Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women in the American Southwest

The WILLA Literary Award, 2016, the Reading the West Book Award for Nonfiction, MPIBA, and the Silver Medal, US History, 2016 IPPY Awards all recognized the remarkable true story of Ladies of the Canyons. This book follows the journeys of a group of educated, restless, and inquisitive women - Natalie Curtis, Carol Stanley, Alice Klauber, and Mary Cabot Wheelwright - who left the comforts of Victorian society to explore the American Southwest in search of a wider view of themselves and their world.

As part of an influential circle of women that included Louisa Wade Wetherill, Alice Corbin Henderson, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Mary Austin, and Willa Cather, these ladies imagined and created a new home territory, a new society, and a new identity for themselves and for the women who would follow them. Their story is one of New Women stepping boldly into the New World, experiencing both inconspicuous success and ambitious failure, as well as the personal challenges faced by women and men during the emergence of the Modern Age.

The author, Lesley Poling-Kempes, has been praised for her command of social history, cultural anthropology, and prehistorical archaeology, which is evident throughout the volume. The Canadian Journal of Archaeology noted that the lives depicted in "Ladies of the Canyons" serve as "yet another narrative of lives well lived and a reminder that no person is an island."

The Journal of Arizona History commended Poling-Kempes' skills as an experienced writer of both history and fiction, stating that she "deftly weaves a clear and engaging narrative from what could have become an overwhelming barrage of people, places, and events." The New Mexico Historical Review recognized the book as filling "an important niche in the history of the Southwest," while the Western Historical Quarterly likened the members of the "league of extraordinary women" to the members of television's A-Team, coming together in the Southwest for their maverick adventures.

The Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist status further underscores the significance and impact of this work, which delves into the lives of these remarkable women who left the security and comforts of Victorian society to forge new paths and identities in the American Southwest.

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