray curtain. The rain is all between and among them. It is a world of the newly dead groping in a purgatory without color.”
We did visit San Ildefonso – a pueblo filled with welcoming people. We visited their beautiful church, watched the women of the town play a game called shinny, and had several meaningful encounters with the inhabitants. (I was asked by one elderly woman selling her fresh-baked goods where I was from. "Boston", I said proudly, only days after the Marathon bombing. Tears leaked from her eyes as she told me how glad she was that I was safe.) It was easy to understand what drew Edith to this location and why she lived out her life here in peace, tranquility and happiness.
Grade: B+
Not only was I carried back to a semi-familiar terrain, I was also returned to a time when life was simpler but growing inevitably more complicated. Edith Warner, who lived the adopted life of a Native American on the San Ildefonso reservation, inhabited a small home near Otowi bridge – a place that would eventually serve as a refuge for those charged to work on the bombs that would eventually rain on the Japanese near the end of WWII.
Edith lived a simple lifestyle - though with a foot in each of two distinct cultures. Her encounters and friendships with the famous and not-so-famous folks who worked at Los Alamos and her acceptance into the pueblo’s way of life all made for an interesting read. But the salt of this book, for me, was the beautifully poetic way in which the area was described.
“From my north window I can see a storm coming down from the mountains. The white mist spills over the arm of the mountain. I can hear the heavy rain beating across the canyon. Thunder rolls in antiphonal effect from peak to peak. The wind surges down from the mountains, spills into the canyons, wells up with an added strength against the house. The green curtains flatten themselves against the window as if they were hunted things. After all this frenzy of preparation at last only a few silly drops spill onto the metal roof of the garage. Was the storm only a pretense? No, the mist I thought was thinning has gathered again. It is marching nearer like the the gray shadow of an army. A swift flame leaps across it and crashes into thunder. Now the rain wrestles with the wind for mastery in the tree tops. It pours down from the clouds like a river. How strange the trees look, like ghosts caught in a gray curtain. The rain is all between and among them. It is a world of the newly dead groping in a purgatory without color.”
We did visit San Ildefonso – a pueblo filled with welcoming people. We visited their beautiful church, watched the women of the town play a game called shinny, and had several meaningful encounters with the inhabitants. (I was asked by one elderly woman selling her fresh-baked goods where I was from. "Boston", I said proudly, only days after the Marathon bombing. Tears leaked from her eyes as she told me how glad she was that I was safe.) It was easy to understand what drew Edith to this location and why she lived out her life here in peace, tranquility and happiness.
Grade: B+
March 7, 2012
Beautifully written little book about a quiet woman who lived in a house by the side of the road to Los Alamos during the development of the atomic bomb. Great minds like Oppenheimer and Niels Bohr came to her tearoom for respite from the world-changing project they were working on "up the hill". Indians from the local pueblo invited her to their sacred ceremonies and family gatherings, recognizing her deep and abiding spiritual connection with their desert. She didn't climb any mountains, fight in any wars, or invent better mousetraps, but she did live a simple, beautiful, and deeply meaningful life. I wouldn't mind having a few more biographies about the little Edith Warners of the world, those seemingly ordinary people who leave an indelible mark on the heart and in the soul.
"Let me live in a house by the side of the road/ And be a friend to man."
-- Sam Walter Foss
"Let me live in a house by the side of the road/ And be a friend to man."
-- Sam Walter Foss
September 23, 2016
What a wonderful gift of history, perspective, poetry and philosophy. Edith Warner is my great aunt. I have wonderful memories of her sisters, Aunts Vel and Dib. My brother gave each of my children a copy last year. Our knowledge and love of this amazing woman will always be cherished as will the love Ms. Church showed her and her legacy.
March 13, 2020
I loved learning a bit about the weird small town I'm living in for a few months. A must-read for any new Los Alamos residents.
December 19, 2011
Gorgeously written biography Edith Warner, neighbor of the San Ildefonso Pueblo and Los Alamos in the era when the atomic bomb was being developed. Warner became a friend to the scientists and their families who lived there, and her home became a place where cultures as well as people met.
The author received a 1959 Longview Literary Award for the original stories which appeared in New Mexico Quarterly, and the prose is beautiful. The story of this ordinary "spinster" fascinates. Highly recommended.
The author received a 1959 Longview Literary Award for the original stories which appeared in New Mexico Quarterly, and the prose is beautiful. The story of this ordinary "spinster" fascinates. Highly recommended.
July 17, 2015
Lyrical beyond imagination! Author Peggy Pond Church, a poet, writes about Edith Warner who herself uses words like a paintbrush. I loved this book and was moved many times by the words and images of New Mexico, the little house at Otowi bridge adjacent to the Pueblo, and Edith.
