This first volume in the American Folkways series of the 1940's and early 50's is a compendium of history, geography, folklore, and natural history relating to the deserts of the American Southwest, especially the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. There is a special emphasis on Death Valley. It is written in a most engaging, somewhat journalistic style by Edwin Corle, Corle's forte is story-telling, where he excels, and there are a lot of humorous, serious, and suspenseful stories in this book. The book also provides a good reminiscence of what this area was like some 70 years ago, though most of the accounts go back a lot earlier than that. I recommend this book for casual reading, but also as a good introduction to the North American deserts and their lore, always realizing that a lot has changed since 1941 when the book was published. I will definitely be searching the second-hand bookshops for more of this series, some of which were contributed by such authors as Gertrude Atherton and Wallace Stegner. ( )