No Place for a Puritan: The Literature of the California Deserts

A man foolishly and arrogantly collecting live rattlesnakes . . .

A lone woman striving to make a home in a remote desert canyon . . .

A blooming romance by the desolate Salton Sea . . .

To the uninitiated, the California desert is a parched and unforgiving place, but to those who know it intimately, it is rich in plants, animals people, and a seemingly endless variety of geography. It also abounds in stories-tales of human folly, courage, aspiration, struggle, and at times heroic delusion.

No Place for a Puritan brings together eighty writers and poets to pay homage to a land that has been feared and romanticized throughout the ages. From the traditional stories of the Cahuilla Indians to Joan Didion's acerbic cast of characters in Play It as It Lays, from Mary Austin's meditations in The Land of Little Rain to the writings of today's young and emerging authors, this anthology unfolds the many stories of the California desert with freshness, drama, delicacy, and surprise.