A book program designed to help us learn about the many varied cultures, landscapes, and stories of the American West past and present. Before the program, read the selected book, then join us as we gather together to engage in meaningful conversations and shared experiences.

First 10 households to register receive a free copy of the book!*

Our exhibition, The Cinematic West: The Art That Made the Movies, explores how artists like Charles Russell and Frederic Remington influenced early Western film directors. How do landscapes like Remington & Russell’s painted backdrops or movie sets like Ford’s Monument Valley shape our concepts of the American West? How do our views and stereotypes of the West influence our relationship with that landscape? Join us for our next Tall Tales discussion as we take a literary hike through the arid landscapes, wildlife, and people of the American Southwest desert in Mary Austin’s 1903 classic The Land of Little Rain.

Mary Austin’s love of the desert is everywhere evident in The Land of Little Rain, a collection of fourteen vignettes about the land and people of the region that today includes Death Valley National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. Part nature essay, personal essay, folk legend, and local history of the California Sierras, this enduring American classic resists classification. Her lyrical observations are infused with a deep understanding of the flora and fauna of the area and an appreciation of the people she encountered and befriended there—Shoshones and Paiutes, Mexican and Chinese immigrants, shepherds, stagecoach drivers, and miners among them. Austin’s writings have been compared to the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold, but her poetic sensibility is purely original, winsome, and entirely her own.

Join us for our next Tall Tales book discussion as we read and discuss The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin. Please read the selected book prior to the program.

Registration: Required – opens March 3

Ages: 18+
Contact: Director of Adult Programs at adulteducation@SidRichardsonMuseum.org or 817.332.6554 if you have any questions or would like to be added to the wait list when registration is full.

* Registrants who receive a free copy of the book can elect to pick it up at the front desk during museum hours or have it mailed for a $7 fee. Staff will confirm your option after you register.