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Rating:  Summary: In Edith's Own Words Review: Edith Warner came to New Mexico from the East in 1922, seeking a place to regain her failing physical health. Rather, she found a place ideal for her spiritual health, an ancient land where she felt at peace. She settled into a little house beside the Rio Grande at a lonely railroad siding called Otowi, where she supervised the off loading of freight. Ironically, in that out-of-the-way location, fate placed her at a crossroads in time, to live between the pastoral life of the neighboring Pueblo Indians and the frenzied pace of nearby scientists ushering in the atomic age at Los Alamos. In the midst of these different worlds, Edith completed her personal journey and touched the lives of everyone who passed her way, from sheepherders and potters to world-renowned physicists. Her story has been presented in two previous books, THE HOUSE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, a memoir and southwestern classic by Peggy Pond Church, and THE WOMAN AT OTOWI CROSSING, a fictionalized and altered version of Edith's life by Frank Waters. Now, IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS offers the story through Edith's own writing, with a preface to set the stage. As a reviewer, I am suppose to tell you whether or not you will enjoy this book, but such a prediction would be based solely on opinion. What I can tell you is that Patrick Burns, the book's editor, was passionately dedicated to his project on Edith Warner and that his admiration of Edith, despite never having met her, shows through in his work. Burns pursued lost documents in dusty archives, salvaged old letters that were about to be destroyed, and talked with Edith's friends and relatives from around the country to gather and preserve this record of her writing, which includes published and unpublished articles, letters, and surviving portions of her journal. IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS is the result of years of in-depth research into a remarkable woman and a place in time. Edith's story leads the reader to wonder what might have become of her had she stayed in Pennsylvania, never having found her little house by the river, but we will never know because Edith recognized that she was right where she was suppose to be. She pursued her destiny. Through this book, she continues to inspire others to do the same. My opinion? You will more than enjoy IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS.
Rating:  Summary: In Edith's Own Words Review: Edith Warner came to New Mexico from the East in 1922, seeking a place to regain her failing physical health. Rather, she found a place ideal for her spiritual health, an ancient land where she felt at peace. She settled into a little house beside the Rio Grande at a lonely railroad siding called Otowi, where she supervised the off loading of freight. Ironically, in that out-of-the-way location, fate placed her at a crossroads in time, to live between the pastoral life of the neighboring Pueblo Indians and the frenzied pace of nearby scientists ushering in the atomic age at Los Alamos. In the midst of these different worlds, Edith completed her personal journey and touched the lives of everyone who passed her way, from sheepherders and potters to world-renowned physicists. Her story has been presented in two previous books, THE HOUSE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, a memoir and southwestern classic by Peggy Pond Church, and THE WOMAN AT OTOWI CROSSING, a fictionalized and altered version of Edith's life by Frank Waters. Now, IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS offers the story through Edith's own writing, with a preface to set the stage. As a reviewer, I am suppose to tell you whether or not you will enjoy this book, but such a prediction would be based solely on opinion. What I can tell you is that Patrick Burns, the book's editor, was passionately dedicated to his project on Edith Warner and that his admiration of Edith, despite never having met her, shows through in his work. Burns pursued lost documents in dusty archives, salvaged old letters that were about to be destroyed, and talked with Edith's friends and relatives from around the country to gather and preserve this record of her writing, which includes published and unpublished articles, letters, and surviving portions of her journal. IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS is the result of years of in-depth research into a remarkable woman and a place in time. Edith's story leads the reader to wonder what might have become of her had she stayed in Pennsylvania, never having found her little house by the river, but we will never know because Edith recognized that she was right where she was suppose to be. She pursued her destiny. Through this book, she continues to inspire others to do the same. My opinion? You will more than enjoy IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS.
Rating:  Summary: In Edith Warner's Own Words Review: Edith Warner's own words exceed in beauty and simpicity anyone else's account of what her experiences were like in Northern New Mexico during the era of the making of the atomic bomb. Captured for the reader are the feelings of an anglo woman being accepted by Native Americans, the difficult life a woman making it on her own, and her intense feelings about how the war affected pueblo people. Editor, Patrick Burns, has done a fine job of editing and staying true to the spirit of these wonderful writings!
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