May 25, 2020
Well, it took me a long time to finally get around to reading this! I feel like a real Los Alamosian, now. I liked Edith Warner's own words more than I did PPC's, though her perspective was good to help get the fuller picture of Edith Warner's life. Edith's wisdom seems especially appropriate now, during COVID times. "There alone in the sunlight I began to understand that nothing man may do... can in any way touch or change the essence of this country." And, "How to endure the man-made devastating period in which we live and which seems almost as hopeless to control as drought; how to proceed when leadership seems utterly lacking, when individuals and nations seem stupid and arrogant; these no human can answer. I only know that the power recognized by those other sky-scanners still exists, that contact is possible. I know, too, what depths of kindness and selflessness exist in my fellow man." I like that she saw nature as a sustaining force for people. :)
May 9, 2018
Lovely. Slow start but a wonderful slice of life in less technological times. bits of culture and science, some passages that were simply beautifully written, or written in a way that was unexpected and different. An artist vs. a narrator.
May 10, 2021
Such a sweet story and a unique one of a woman who lived just beyond Los Alamos during WWII; whose shabby tea house fed and served scientists from the nearby lab on their off time from developing the atomic bomb.
November 18, 2020
I’m so happy someone wrote about Edith Warner. gifted to me from my dad for my bday :-)))))
November 12, 2018
Quite a gem of a book ... gently & lovingly told true life story of a troubled soul of a woman who seeks & finds solace in the rugged conditions of 1920’s New Mexico, the people of San Idelfonso Pueblo & even the conflicted scientists working on “something important” at nearby Los Alamos. The author has bonafide cred as she lived there herself & knew the area & characters.
January 18, 2009
The one lane suspension bridge is still there a few hundred yards from the steel and concrete monster built in the 1950’s. Alas, Edith Warner’s house has melted into the Pueblo landscape and off limits to all but the natives. You can still tread that little spot of sacred ground if you risk an arrow or tomahawk (okay, I’m kidding—they’d just shoot you).
I have met people who knew Edith. Some of the folks who worked on the Manhattan Project still live around Santa Fe (unlike the workers today at Los Alamos who bring their PhD’s from all over the country and stay up on the Mesa).
Edith knew them all—Edward Teller, Hans Bethe, that Einstein fellow, Enrico Fermi, and of course R. Oppenheimer himself. She made tea and baked pies for the boys who split the atom. Oppenheimer was one of her frequent visitors. He descended from the heights of Mount Olympus to mingle with the simple folk and swap a little gossip.
Los Alamos was a natural fortress and the single lane dirt road was often impassable. Ediths house sat at the foot of the mesa and people stopped as a half-way point before tacking the dramatic switchbacks.
It’s a sweet charming book of a simple woman living in a simpler time who, by fact of geography, ended up conferring with some of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. The prose is eloquent—even poetic—and of course, there’s gossip!
I have met people who knew Edith. Some of the folks who worked on the Manhattan Project still live around Santa Fe (unlike the workers today at Los Alamos who bring their PhD’s from all over the country and stay up on the Mesa).
Edith knew them all—Edward Teller, Hans Bethe, that Einstein fellow, Enrico Fermi, and of course R. Oppenheimer himself. She made tea and baked pies for the boys who split the atom. Oppenheimer was one of her frequent visitors. He descended from the heights of Mount Olympus to mingle with the simple folk and swap a little gossip.
Los Alamos was a natural fortress and the single lane dirt road was often impassable. Ediths house sat at the foot of the mesa and people stopped as a half-way point before tacking the dramatic switchbacks.
It’s a sweet charming book of a simple woman living in a simpler time who, by fact of geography, ended up conferring with some of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. The prose is eloquent—even poetic—and of course, there’s gossip!
February 19, 2010
We read this book as part of the Jemez Public Library book club. Our proximity to Los Alamos made this a very personal read about an exceptional woman in an exceptional time. To live a life as Edith did - struggling to make ends meet, learning to live with the seasonal challenges of harvests and water, befriending the men, women and children from the pueblo - is certainly in sharp contrast to the kind of struggles the scientists were wrestling with just up the hill. Something about these two worlds existing side-by-side, and even intersecting in Edith's cafe, makes this a very compelling story for me.
One complaint lodged by our group was the seemingly spiritual and mystical life that Edith developed, as reported by the author. There were little mention of Edith's potential loneliness, how she became so accepted by the pueblo people, and nary a word of any frustration Edith might have ever felt about living such a hard life, day in and day out. For me this was not an issue - the author has written a book about a woman she admired but did not necessarily know well, and perhaps she has written about the qualities of Edith's that she herself wishes she possessed. Or perhaps the qualities of Edith I wish I possessed.
