The White Heart of Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors of the Desert

“The outdoors is the awe-full magnificent universe moving along inexpressibly fearful and beautiful!” Edna Brush Perkins set out in 1920 with her friend Charlotte Hannahs Jordan to journey into the Mojave both women seeking to escape civilization. The Mojave at that time was considered to be a desolate inaccessible region - part of the fading American frontier. The author wrote this travel memoir about her grand escape from civilization with her best friend. They were joined by a mule a horse a wagon and a wise guide who they called the ‘Worrier.’ That they did this two-week trek in Death Valley in the 1920’s with these sparse provisions was astounding. And Perkins’ descriptions of that place are among the best nature writing.