Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture
Focusing on the people who occupied the house of Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, New Mexico, Rudnick follows up her biography of Luhan (Mable Dodge Luhan, Univ. of New Mexico, 1987) with a flawed study of Luhan's impact on America's 20th-century counterculture movement, particularly in and around Taos. Because she catalogs the offbeat writers, painters, and others who visited Luhan, recording their impressions of her instead of addressing Luhan herself, Rudnick fails to provide a clear understanding of her role in the movement. The strongest features of this work are the numerous halftones and illustrations, which portray life in Taos, and the discussion of actor and director Dennis Hopper, who occupied the house in the 1960s. Hopper's role in America's counterculture is clearly delineated. For informed lay readers and specialists in the area.?Richard P. Hedlund, Ashland Community Coll., Ky.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.