Frank Waters: A Bibliography with Relevant Selections from His Correspondence by Terence A. Tanner (review)

344 Western American Literature That is, Ronald predicates her discussion of Abbey’s non-fiction on dispelling “the myth that the narrative voice is Edward Abbey himself” (66). “To dis­ tinguish between author and his narrator,” Ronald refers to “the dramatized persona” as “Ed,” a distinction she continues to make in the subsequent chapters — a shrewd, useful, and agreeable device. While Abbey’s literary audience will welcome Ronald’s performance, Ronald’s book risks preaching to a community of the saved. While it should rightfully abort the inevitable attempt to include Abbey in the Twayne series and put an end to the fatuous caricatures of Abbey as environmental guru in the eastern press, no doubt it will accomplish neither task. It may, however, provoke further serious discussion of a writer who ought to be more carefully read and whose works have been mistreated for two decades. JAMES R. HEPWORTH University of Arizona Frank Waters: A Bibliography with Relevant Selections from His Correspon­ dence. By Terence A. Tanner. (Glenwood, Illinois: Meyerbooks, 1983. 356 pages, $45.00.) Frankly, never in my wildest dreams did I expect ever to review a bibli­ ography. Further, I never imagined I could possibly apply the word exciting to such a work. But while most bibliographies do not lend themselves to excit­ ing reading, Frank Waters: A Bibliography with Relevant Selections from His Correspondence actually does. For this is far more than a bibliography. It constitutes a complete history of all of Waters’ publications from 1916 (in his grade school literary magazine) through 1982 (Cuchama and Sacred Moun­ tains) and provides a fascinating record of the genesis and publication history of each work of this major author — frequently in Waters’ own words. Tanner’s decision to include selections from Waters’ correspondence, “to flesh out the bare bones,” is a most fortunate one. The result is almost like having a book entitled Everything You Wanted to Know about Every­ thing Frank Waters Has Written. The “bare bones” themselves are of great interest. The bibliographical material is thoroughly detailed, and it is com­ plete, covering Waters’ books, his pamphlets published by Los Alamos Scien­ tific Laboratory, his foreign translations, his contributions to books by others, to Encyclopedia Americana, to periodicals, and to the prize-winning El Crepusc.ulo, which he edited, and even his blurbs. It also covers articles by others containing material by Waters, and interviews with Waters, and it contains a fine selected list of articles written about Waters and his work. But for me, the correspondence alone isworth the price of the book. In it we find not only factual data concerning Waters’ intentions, and historical accounts of various problems and tribulations, but we also see much of the plain hard work — the sweat, tears, disappointments and frustrations — that Reviews 345 are all a part of the craft of Frank Waters. In many ways, in addition to revealing Frank Waters the writer, the bibliography also reveals Frank Waters the man. While this is totally contrary to Tanner’s avowed (and frequently frustratingly adhered to) intention (e.g., he refrains from indicating the place in which a letter was written, feeling that that would be “biographical” rather than “bibliographical”), scholars and students will find it invaluable for pro­ viding insight into the man himself. For example, from a letter to Mabel Dodge Luhan about The Man Who Killed the Deer: We all break away. We look outward, and inward, and finally see in ourselves the macrocosmic universe, and the world outside as a microcosmic replica of ourselves. And what prompts us, and ever keeps us on the track of self-fulfillment, is that peculiar thing we call conscience which turns us back, or the intuition which illumines the forward step. It might just as well be called a deer. (February 14, 1941) Or this comment on The Colorado: I have been writing The Colorado for the past twenty years, though the words themselves have yet to be put on paper. (October 18,1943) Or from a letter about the Book of the Hopi: After many years I’ve found that the bigger a thing is, the more trouble it meets initially. Only mediocrity has an easy path...