click graphic to enlarge

The Old Ones of New Mexico ____________________________________________ by Robert Coles photographs by Alex Harris with a new introduction

"These 'old ones,' these wonderfully expressive storytellers, these wonderfully and deeply introspective individuals (who are fulfilling their human destiny by contemplating things, asking themselves about what truly matters, and why), can be of assistance to those studying literature, philosophy, religion. Here, after all, are twentieth century Americans who knew in their bones how to embrace narratives, their very own, and who also knew how to describe the world and take its measure. For those who teach about the mind, for those who encourage in their teaching an effort to learn about the world, these 'old ones of New Mexico' await attention, respectful regard; they link arms with us, tell us and teach us, and as one of our greatest novelists, Walker Percy, puts it in his novel The Moviegoer, they 'hand us along'—the heart and soul of our being thereby strengthened, enabled."
—From the new introduction by Robert Coles

"Superbly presented. As a collective portrait this book allows its subjects to reveal themselves with a directness and immediacy that renders social analysis of their situation almost superfluous."
— The New Republic

"An eloquent picture of the hard but productive and fulfilling lives of these rural people. Coles and photographer Alex Harris were able to break through the reticence of these people and have captured the essence of their lives."
— San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle

Robert Coles is Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities and James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University. He is editor of Doubletake magazine, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for Children of Crisis.

paper / 100 pages/ 40 photographs / 8.5 x 10" / $29.95

Author Bio / Purchase