Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1990
Abstract
The teenager mouthing poems before a mirror in an English industrial town would go on to enthrall overflow audiences at the San Diego Exposition of 1916. Away from the podium, he would earn large reputations as an anthropologist, explorer, social reformer, and booster of his adopted land. Along the way, he picked up some smudges: accusations of lying, of questionable tactics in selfpromotion, and of heinous sexual acts. Above all, he would write, producing much curious froth, such as The Story of Captain: The Horse with the Human Brain. The title alone shows how far George Wharton James would swing off into fantasyland. But on the other end of the spectrum, The Wonders of the Colorado Desert and several other volumes enriched the nascent tradition of Western American literature. Perhaps more importantly, James’s observations on other writers of his region, though not always accurate according to today’s critical lights, would lend shape to that emerging tradition and help it thrive. But first, he would have to cross an ocean and then a continent.
Recommended Citation
Wild, Peter. George Wharton James. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1990. Digital. Western Writers Series, 93.