Although Mary Austin never achieved great popular success, her prolific pen and commanding personality made her an important figure in the literary circles of her era. Her thirty-one books include novels, regional studies of Southern California and New Mexico, religious works and explorations of topics related in some way to her religious beliefs, collections of folktales and stories modeled on the folktale, studies of Indian life, poetry, and art, examinations of the personal and social roles of women, a play, a collection of poetry for children, and her autobiography. In addition she had numerous short stories, many poems, and countless essays and articles published, and had two other plays produced.

Both in her writing and in her life, Austin was a naturist, a mystic, a folklorist, and a crusader on behalf of feminism, Indian rights, the Spanish culture of the American Southwest, conservation, community arts, and various other...