Reviewed This Month: • Gila Country Legend • Art Journey New Mexico • Blind Tom • Guitars and Adobes • Breakfast New Mexico Style

Guest Review by Tom Clagett

Biography
Gila Country Legend: The True Life and Times of Quentin Hulse
By Nancy Coggeshall
University of New Mexico Press
280 pages, hardcover, $29.95

If a man becomes legendary through the number of stories told about him, then Quentin Hulse, a New Mexico guide, hunter, rancher, and tale-teller, certainly qualifies. As a friend of Hulse’s said, “When Quentin came into Uncle Bill’s Bar [in Reserve], it was like a movie star arriving. He was well known as a storyteller, but also highly esteemed as an oral historian.”

In Nancy Coggeshall’s haunting biography of Hulse, whom she came to love and live with late in his life, we meet a man whose life seemed to reflect his home: the Gila Wilderness of southwestern New Mexico. “Nothing smooth or soft about this western range,” Coggeshall writes. “This country shaped him.”
To substantiate tales she heard about Hulse, Coggeshall interviewed more than 200 people and scoured archival sources. Neither shying away from his drinking binges nor indulging in sentimental fawning, she tells the story of a man who didn’t follow marked trails.

Hulse was born in 1926 to “clannish, defensive, tough” parents who’d exchanged marriage vows on horseback five years earlier, in New Mexico’s Catron County. They lived on Canyon Creek in the Gila Wilderness with no phone or electricity. Coggeshall states that when electricity was finally installed in the house, in 1993, the only thing 67-year-old Hulse wanted to plug in was an electric blanket.
At age 10, Hulse witnessed a point-blank shooting that was the culmination of a frontier feud. He served in the Navy in World War II. In the 1950s, Hulse’s cowboy good looks were authentic enough to get his face on a tourist postcard and a novelty New Mexico license plate.

Hulse patronized Silver City’s legally operated bordellos, but also dated on occasion, and could become “an instant Casanova,” though not always with success. One woman he courted got so angry with him on a date that she walked five miles home, alone, in the dark.

Storytelling came naturally to Hulse, as did his sense of humor. He liked to say he was glad he’d been born poor. “We ate a lot of squirrels. The young ones were easy. The old ones were tough—like taking a truck engine out and trying to fry it.”

A stroke finally ended Hulse’s drinking binges. Though Coggeshall didn’t witness any of his unchecked imbibing, she tells stories of some of his drunken escapades, including getting shot outside a bar near Silver City. As a friend said of Hulse after his death in 2002, “He was rough, but refined.”
For those who didn’t know Quentin Hulse, Coggeshall has brought a true Westerner back to life.

Tom Clagett, a member of the Western Writers of America, lives in Santa Fe..

[back to the top]

Book Briefs by Ashley M. Biggers

Art
Art Journey New Mexico: 104 Painters' Perspectives
Edited by Jill Johns & Stefanie Laufersweiler
North Light Books
224 pages, hardcover, $45

Compiled by the editors of The Collector’s Guide, an annual New Mexico guidebook for browsers and buyers of art, comes this compilation highlighting artists statewide. The 104 painters featured share their favorite pieces and, in brief interviews, their inspirations and techniques. In the book’s introduction, the editors note that “The art you will see in this book represents a diversity and range that reflects the astonishing variety of art and artists to be found here. The many Native American and Spanish Colonial traditions are rich and alive, continuing to evolve. Some follow the tenets of modernism, while others hang out on the bleeding edge.” Diversity indeed. From Navajo Tony Abeyta’s cubist-inspired oil painting to Corrales resident Kevin Tolman’s acrylic and mixed-media abstract, this collection runs the gamut. Like The Collector’s Guide, Art Journey New Mexico is a high-end art buyer’s trusty companion. But if these glorious paintings outpace your budget, you can easily afford to appreciate them through
the pages of this attractive book, a beautifully organized overview of
New Mexico’s contemporary painting scene. For info about
The Collector’s Guide: www.collectorsguide.com

[back to the top]

 

Children's
Blind Tom: The Horse Who Helped Build the Great Railroad
By Shirley Raye Redmond, Illustrated by Lois Bradley
Mountain Press
48 pages, paperback, $10

This informative, spirited book tells the story of the legendary Blind Tom, a sightless workhorse who pulled flatcars for crews during the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, in the 1860s. Children will learn, from Tom’s perspective, about the importance of rail travel and the difficulties of laying almost 2,000 miles of track in the mid–19th century. Despite the obstacles encountered by the crews, Tom’s determination and hard work help make the Union Pacific Railway a reality. Blind Tom will amuse animal lovers and history buffs of all ages. Author Shirley Raye Redmond lives in Los Alamos; illustrator Lois Bradley lives outside Albuquerque. Their book, a finalist for the 2009 New Mexico Book Awards, is recommended for children aged four and older.

[back to the top]

 

Fiction
Guitars and Adobes—and the Uncollected Stories of Fray Angélico Chávez
By Fray Angélico Chávez, Edited & Introduced by Ellen McCracken
Museum of New Mexico Press
292 pages, hardcover, $24.95

A member of the Santa Fe Writers Group of the 1920s, which included such luminaries as D. H. Lawrence, Fray Angélico Chávez (1910–1996) was a Franciscan priest, historian, and author. This collection features Chávez’s novel Guitars and Adobes, here published in its entirety for the first time (it was originally published as a serial in the St. Anthony Messenger, a national Franciscan magazine), along with 20 previously unpublished short stories. Guitars and Adobes provides an alternative view of the lands and era described in Willa Cather’s novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. Chávez’s and Cather’s styles are similarly lyrical, though Cather’s is more polished. In this intriguing novel, a cursed guitar passed among the locals causes those who play it, including the Archbishop, to die. With Chávez’s thoughtful observations and skilled writing, this collection of rarities has the potential to become a regional classic.

[back to the top]

 

Travel
Breakfast New Mexico Style: A Dining Guide to More than 100 Favorite, Fancy, Funky & Family Friendly Restaurants
By Valerie Nye & Kathy Barco
Sunstone Press
184 pages, paperback, $22.95

Many New Mexicans search out the most savory huevos rancheros or the spiciest chile—or both. The authors of Breakfast New Mexico Style are no exceptions. Santa Fe resident Valerie Nye and Los Alamos native Kathy Barco, both librarians, prowled the state from Aztec to Tucumcari, hunting down its best breakfast delights. A few of the more than 100 restaurants featured are mainstream—Albuquerque’s Satellite Coffee shops, for example—but most are homey favorites such as JoAnn’s Ranch O Casados Restaurant, in Española; Earl’s Restaurant, in Gallup; and the Manzanares Street Coffeehouse, in Socorro. Each lively entry provides a description of the restaurant, the authors’ favorite menu items, a suggested post-meal activity, and, in typical librarian style, recommended reading. Pick up this enjoyable, informative book before your next road trip—but be warned that it will have your mouth watering in no time. Breakfast New Mexico Style won the 2009 New Mexico Book Award for best travel guide.

 

[back to the top]