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Rating: 
Summary: A Definitive book on Taos
Review: For anyone who is an expatriate Taoseno (as I am) or for those who are just interested in this fascinating little town, Bill Hemp has written and beautifully illustrated a coffee-table-type book that one can read all the way through without getting bored and return to often to enjoy the sketches and re-read specific chapters. In it, you will find the history of the three cultures (Indian, Spanish and Anglo) that put Taos, New Mexico on the map as a place like no other place in the world. The ancient Anasazi settled around Taos in 1000 A.D. and Taos Pueblo (dating from about 1350) is the oldest continually occupied pueblo in the Southwest. When the Spanish arrived in 1540, they set their seal on the ancient community, building churches and missions and farming the land. Then Mabel Dodge Luhan "discovered" this magical place (it is said that Taos Mountain draws people) and an influx of Anglo artists and writers began, among them D.H. Lawrence, Andrew Dasburg, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ernest Blumenschein, Micolai Fechin...the list is too long to mention all of them here. Later, R.C. Gorman, John Nichols, Natalie Goldberg and many others who have achieved fame in the outside world made their home in Taos (which means, "place of the red willow"). Chapters are devoted to Kit Carson, Padre Martinez, the Penitentes, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and even the influx of hippies with a chapter on the New Buffalo commune in Arroyo Hondo north of Taos. There are maps, portraits, landscapes, architecture, quotes, reminiscences, stories of ghosts, little-known facts and even recipes (one for green chile stew) in this rich, very readable and delightful work. I found no inaccuracies but did find a great deal of information that I hadn't known about before. Highly recommended. pamhan99@aol.com
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