Mary Austin graduated from Blackburn College in 1888 and moved to California. Her family established a homestead in the San Joaquin Valley. She was a prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights. Austin and her husband were involved in the local California Water Wars, after which the water of Owens Valley eventually was drained to supply Los Angeles. When their battle was lost, they moved to Death Valley, California. For 17 years, Austin made a special study of the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Mojave Desert. Mount Mary Austin, in the Sierra Nevada, was named in her honor. It is located 8.5 miles west of her longtime home in Independence, California. Mary Austin is best known for The Land of Little Rain (1903), her tribute to the deserts of California.
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