Books published by Sunstone Press

"Having written about New Mexico history for more than forty years," explains the author, "it was perhaps inevitable that in time I should publish a few articles on Billy the Kid. After all, he is the one figure from this state''s past whose name is known around the world. The Kid''s career, although astonishingly short, nonetheless, left an indelible mark in the annals of the Old West. And his name, William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, seems locked forever into the consciousness of the starry-eyed public. "Upon request," the author continues, "I was able to assemble a collection of my varied writings pertaining to some of Billy''s real or imagined deeds. Each section opens a small window on an aspect of his tumultuous life, or casts light upon others whose fortunes intersected with his. In this book, I have stalked Billy in an erratic rather than a systematic way, taking pleasure merely in adding a few new and unusual fragments to his biography. I trust that readers who have a fascination with the history and legend of Billy the Kid will find in these pages something of interest and value. As Eugene Cunningham wrote more than seventy years ago, ''in our imagination the Kid still lives--the Kid still rides.''" Marc Simmons is a professional author and historian who has published more than forty books on New Mexico and the American Southwest. His popular "Trail Dust" column is syndicated in several regional newspapers. In 1993, King Juan Carlos of Spain admitted him to the knightly Order of Isabel la Cat├│lica for his contributions to Spanish colonial history.

Miguel Antonio Otero served as the first Hispanic governor of the U.S. Territory of New Mexico, from 1897 to 1906. He was appointed to the office by President William McKinley. Long after his retirement from politics, Governor Otero wrote and published his memoirs in three volumes, a major contribution to New Mexico history. But he also published a biography in 1936 titled "e;The Real Billy the Kid."e; His aim in that book, he proclaimed, was to write the Kid's story "e;without embellishment, based entirely on actual fact."e; Otero had known the outlaw briefly and also had known the man who killed Billy in 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett. The author recalled Garrett saying he regretted having to slay Billy. Or, as he bluntly put it, "e;it was simply the case of who got in the first shot. I happened to be the lucky one."e; By all accounts, Billy the Kid was much adored by New Mexico's Hispanic population. Otero asserts that the Kid was considerate of the old, the young and the poor. And he was loyal to his friends. Further, Martin Chaves of Santa Fe stated: "e;Billy was a perfect gentleman with a noble heart. He never killed a native citizen of New Mexico in all his career, and he had plenty of courage."e; Otero was especially admiring of Billy because as a boy in Silver City, "e;he had loved his mother devotedly."e; Such praise must be viewed in the context of the times. Other people, of course, saw Billy as an arch-villain. MIGUEL ANTONIO OTERO rightly distinguished himself as a political leader in New Mexico where he raised a family and lived out his life as a champion of the people, but he is also highly recognized for his career as an author. He published his legendary "e;My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882"e; in 1935, followed by "e;The Real Billy the Kid: With New Light on the Lincoln County War"e; in 1936, "e;My Life on the Frontier, 1882-1897"e; in 1939, and "e;My Nine Years as Governor of New Mexico Territory, 1897-1906"e; in 1940.

By the early 1970s, an active bohemian colony had developed in Santa Fe and it became a cultural boom town. The number of art galleries went from two to a hundred. Besides the Santa Fe Opera, there came into being endless festivals: for art, music, literature, theater, movies, fashion, and the crafts of Indians and Spanish Americans. The city''s complex heritage of three interlocked cultures became "Santa Fe Style." But the fifteen years between 1964 and 1980 held a special magic. And Eli Levin experienced it all: the fading generation of older artists and the newly arriving younger generation; wild night life at Claude''s Bar; artist''s battles with conservative arts organizations; questionable successes and tragic failure of careers; exemplary examples of lifetime dedication; and a number of suppressed scandals, one even involving possible murders. Packed with amusing anecdotes about the various artists with whom Levin painted, plotted and partied, this vivid memoir testifies to the exciting rebirth and burgeoning growth of one of this country''s most well known art colonies. Eli Levin, the son of novelist Meyer Levin, is known for his paintings of Santa Fe night life. He has run art galleries, written art reviews and taught art history. He hosts two artist''s gatherings, a drawing group since 1969 and the Santa Fe Etching Club since 1980. Levin studied painting with Raphael Soyer, George Grosz and Robert Beverly Hale, among others, and has Master''s degrees from Wisconsin University and St. John''s College.

