In 1909, following the publication of several less successful efforts in various genres—children's stories (
The Basket Woman, 1904), historical romance (
Isidro, 1905), historical documentary (
The Flock, 1906), and a work of social commentary in the form of a novel (
Santa Lucia, 1908)—Austin returned to the form that had first brought her critical attention.
Lost Borders, a collection of fourteen stories and sketches about “the land of little rain”, focuses even more insistently than her earlier work on the human inhabitants of California's desert region and on the means by which the land shapes both character and destiny. In the first sketch, “The Land”, in one of Austin's most famous passages, she introduces the collection with a thesis of sorts:
If the desert were a
1080 words
Citation: Hoyer, Mark T.. "Lost Borders". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3858, accessed 24 November 2024.]
