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Mary Hunter Austin - novelist, poet, critic, playwright, feminist - was born in Illinois in 1868. In 1888, she
accompanied her parents when they relocated to California's San Joaquin Valley. Three years later, she married
Stafford Wallace Austin and the couple moved to Independence where they designed the house that is now a
California Historical Landmark.
After the people of Owens Valley lost the battle to prevent Los Angeles from diverting the Owens River
to support the orange groves and suburbs of the Southland, Stafford moved to Death Valley and Mary moved to Carmel
where her friends included Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, and George Sterling.
She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1934.
Her best known work is The Land of Little Rain, a collection of essays about the Southwest. A 1950
edition was illustrated with photographs by Ansel Adams.
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