By the early 1970s, an active bohemian colony had developed in Santa Fe and it became a cultural boom town. The number of art galleries went from two to a hundred. Besides the Santa Fe Opera, there came into being endless festivals: for art, music, literature, theater, movies, fashion, and the crafts of Indians and Spanish Americans. The city''s complex heritage of three interlocked cultures became "Santa Fe Style." But the fifteen years between 1964 and 1980 held a special magic. And Eli Levin experienced it all: the fading generation of older artists and the newly arriving younger generation; wild night life at Claude''s Bar; artist''s battles with conservative arts organizations; questionable successes and tragic failure of careers; exemplary examples of lifetime dedication; and a number of suppressed scandals, one even involving possible murders. Packed with amusing anecdotes about the various artists with whom Levin painted, plotted and partied, this vivid memoir testifies to the exciting rebirth and burgeoning growth of one of this country''s most well known art colonies. Eli Levin, the son of novelist Meyer Levin, is known for his paintings of Santa Fe night life. He has run art galleries, written art reviews and taught art history. He hosts two artist''s gatherings, a drawing group since 1969 and the Santa Fe Etching Club since 1980. Levin studied painting with Raphael Soyer, George Grosz and Robert Beverly Hale, among others, and has Master''s degrees from Wisconsin University and St. John''s College.

When Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett ended Billy the Kid''s life on the night of July 14, 1881 with a shot in the dark, he was catapulted at once into stardom in the annals of Western history. The killing occurred at old Fort Sumner, New Mexico on the Pecos River. Garrett by pure chance had encountered the Kid in a darkened room of the Pete Maxwell house. As the unsuspecting Billy entered, he was cut down without warning. But the Kid had his share of friends and many of them stepped forward to level some harsh criticism against the lawman. It soon became clear that while Pat Garrett was an instant celebrity, he had also come away, at least in some quarters, with a negative image. To address that problem, he began thinking about a book to give the public his side of the story. The editor of the "Santa Fe New Mexican," Charles Greene, offered to publish a Garrett volume if the sheriff could find someone to ghost write it for him. Pat enlisted his good friend Marshall Ashmun (Ash) Upson, a journalist, to do the job. Upson cranked out a manuscript and it was published in 1882 under the title "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid." Sunstone''s edition is a facsimile of the 1927 edition. Before that fateful night in 1881, there was not much in Pat Garrett''s career to suggest he was headed for a place in the history books. Alabama-born in 1850, he worked as a cowboy and buffalo hunter in Texas. By 1878 he had drifted to the Pecos in eastern New Mexico. Perhaps craving excitement, Pat Garrett ran for sheriff of wild Lincoln County in the fall of 1880. He was elected. Winning the office put him on a collision course with the outlaw Billy and the incident that catapulted the Kid into literary immortality.

Pinto Goodluck, a little Indian boy, lived with his mother, his grandfather and his burro, Ambrosio. His grandfather made beautiful jewelry from silver and turquoise. He traded it with other Indians for corn and bread and vegetables. Sometimes he sold it to the tourists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and bought sugar and salt and coffee. Then the Great War came and all the young men went away and the turquoise mines were closed. Grandfather knew of a secret mine but it was a long way off and the journey was full of danger. Grandfather was too old to go. There were steep mountains to climb and wild arroyos to cross. There were all sorts of fierce animals, mountain lion and bears and buzzards. Pinto was afraid of all these things, but he was a very brave little boy. He decided he would try to find the secret mine himself. One night when his mother and grandfather and everyone in the village was asleep, he took some pi├▒on nuts, three cold biscuits, a blanket and his bow and arrow and he and Ambrosio set out on the dangerous journey. How Pinto found the secret mine and brought home the turquoise is an absorbing adventure story for young readers.

Four hundred years ago, the pioneer men and women who first came to New Mexico were forced to make their life compatible with the earth and with their isolation. The beauty that surrounded them did not sustain them, but out of reverence for the land, there appeared the chosen ones--the "curanderos" who understood the medicinal uses of herbs; the "veijitos," the old men who made folklore, history and tradition and recounted it to the younger generations. And from this same tradition came the Patrón, a man who had the ability to channel ambition and determination, and to make the land and its people yield to the law of common interest. He was a protector, a watcher of signs; he was a code maker, a fashioner of a way of life that is sadly missing in today''s world. He was called the Patrón by those whom he loved and who returned that love with work, faith and personal devotion. They called him the Patrón, but they might just as well have called him the Godfather. José Ortiz y Pino has portrayed New Mexico, its characters and traditions with a sagacious wit and poignant keenness that could only have emanated from one who grew up in its midst. And he has narrated for us the story of a man whose visions had no limits, a man whose dedication to his goal was matched only by his sense of justice and compassion for all men--Don José Ortiz, The Last Patrón.

Oliver La Farge covers many aspects of everyday life in these sixteen stories, which range from an old man facing death alone in the Mexican bush to some boys facing the responsibilities of life at St. Peter''s school; from the science fiction world of computing machines to the world of gourmets; and from the violent death of a man off the Rhode Island coast to the quiet death of a marriage in New Mexico. The variety of stories in this wide-ranging collection are sure to fit the taste and mood and any reader interested in the human condition through the clear grace of La Farge''s timeless writing.

