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Reviewed by:
  • Canyon of Dreams: Stories from Grand Canyon History by Don Lago, and: The Grand Canyon Reader ed. by Lance Newman
  • Hal Crimmel
Don Lago, Canyon of Dreams: Stories from Grand Canyon History. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 2014. 368pp. Paper, $19.95; e-book, $16.00.
Lance Newman, ed., The Grand Canyon Reader. Berkeley: U of California P, 2011. 264pp. Cloth, $52.95; paper, $20.95; e-book, $19.95.

Anyone planning a visit to or reflecting on an experience in the Grand Canyon will find Canyon of Dreams: Stories from Grand Canyon History and The Grand Canyon Reader engaging. Much as the canyon itself reveals its secrets with every mile hiked or floated, so too do these books provide ever-greater insights into one of America’s most iconic places. Both books seem a reflection of the canyon itself—a place where experience leads simultaneously to greater insight about self, place, and human nature but also leads to a profound sense of wonder because, despite all the stories, the historical accounts, and the geological and scientific studies, that essence of mystery and possibility remains intact, if not stronger, for one’s time in the canyon.

Don Lago’s Canyon of Dreams is a highly engaging and expertly researched book about off-the-radar Grand Canyon history. As the author notes, “many great stories have barely been noticed or have remained entirely unknown” (6), and this book brings to light many of these fascinating stories. These include the geologic training provided to the Apollo astronauts, Edwin Hubble’s visit, the battles between the National Park Service and William Randolph Hearst over Hearst’s property on the rim, and the details behind the famous children’s book Brighty of the Grand Canyon. There are also chapters on the canyon connection of singer-songwriter Roger Miller (of “King of the Road” fame) and the role of writers such as Harriet Monroe (founder of Poetry magazine), John Muir, Edgar Lee Masters, Carl Sandburg, William Burroughs, and Mary Austin in shaping the public’s view of the canyon. As Lago notes, the poets “had little influence on public perceptions of the Grand Canyon,” perhaps due to their brooding introspection, whereas writers such as “Muir and Mary Austin seemed fairly immune to existential doubt, and they and John C. Van Dyke helped create the Grand [End Page 404] Canyon that today’s visitors expect to find: a scene of deep beauty and peace” (249). The book is rounded out by chapters on British writers, Henry Miller, tall tales, and a personal reflection on history; readers already familiar with the Grand Canyon will get a great deal from this book, though it will also enhance the experience of those visiting for the first time.

Canyon of Dreams is fascinating not only for its deft storytelling around little-known events, such as the conflict between the Roosevelt family and Hearst, which becomes part of a larger narrative about the debate over the role of wilderness in America, or for placing Hubble’s visit to the canyon in the context of his famous discovery that the universe was expanding, but also for its ability to help us see so much more about the canyon than meets the eye.

My own experiences in the Grand Canyon, which include several private river trips, hiking, and some rim tourism, certainly were defined by that sense of “deep beauty and peace” Lago identifies. But as a result of reading this book I now find that the human conflicts—the jealousies, the greed, the petty baroque dramas—have also entered my canyon sense of place. In the final chapter Lago discusses John Hance, for whom a trail and rapid are named in the canyon, and notes “the mystery of how one life blends with the currents of a nation’s history” (326). Visitors to the canyon who read Lago’s book will likely share in that mystery. One can’t ask much more of a book.

Lance Newman’s The Grand Canyon Reader contains twenty-seven selections primarily from well-known authors such as Edward Abbey, Linda Hogan, Barry Lopez, John Muir, and Terry Tempest Williams, as well as...

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