The Ford

by Mary Austin, John Walton (Foreword by)

Overview

Mary Austin's 1917 novel illuminates one of the crucial issues in California history—the usurpation of water from the Owens Valley. Ranging from the eastern Sierra to the financial district in San Francisco, the plot portrays the frenzied speculation in land and resources, labor protests, and feminist organizing of the time, exemplified in the successful efforts of an independent young woman to buy back her family's Owens Valley ranch.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520207578
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	05/15/1997
Series:	California Fiction
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	729,742
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Mary Austin (1868-1934) came to California in 1887 to homestead with her family in Kern County, in the Great Central Valley. She is the author of many novels, essays, and story collections. John Walton, the author of Western Times and Water Wars (California 1992), is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis.

What People are Saying About This

Melody Glaulich

"The Ford is a revolutionary novel in which Mary Austin explores how battles over water and land use has shaped California's history. In this political novel, Austin writes the characteristic scepticism and idealism, mocking socialist cant and slogans yet advocating communal responsibilities based on her understanding of ecological interdependence and her respect for personal integrity. In Ford, Austin interweaves most powerfully her environmentalism and her feminism, anticipating the work of recent echo feminist."

Editorial Reviews

Austin's political novel offers a fictionalized account of the vicious fights over water rights that bloodied California's early history. It was first published in 1917.

Library Journal

"Mary Austin had a bold and original mind....of her novels, The Ford, which deals with the battles for the water of the Owens Valley, is perhaps the best." -- The New York Times

Carey McWilliams

"The great social and commercial plot...is strongly handled and conveys more than any other American fiction since Frank Norris. What Mrs. Austin calls the 'ethic quality of the West.'" -- Dial

J. Macy