Half-breed Cherokee warrior Tse-quo-ni fears no man. But his greatest frustration comes from his inability to win the war raging within himself. The source of his inner hell is the uninvited influence of the white man.He hates the white blood racing unwanted through his veins. He hates Franklin Adair, the white man he thought was his father. He hates Matthew McCloud, the white man his mother reveals to be his father just before her death. He hates the deceitfulness of all whites. He hates what has happened to the once proud Cherokee nation because of their rush to live like white people.During the time of the removal of the great Cherokee nation from North Georgia and the Carolinas, he slips away and journeys West to keep the promise he made to himself the moment he learned about Matthew McCloud. The journey is a daily struggle in the war within Tse-quo-ni. This chronicle of the journey reveals each skirmish, assault, retreat, wound, and battle and the eventual resolution that surprises even this fearless warrior. TOM V. WHATLEY lives in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and is the author of four Western novels. "Cuts No Slack," "He Ain''t Dead," "Ghost Runner," and "Twice As Good." He is also the author of a suspense novel, "The Gatekeeper." All were published by Sunstone Press.

The year was 1909, and a youthful Jesse Nusbaum had resigned his teaching position at the Normal School at Las Vegas, New Mexico, and had ridden his "e;...four-horse-power, twin-cylinder, chain-belt-driven, two-speed Excelsior motorcycle over the rough and rocky Santa Fe Trail route, to enter on July 1 at the Old Palace of the Governors."e; He was the first employee of the newly-formed Museum of New Mexico and School of American Archaeology. From that day, Jesse Nusbaum's life was inextricably bound to Santa Fe: it was he who undertook the remodeling of the Palace of the Governors into a museum; from 1909-1913, it was he who supervised the razing of the old Army barracks at the corner of Palace and Lincoln Avenue I 1916 and also supervised the construction of the Fine Arts Museum on that site; and he was one of the organizers of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Inc., and was its first director when the doors opened in 1930. Additionally, Jesse was one of the foremost Southwestern archeologists, and he was a first-rank photographer, as many of the illustrations in this volume (although reproduced here from less than excellent sources) will attest. For all his other accomplishments, however, Jesse Nusbaum is most closely associated with the Palace of the Governors. In this book, dedicated in memory of her husband, Rosemary Nusbaum has delineated the history of the "e;Old Palace."e; Much has been written elsewhere about that historic structure, but only in this volume can the insight and experiences of Jesse Nusbaum be found. ROSEMARY L. NUSBAUM was born in Marquette, Michigan and graduated from the Baraga High School in that city. In 1929, she received the R.N. degree from the University Hospital in Chicago, Illinois and then worked as a Medical Pathologist for the Eight Corps Area of the Army stationed at Bruns General Hospital in Santa Fe in World War II. She studied sculpture with Eugenie Shonnard and ceramics with Warren Gilbertson in Santa Fe. She was also the author of numerous short stories and poems which appeared in many well-known publications. Ernest Thompson Seton said of her: "e;She possesses the virtue of intelligence."e;

As both a producer and director, Merrill Brockway pioneered dance on television on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, "e;Dance in America."e; Through this series and CBS' "e;Camera 3,"e; Brockway brought the performing arts to the "e;vast wasteland"e; of television in its early years. Working with the greatest artists of the day, including Pierre Boulez, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Eugene Ormandy, Stella Adler, Agnes de Mille, Ruby Dee, Merce Cunningham and others, Mr. Brockway brought high art into the homes of the average American.

This collection of short stories and prose chronicles events observed by the author during her lifetime in Northern New Mexico. Family, relatives, friends and strangers (real or imaginary) are caught off guard in everyday occurrences that evoke laughter, tears, or memories of the past. The names have, of course, been changed, and much embellishment has been added to stories which may or may not be true. Stories of innocence, family dynamics, relationships and injustice combine to bring a tongue in cheek narrative to the reader. The author adds: "e;My inner barrio is full of observations, whether from the neighborhood where I grew up in Santa Fe or from watching ordinary people interact with each other. I try to see the humor in whatever life throws at us and hope some of these stories will bring a chuckle or a hearty laugh to anyone willing to let their guard down as they read on."e; Born in Santa Fe, MARIE ROMERO CASH is an award-winning folk artist/santera who has been exhibiting her colorful works for over thirty years. She is also a writer, having authored several books on Northern New Mexican culture, shrines, saints and churches including: BUILT OF EARTH AND SONG: A GUIDEBOOK TO NORTHERN NEW MEXICO'S VILLAGE CHURCHES; LIVING SHRINES: DEVOTIONAL SPACES IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO HOMES; SANTOS, A COLORING BOOK OF NEW MEXICO SAINTS (also from Sunstone Press); and her memoir about growing up in Santa Fe, TORTILLA CHRONICLES.