Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1982
Abstract
Mabel Dodge Luhan is best known for her social affairs in Florence, New York City, and Taos, and for her remarkable ability to meet and court influential people such as Gertrude Stein, Isadora Duncan, John Reed, and D.H. Lawrence. Her activities in Taos, comprising the second half of her life, have attracted the most attention. There she married a Pueblo Indian and persuaded several writers and artists to visit her, helping to establish the basis for a lively community of artists. She is an acknowledged influence on such writers as Willa Gather, Mary Austin, D.H. Lawrence, and Frank Waters. In the 1920s, Luhan herself decided to pursue a career in writing. Within a decade she published six books. All autobiographical, these books provide the high quality gossip expected by her public; but they also contain much more than the personal memories that are still valuable to social historians. Claiming to have experienced a spiritual conversion in Taos, Luhan writes from the perspective of a converted prophet. In her works, consequently, she defines a romantic and mystical vision of the Southwest shared by many of her guests and friends in Taos.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Jane V. Mabel Dodge Luhan. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1982. Digital. Western Writers Series, 55.