Desert Author Event MARSHAL SOUTH RIDES AGAIN: His Anza Borrego Novels

TUESDAY, OCT 29 @ 6:30 PM Palm Desert, CA Library
Come and enjoy an evening of desert literature and lore!

Join famed desert writer Marshal South's son, Rider; Sunbelt Books Publisher Diana Lindsay; and desert scholar/professor Ruth Nolan for an exciting literary event to celebrate the publication of two of desert author Marshal South's long-lost Western novels, Flame of Terrible Valley and Robbery Range, and interactive discussion/Q&A with the audience about these two new books and Rider South's years growing up on remote Ghost Mountain in California's Anza Borrego Desert.

Palm Desert Library Community Room

73-300 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert CA 92260

Contact: Ruth Nolan, Professor at College of the Desert

runolan@aol.com (760) 964-9767

ABOUT RIDER SOUTH & HIS FATHER'S GHOST MOUNTAIN EXPERIMENT.....
65 years ago, Rider South came down from Anza-Borrego’s Ghost Mountain as a young teenager, and his life changed dramatically. Rider and his younger brother and sister had been part of their parents’ experiment in primitive living that was chronicled as a monthly-running series by Marshal South in the pages of the highly popular and legendary "Desert Magazine" for nine consecutive years, from 1939 until 1948.

The South Family poses for a photo in 1946 at Ghost Mountain. Left to right: Marshall; Rudyard; Victoria; Tanya and Rider. Photo Courtesy of Rider South

Today, only the ruins of Yaquitepec remain, slowly melting back into the desert. Visitors to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park climb the mile-long trail to the top that had once been the South homestead and wonder how a family could possibly survive there. The Souths did, for almost 17 years, building their home by hand, hauling water and what they needed to the top, and then raising a family. They had a large following in the readers of "Desert Magazine," published by Randall Henderson out of his Palm Desert offices, who anxiously awaited for their next issue to see how the family was faring in their back-to-nature experiment. The children and their education were commonly the focus of the articles.

Rider South Re-Visits Ghost Mountain Today.....photo courtesy Rider South

Rider has vivid memories of his early life on Ghost Mountain. He was aware that his father’s writings and artistic creations were sources of income for the family and helped to provide some of the necessities they needed to survive on that waterless mountaintop. Rider loved his father and mother, and it was difficult for him when the family separated. As the years have passed, Rider readily recalls his father as a talented poet, writer, and artist, and he believes that his father was harshly judged and not appreciated for his many talents.

Today, Marshal South is hardly remembered as a very talented writer of western fiction. It is Rider’s hope that with the publication of Marshal South Rides Again: His Anza-Borrego Novels that a new generation discovers Marshal separated from the sensationalism of his life choices.