Spud Johnson & Laughing Horse - (Southwest Heritage) by Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall (Paperback)

About the Book

Udall's lively account of the quirky editor, poet, journalist, diarist, and printer Walter Willard "Spud" Johnson focuses especially on brilliant and diverse artists he befriended and published. Together they helped to create a new voice for the Southwest.

Book Synopsis

"Spud Johnson and Laughing Horse" is a portrait of the soul of a generation of artists and writers, the story of the men and women who made New Mexico a center of regional American literature, criticism and visual arts in the 1920s and 30s. Sharyn Udall's lively account of the quirky editor, poet, journalist, diarist and printer Walter Willard "Spud" Johnson focuses especially on brilliant and diverse artists-D. H. Lawrence, Mary Austin, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Witter Bynner, Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin among them-whom he befriended and published. Together they helped to create a new voice for the Southwest, fusing high art and low, repudiating the derivative cultural tradition of their predecessors, and bringing the Native American and Hispanic cultural heritage to the attention of the American mainstream.

From the Back Cover

Started as a college prank with two friends at the University of California, Berkeley in 1922, Laughing Horse gained a scandalous reputation and was suppressed by the university for printing an 'obscene' letter by D.H. Lawrence.In this volume are many beautiful woodcuts from Laughing Horse along with sketches and cartoons by a host of artists, including John Marin, Gustave Baumann, and B.J.O. Nordfeldt. Many of the works, both written and visual, have a uniquely New Mexico flavor, and some have not been published since their original appearance in Laughing Horse.Readers of all persuasions who are interested in New Mexico, the larger careers of these individuals, small-press publishing, regional matters, and cultural history will be rewarded by this book.