One complaint lodged by our group was the seemingly spiritual and mystical life that Edith developed, as reported by the author. There were little mention of Edith's potential loneliness, how she became so accepted by the pueblo people, and nary a word of any frustration Edith might have ever felt about living such a hard life, day in and day out. For me this was not an issue - the author has written a book about a woman she admired but did not necessarily know well, and perhaps she has written about the qualities of Edith's that she herself wishes she possessed. Or perhaps the qualities of Edith I wish I possessed.
December 2, 2020
After a strong start, the story unraveled and rambled. Still good info, but it didn't flow and there's quite a bit of repetition. Now I want to read Frank Water's version again (Woman at Otowi Crossing).
Warner's story complements Alice Marriott's, Maria, The Potter of San Ilefonso. Edith knew the Martinez family.
p 49: Povi-cah is the Indian name of Maria, the world-famous potter. Since it was from Maria and Julian that Edith rented her house, she was always especially close to them and their children ...
Here, too, is a look at Los Alamos, not the science but rather the people, the times, and the location. Edith describes these best in her Christmas letters, 1943-1950, which are included in the Appendix.
Warner's story complements Alice Marriott's, Maria, The Potter of San Ilefonso. Edith knew the Martinez family.
p 49: Povi-cah is the Indian name of Maria, the world-famous potter. Since it was from Maria and Julian that Edith rented her house, she was always especially close to them and their children ...
Here, too, is a look at Los Alamos, not the science but rather the people, the times, and the location. Edith describes these best in her Christmas letters, 1943-1950, which are included in the Appendix.
July 3, 2018
This is one of my all time favorite books. Having spent a good amount of time in this area and imagined living simply on the land like Edith Warner did, her story sings to my soul. Her shy strength of character, her sharp, intuitive mind, her peaceful listening and her respect for those she encountered endeared her to her diverse neighbors in this beautiful remote area. She was an exceptional woman who lived a remarkable life. I am so very glad that Peggy Pond Church knew her, and grateful that she so gracefully shared Edith's story with us.
February 2, 2012
A sensitive book about the time before, during, and after the building of Los Alamos. A personal memoir about Edith Warner by a younger friend of hers. An eye-opening book about San Ildefonso Pueblo
June 24, 2013
What a surprising and lovely book - the descriptions of the Los Alamos area and the lonely, beautiful lives of the biographer and her subject were satisfying and refreshing. For some reason, I had expected the book to be dry, but it was interesting, well-paced, thoughtful, and resonating.
February 6, 2013
A lovely, thoughtful book that will mean the most to those who live in this unique region of New Mexico and understand the grandeur of the native land, the mysterious lure it has for us, and the complexity of life where Anglo, Norteno, and Pueblo cultures meet.
January 14, 2013
The writing was almost poetic and I loved the descriptions of the landscapes of New Mexico. The history was fascinating. I read this for my book club and was really glad I had done so.
March 5, 2019
This is a Western classic about an Easterner and written by a Westerner. Edith Warner, ill for several reasons and exhausted, turns to a New Mexico “ranch” for recuperation and falls in love with the region. After several years her parents’ wealth is exhausted and Edith must fend for herself. At the end of her rope, at a hotel she resides in she meets A. J. Connell who is desperate to find someone to take over a station in the middle of nowhere (Otowi Bridge) to take in goods unloaded from an occasional DR&W narrow gauge puffer-belly train; she will be paid $25 a month, all of which will go to pay young men to carry the unloaded goods away, but she can sell candy, tobacco and other things and keep the profits as her income. So, both desperate needs are served and Edith moves into the shell of a hut – a real Western bachelor pad – and sets up shop.
It just happens that the house is situated at the crossroads of ages and history. The house is located two miles from San Ildefonso Pueblo and is owned by Julián Martinez and his wife María, the potter. In the other direction it is located very near the Los Alamos School for boys, a place where children of wealthy people could send their offspring for a practical education. Latin was pushed aside to make way for learning the responsibility of caring for a horse, camping, and other chores. The school was founded by Ashley Pond, father of book author Peggy Pond Church. Unbeknownst to all at the time, in 1943 the school grounds would be pushed aside and Los Alamos would become famous for something horrible.
