The White Heart of Mojave

Edna Brush Perkins (1880 - 1930)

"The White Heart of the Mojave" recounts a 1920's adventure "in the wind and sun and big spaces" of Death Valley by two independent minded women, Edna Brush Perkins and Charlotte Hannahs Jordan. Both women were early feminists, Edna as chairwoman of the greater Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party (1916-18). At the end of the Great War, the two friends wanted nothing more than to escape "to the solitariness of some wild and lonely place far from city halls, smokestacks, national organizations, and streets of little houses all alike." Their vacation started as a long motor drive through the backwoods of California (Charlotte's husband, Ned, owned the Jordan Motor Car Company). It ended with a month long trek through Death Valley in an old milk wagon drawn by a horse and a mule. Edna's descriptions of the desert are superb and from the heart--the dunes "were very beautiful, with knife-edged tops ridged in pure, clean lines from which fringes of fine sand blew up like the wind tossed manes of white horses." This is a great listen for anyone who likes first-hand accounts of adventure in the Great Outdoors. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Genre(s): Travel & Geography

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 01 - The Feel of the Outdoors; How We Found Mojave Sue Anderson
00:29:00
Play 02 02 - How We Found Mojave, Part 2 Sue Anderson
00:27:42
Play 03 03 - The White Heart Sue Anderson
00:26:07
Play 04 04 - The Outfit Sue Anderson
00:20:35
Play 05 05 - Entering Death Valley Sue Anderson
00:32:43
Play 06 06 - The Strangest Farm in the World Sue Anderson
00:21:28
Play 07 07 - The Burning Sands Sue Anderson
00:16:46
Play 08 08 - The Dry Camp; The Mountain Spring Sue Anderson
00:23:16
Play 09 09 - The Mountain Spring, Part 2 Sue Anderson
00:26:52
Play 10 10 - The High White Peaks Sue Anderson
00:20:17
Play 11 11 - Snowstorm and Sandstorm Sue Anderson
00:21:16
Play 12 12 - Snowstorm and Sandstorm, Part 2; The End of the Adventure Sue Anderson
00:18:10