Charles F. Lummis was a multifaceted Southwestern writer. Although he wrote fiction and poetry, more important than his own creative works were his efforts as journalist, editor, photographer, amateur folklorist, and spokesman for Native American rights. His major contribution to the literature of the West consists of four volumes of nonfiction that might loosely be called journalism: A Tramp across the Continent (1892), Some Strange Corners of Our Country: The Wonderland of the Southwest (1892), The Land of Poco Tiempo (1893), and the revised and enlarged edition of Some Strange Corners as a work that he considered his masterpiece, Mesa, Cañon and Pueblo: Our Wonderland of the Southwest, Its Marvels of Nature, Its Pageant of the Earth Building, Its Strange Peoples, Its Centuried Romance (1925).

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Lummis as a boy was ill so often that he was extensively tutored at home before attending Harvard from 1877 to 1881. Although...