In the meantime, Edith scratched out a meager living selling tea, cookies and her famous chocolate cake. Hosting mostly the local San Ildefonso Americans, Hispanics and occasional White hikers, eventually she also regularly played hostess to the likes of Robert Oppenheimer, Neils Bohr and others who took over the land previously occupied by Ashley Pond’s little school. While scratching out her living, Warner slowly became spiritually enriched by the local Americans – the people of San Ildefonso – and the overwhelming beauty of the land all around her.
While this book allows a tiny alternate view of a horrendous historic event, it is also primarily a description of the spiritual blossoming of a perceptive and receptive human to what is, at base, the best we can realize and/or achieve as humans. The people of San Ildefonso know that we should always begin our enterprises with good in our hearts. All that despite the evil that can surround us.
The book is best appreciated by readers who are, like Edith Warner, perceptive and receptive to the beauty and the spirits that surround us. And with luck those who are not as lucky as Warner may be made more so by reading the book. Mitakuye Oyasin.
It just happens that the house is situated at the crossroads of ages and history. The house is located two miles from San Ildefonso Pueblo and is owned by Julián Martinez and his wife María, the potter. In the other direction it is located very near the Los Alamos School for boys, a place where children of wealthy people could send their offspring for a practical education. Latin was pushed aside to make way for learning the responsibility of caring for a horse, camping, and other chores. The school was founded by Ashley Pond, father of book author Peggy Pond Church. Unbeknownst to all at the time, in 1943 the school grounds would be pushed aside and Los Alamos would become famous for something horrible.
In the meantime, Edith scratched out a meager living selling tea, cookies and her famous chocolate cake. Hosting mostly the local San Ildefonso Americans, Hispanics and occasional White hikers, eventually she also regularly played hostess to the likes of Robert Oppenheimer, Neils Bohr and others who took over the land previously occupied by Ashley Pond’s little school. While scratching out her living, Warner slowly became spiritually enriched by the local Americans – the people of San Ildefonso – and the overwhelming beauty of the land all around her.
While this book allows a tiny alternate view of a horrendous historic event, it is also primarily a description of the spiritual blossoming of a perceptive and receptive human to what is, at base, the best we can realize and/or achieve as humans. The people of San Ildefonso know that we should always begin our enterprises with good in our hearts. All that despite the evil that can surround us.
The book is best appreciated by readers who are, like Edith Warner, perceptive and receptive to the beauty and the spirits that surround us. And with luck those who are not as lucky as Warner may be made more so by reading the book. Mitakuye Oyasin.
July 30, 2019
This book is considered a classic of New Mexico literature. It was published in 1959 and is the story of a young Pennsylvania woman who arrived in New Mexico, near the town (much smaller then) of Los Alamos, having picked New Mexico more or less randomly as the location to recover from a breakdown, then lived for more than 20 years in a small house near the Rio Grande River, operating a small store and tearoom, befriending members of the neighboring San Ildenfonso Pueblo and, later, the scientists who came to Los Alamos to develop the atomic bomb. While ostensibly this is the biography of that woman, Edith Warner, it seems equally the autobiography of author Peggy Church, one of Edith's oldest friends during those years. You might say that nothing in either of their lives was truly remarkable, but when closely examined, even the stories of seemingly ordinary people can make you wish you had the privilege of knowing them. In this book, the land, the river, the animals and plants, are as if characters themselves, so much was Edith, especially, attuned to the world around her. Much has no doubt changed, as it's been nearly a century since Edith arrived in New Mexico and almost 70 since she died, but having lived in New Mexico myself (all too briefly), I can testify that it can still cast a spell and that this slim book beautifully evokes both a particular time and a sense of timelessness.
August 20, 2023
A quiet book, sort of a dual memoir of both Peggy Church and Edith Warner. Lent to me by a friend who visits New Mexico often, and with whom I went to see Nolan's Oppenheimer. The book is a brilliant follow-up to that movie, telling the story of Edith Warner who came to live San Ildefonso, near Los Alamos in 1928 at the age of 35.
The appendices, particularly the Christmas letters, are a must-read after reading the body of this short book.
On gray days like this I often think of the wild geese flying south. I heard their honking one October day and went out into the gently falling rain to see the swaying black line of them against the gray sky. Soon they entered the canyon and I watched them closely, following against the dark mesa the darker line. Now above, now below the broken mesa rim they flew with never a moment of hesitation, with always the memory of warm, plentiful feeding grounds, and an old trail leading to them. Where the river turns again, they rose above the mesa, and my last glimpse of them was that swaying line against the lighter clouds, winging southward. Death could be like that.
The appendices, particularly the Christmas letters, are a must-read after reading the body of this short book.
