In the 1940s, Marshal South chronicled his family's controversial primitive lifestyle on Ghost Mountain, in what is now Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California, through popular monthly articles written for Desert Magazine. This is the complete collection, along with never-before-published photos of the family. An enchanting and thought-provoking collection of articles and reminiscences by Marshal South and his family with an excellent and detailed foreword by Diana Lindsay. It is a remarkable read. --Iris Engstrand, Professor of History, University of San Diego Diana Lindsay has turned the pages of history and discovered the real Marshal South…bringing the truth out of the shadowy past, discovering many enlightening aspects of the South’s family life, on the mountain and off. The old rumors and reputation have been brought into light with the able guidance of Rider South…. --Mark Jorgensen, Superintendent, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Yaquitepec, the crude and crumbling shelter atop Ghost Mountain, testifies to the hardships the South family endured….But Marshal South built a second monument, one that will prove more durable than adobe―his poems and essays for Desert Magazine. --Peter Rowe, Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune Finally, the true story of Marshal South can be told. The publication of all of South’s Desert Magazine articles in Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles stands by itself. The articles reveal a desert writer that stands in a league with Charles Lummis, J. Smeaton Chase, George Wharton James, John C. Van Dyke, and Mary Austin. In his lifetime Marshal’s published works include over 50 poems, 30 short stories and essays, 8 novels, 102 articles and poems in Desert Magazine. His works were published in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States—in local and syndicated newspapers and magazine in New York, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, and Texas. The foreword and introduction to the book add new dimensions to the South story that was previously unknown. Readers of Desert Magazine never knew who South really was, and his sudden and acrimonious divorce that ended the "experiment in primitive living" just increased the mystery and rumors. South died soon after the divorce in 1947 and his wife Tanya kept silent for the next 50 years until she died in 1997, at almost 100 years old. Through the years there has been wide speculation about what happened. Even the children never knew the whole story because of secrecy, changed names and dates, and lost and burned records and letters. It was the research for the foreword of this book that unraveled the story of Marshal South. Rider South, who was the oldest of the three children to grow up on Ghost Mountain with its Robinson Crusoe-type environment, wrote the introduction to the book, which includes his memories of life at Yaquitepec. He was almost 13 years old when he left and his memory his very clear. It was a very difficult life, but as a child, he did not know it was difficult. After years of silence, Rider tells the true story and sets the record straight. Father sometimes called it an experiment in desert living. Now the question comes up—when does a good thing turn bad? One candy bar is a great treat, but 20 makes you sick. As we three kids got older, our parents, each in his or her own way, realized that the great experiment had to end. But how? Mother, coming from city life, wanted us to adapt to city living while we were still pliable in thought. She was more practical and cared for us in that way. Father wanted us to be comfortable with people as he was and not become part of the masses. He was an artist and a writer, and in his own way he cared for us. While each loved us, they had different plans for our upbringing. Eventually, Mother’s plan of making us comfortable in the city won out... —Rider South, Silver City, New Mexico After graduation from Pt. Loma High School, Rider South became an aircraft mechanic at North Island Naval Air Station, until his retirement in 1989. Lucile Iverson South has spent her whole life involved with dancing—first as a child prodigy, then a vaudeville star and a producer of USO shows, and finally as a ballroom and ballet dance instructor at San Diego State University. She is the author of Dancing Thru Life on Toes of Gold. The Souths live in Silver City, New Mexico. Diana Lindsay is a popular lecturer and a historian specializing in the Anza-Borrego Desert. She is the author of Our Historic Desert (Copley Books), Anza-Borrego A to Z: People Places and Things (Sunbelt Publications), and co-author of Anza-Borrego Desert Region (Wilderness Press). She is a park volunteer and has served as a board member of the Anza-Borrego Foundation for over 20 years. Used Book in Good Condition