Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Eugene Manlove Rhodes (January 19, 1869 – June 27, 1934) was an American writer, nicknamed the "cowboy chronicler". He lived in south central New Mexico when the first cattle ranching and cowboys arrived in the area; when he moved to New York with his wife in 1899, he wrote stories of the American West that set the image of cowboy life in that era. He moved back to New Mexico in 1926 and continued to write novels. In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[1]
Eugene Manlove Rhodes | |
|---|---|
 Rhodes, Jim Tully, and Rupert Hughes in 1922 | |
| Born | January 19, 1869 Tecumseh, Nebraska |
| Died | June 27, 1934 (aged 65) Pacific Beach, California |
| Resting place | New Mexico |
| Occupation | Writer of the American West |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | University of the Pacific |
| Period | 1910–1934 |
| Genre | Western fiction, short stories and novels |
| Subject | The American West |
| Notable works | Short story Pasó Por Aquí Novel Good men and true |
| Years active | 1881–1934 |
| Spouse | May Louise Davison Purple (1899 to his death) |
Biography
Rhodes was born in Tecumseh, Nebraska, to Hinman Rhodes and Julia Manlove who were wed March 5, 1868 at Rushville in Schuyler County, Illinois.[2] He moved to New Mexico with his parents in 1881 and "fell in love" with the state. By age sixteen, he was an accomplished horseman and stonemason and road builder. He helped build the road from Engle, New Mexico, to Tularosa, New Mexico.[3]
Rhodes was an avid reader, and he was mostly self-educated in his youth. In 1888, he studied two years at the University of the Pacific in California. He began publishing anonymous works in the college newspaper. In 1890, he was unable to continue his studies due to financial problems.[3]
His first non-anonymous work was the poem "Charlie Graham".
In 1899, Rhodes married May Louise Davison Purple (1871-1957), a widow with 2 sons. He spent the next two decades away from New Mexico at her home in Apalachin, New York. He published seven novels during this time. He and his wife returned to New Mexico in 1926.
Despite his literary success, he was not financially successful. They spent less than a year living in Santa Fe. After that they lived in Alamogordo. When they could no longer afford rent there, Albert Bacon Fall gave them a house at White Mountain near Three Rivers, New Mexico.[3]
Most of his works were published in newspapers and magazines before they were published individually, including Land of Sunshine, Out West, McClure's, Redbook, Sunset, and Cosmopolitan, and much of his fiction was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post prior to being published as a book.[3] Rhodes published ten books between 1910 and 1935.[3]
Land of enchantment
Rhodes is credited with inventing the phrase 'Land of Enchantment' to describe New Mexico. In 1911, he published A Number of Things, a story in which he described the Socorro area in 1900 as “A land of mighty mountains, far seen, gloriously tinted, misty opal, blue and amethyst; a land of enchantment and mystery. Those same opalescent hills, seen closer, are decked with barbaric colors—reds, yellows or pinks, brown or green or gray; but, from afar, shapes and colors ebb and flow, altered daily, hourly, by subtle sorcery of atmosphere, distance and angle; deepening, fading combining into new and fantastic forms and hues—to melt again as swiftly into others yet more bewildering.”[4]
He also used the phrase in the 1914 novelette Bransford In Arcadia, and it was later made the official state nickname of New Mexico.[4] In 1937 the New Mexico Tourist Bureau published a sixteen-page pamphlet Welcome to the Land of Enchantment. The nickname also appeared on a road map that year. It had appeared earlier on Lilian Whiting's The Land of Enchantment: From Pike's Peak to the Pacific, published 1906, a dedication to Major John Wesley Powell, “the great explorer.”[4]
Papers
Alamogordo Public Library holds a collection of books, correspondence, clippings, magazines, and original manuscripts related to Rhodes. The library's Eugene Manlove Rhodes Room houses this collection and the library's other Southwest books.
Death
In 1930, Rhodes's poor health forced the couple to move to Pacific Beach, California. He died on June 27, 1934. Per his request, he was buried in the San Andres Mountains.[3]
His wife lived to 1957. His wife is buried in the Riverside Cemetery at Apalachin.[5][6][7]
Books
- Good men and true. Illustrations by H. T. Dunn, 1910
- Bransford in Arcadia 1914
- Desire of the Moth and The Come On, illustrations by H.T. Dunn, 1916
- West is West, 1917
- Stepsons of light, 1921
- Say now shibboleth, 1921
- Copper Streak Trail 1922
- Once in the saddle, and Pasó por aquí, 1927
- Trusty knaves, 1933
- Penalosa, 1934
- Beyond the desert, 1934
- The Proud Sheriff, 1935
- Little World Waddies, 1946
- Best novels and stories; edited by Frank V. Dearing. Introduction by J. Frank Dobie, 1949
- Sunset Land, 1955
- Bar Cross man; the life & personal writings of Eugene Manlove Rhodes [by] W.H. Hutchinson. 1956
- Rhodes reader; stories of virgins, villains, and varmints. Selected by W. H. Hutchinson, 1957
- Recognition: the poems of Eugene Manlove Rhodes / illustrated by Martha Julian, 1997
References
- "Hall of Great Westerners". National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- "Illinois Statewide Marriage Index to 1900". Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- "Inventory of the Eugene Manlove Rhodes Collection, 1916-1972 (bulk 1930)". Rocky Mountain Online Archive. University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research. 2000. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
- Folklife Annual, American Folklife Center. Library of Congress. 1988. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8444-0638-1. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- "Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)" (Searchable database). New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- Bowman, Travis (March 2013). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Riverside Cemetery" (PDF). Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- "Accompanying photographs". Retrieved November 1, 2015.