On gray days like this I often think of the wild geese flying south. I heard their honking one October day and went out into the gently falling rain to see the swaying black line of them against the gray sky. Soon they entered the canyon and I watched them closely, following against the dark mesa the darker line. Now above, now below the broken mesa rim they flew with never a moment of hesitation, with always the memory of warm, plentiful feeding grounds, and an old trail leading to them. Where the river turns again, they rose above the mesa, and my last glimpse of them was that swaying line against the lighter clouds, winging southward. Death could be like that.
March 21, 2022
What a charming and poetic book. In the 20s and 30s a woman Edith Warner lived by herself in a tiny house by a bridge over the Rio Grande near the San Ildefonso pueblo in New Mexico. She became a friend to the nearby Indians attending their ceremonies and even becoming godmother to several children. Her letters describing the ceremonies, the people and the landscape must have been welcome poems to the people who received them. The author of the book about Warner is also a poet, a writer and an old friend. In the late 30s and early 40s the US government built a secret enclave nearby called Los Alamos. The scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project were sworn to secrecy and mostly unable to leave in order to keep the secret of what they were working on. The only outside experience they were allowed was to visit Edith Warner at her little house for chocolate cake a few at a time. What a relief it must have been, especially for the wives of the scientists.
September 20, 2024
Edith Warner moved in a small house on the San Idelfonso Pueblo near Los Alamos, New Mexico when the boys school was still open. Her house was at a train stop where supplies were dropped off as the road to Parajito Plateau was still a rough dirt road. She opened a tea house there and when the federal government bought the boys school to build the research center in Los Alamos, the scientists would visit her little restaurant for dinner. She hosted Robert Oppenheimer, Neils Bohr, and many other famous nuclear physicists. Edith was quite an extraordinary lady, and unfortunately she did not live a long life passing away in her early sixties. This book is a tribute to her generosity and kind spirit, and is reminder of a time when people wrote letters and shared recipes. Today Los Alamos is a large town with restaurants and a grocery store, and also has the largest population of millionaires of any city in the US. The lab is now owned by a triad including Texas A&M University.
January 9, 2020
This is essentially the spiritual biography of a quiet woman whose life was very unusual, by choice. I loved this book because I know the area it's set in. I've felt its otherworldly pull and appreciate why an outsider might choose to live an austere and contemplative life there.
Warner is not an anthropologist or tourist or Native-American wannabe striving to be initiated into the inner mysteries of Pueblo life. Edith Warner was a sheltered and nervous woman who learned to live more fully by choosing an isolated life of great challenge. She lived close to the pueblo tribes near Los Alamos and they became (to some extent) her friends and support system. But she remained an outsider. There are no big revelations, but I found it satisfying to read.
This book might interest anyone interested in northern New Mexico or in someone choosing to live a contemplative life.
Warner is not an anthropologist or tourist or Native-American wannabe striving to be initiated into the inner mysteries of Pueblo life. Edith Warner was a sheltered and nervous woman who learned to live more fully by choosing an isolated life of great challenge. She lived close to the pueblo tribes near Los Alamos and they became (to some extent) her friends and support system. But she remained an outsider. There are no big revelations, but I found it satisfying to read.
This book might interest anyone interested in northern New Mexico or in someone choosing to live a contemplative life.
January 24, 2026
Recently I had the opportunity to tour the former boys school in Los Alamos where the atomic bomb was created. Such a beautiful place that its history is hard to comprehend. This little book, published in the ‘70s, tells a smaller story. A story of an incredible woman who came to New Mexico years before the Los Alamos scientists arrived. The home she created became a refuge for the Pueblo people and ultimately an escape for those world famous scientists, as dinners at Edith’s place became the hottest ticket going. Not only because of the allure of a home cooked meal, but for the great conversation and aura of peace that surrounded it. Such a special sliver of time- I’m grateful it was captured so beautifully. Highly recommend!
December 27, 2020
This is a magical book and if you celebrate Christmas, it’s especially so during this time of year. I used to spend some winter breaks with my grandparents in Santa Fe when I was in my teens and twenties. My grandfather loved New Mexico and my grandma continued to spend winters there after my grandfather died. So I could so clearly picture the setting and loved the story, which I heard about when I was last in Los Alamos a few years ago. The structure of the book is lovely. It’s a quick but rich book.
July 4, 2022
A story written to celebrate the simple life of a spinster, Edith Warner, who came to the Los Alamos area in the 30's for her health, but decided to stay for it's beauty. She lived on San Ildefonso Pueblo land on the Rio Grande, becoming an integral part of Pueblo life. She also ran a restaurant out of her home and served those top secret scientists working at Los Alamos during the second World war. Her simple, quiet life and love of the land charmed and enriched all she knew. A quiet and sweet book.
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