Reviewed by:

• Women in the Writings of Mari Sandoz ed. by Renée M. Laegreid and Shannon D. Smith
• Nicole Gray

If ever there was a time to acquaint or reacquaint yourself with the writings of Mari Sandoz, this is it. Fortunately, the first volume of a new Sandoz Studies series has recently been published. Edited and with an introduction by Renée M. Laegreid and Shannon D. Smith, the collection draws together critical essays, photographs, and short or excerpted writings by Sandoz herself under the topic and title Women in the Writings of Mari Sandoz. John Wunder's foreword notes that the series was meant in part to be a publication outlet for papers related to the activities of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, and several of the essays included in this volume emerged from presentations given at Society meetings. Members of the Society will doubtless be delighted at the success of this first production, but the content of the collection is likely to appeal to anyone interested in Sandoz or topics in western American literature.

Some of the collection's most compelling essays are by the editors themselves. Laegreid's opening piece, whose title, "These Were the Sandhills Women," is a spin on Sandoz's own These Were the Sioux, provides a historical overview of Anglo European women in the settlement and mythos of the Sandhills region. Smith's essay, a companion piece to an excerpt from "What the Sioux Taught Me," situates Sandoz's work within the historiography of Native American studies. Both make clear the ways in which Sandoz was ahead of her time in transcending common stereotypes of women in the West and of Native American culture and history. The collection also includes one of Sandoz's earliest published works, a story titled "The Vine." Following and reflecting on this story is an essay [End Page 396] by Lisa Pollard on the kinds of gendered pressure—metaphorical and actual—exerted by drought. An excerpt from Sandoz's Slogum House is paired with a republished Great Plains Quarterly essay by Glenda Riley exploring Sandoz's decision to cast her "will-to-power individual" in that novel as a woman, the vicious and despicable Gulla Slogum (70). An essay by Jillian Wenburg on how Sandoz's female characters fit into or challenge gender binaries and expectations concludes the volume.

Multiple contributors note that Sandoz did not embrace feminism, and the collection does not go out of its way to engage more recent deconstructions of gender identity or explorations of sexuality. Instead the focus is on Sandoz's defiance of the common tropes of her time and her insistence on creating distinct, complex, and often difficult female characters. The selections show the breadth of her depictions, from the homesick Meda ("The Vine") to Gulla and her noble daughter Libby to Sandoz's own encounters with Native American women as she was growing up. These characters and figures respond to the landscape and challenges of the Plains in diverse ways, and the accompanying essays help readers place them in biographical, historical, and historiographical contexts. Several essays feature excerpts from Sandoz's letters that disclose her wit and personality as well as her battles with publishers and, occasionally, readers.

One of the collection's many likable features is its structure. Reproductions of photographs of Sandoz and other Sandhills figures and scenes add engaging breaks between the chapters. Captions connect the images to Sandoz, to the Sandhills, or to the essays that follow. The pairing of Sandoz pieces with critical essays makes the book feel like a dialogue, allowing readers to evaluate the virtues and shortcomings of the essays with direct reference to primary sources. The fine precision of Sandoz's descriptions of people, weather, and landscape combine with the historical and literary analyses and the photographs to create an animated, three-dimensional sense of the Sandhills region. The collection is about women in the writings of Sandoz, but ultimately its most captivating picture is of Sandoz herself, one of the most...

审核人：

• Mari Sandoz著作中的妇女。RenéeM.Laegreid和Shannon D.Smith撰写
• 妮可·格雷（Nicole Gray）

如果有时间熟悉或重新认识Mari Sandoz的著作，就是这样。幸运的是，最近出版了新的《山德士研究》系列的第一卷。该系列由RenéeM. Laegreid和Shannon D.Smith编辑并作了介绍，汇集了Sandoz自己的重要论文，照片和短文摘录或摘录，主题和标题是《 Mari Sandoz著作中的女人》。。约翰·温德（John Wunder）的序言指出，该系列的部分目的是成为与Mari Sandoz遗产协会的活动有关的论文的出版物，并且该卷中包含的几篇论文来自协会会议上的演讲。该协会的成员无疑会对首批作品的成功感到高兴，但该收藏的内容很可能会吸引对Sandoz或美国西部文学主题感兴趣的任何人。

该系列中一些最引人注目的论文是由编辑本人自己撰写的。Laegreid的开篇曲的标题是“这些是Sandhills妇女”，是Sandoz自己的《 The Were the Sioux》的衍生版本，提供了对Sandhills地区定居点和神话中的英裔欧洲妇女的历史概述。史密斯（Smith）的文章是“苏S教给我的内容”摘录中的一小部分，该书将桑多斯（Sandoz）的工作置于美国原住民研究史上。两者都清楚地表明了桑多兹超越西方女性和美国原住民文化与历史的共同定型观念的领先方式。该收藏还包括Sandoz最早出版的作品之一，一个名为“ The Vine”的故事。由丽莎·波拉德（Lisa Pollard）谈及干旱带来的种种性别压力（隐喻性和现实性）。桑多斯（Sandoz）的《口号之家》（Slogum House）的摘录与格伦达·赖利（Glenda Riley）重版的《大平原季刊》（Great Plains Quarterly）配搭，探讨了桑多斯决定在那本小说中将她的“意志力强的人”扮演女性，这是恶毒而卑鄙的古拉·口号（Gulla Slogum）（70）。吉利安·温伯格（Jillian Wenburg）撰写的一篇有关桑多斯（Sandoz）女性角色如何适应或挑战性别二元和期望的论文总结了这一观点。

多位撰稿人指出，桑多兹（Sandoz）不拥护女权主义，并且该系列并没有竭尽全力地参与到最近对性别认同的解构或对性的探索中。相反，重点在于桑多斯（Sandoz）对她所处时代的常见偏见的蔑视，以及她坚持创造独特，复杂且通常是困难的女性角色。这些选择展示了她描绘的广度，从思乡病的Meda（《葡萄树》）到古拉（Gulla）和她的贵族女儿利比（Libby），再到桑多斯在成长过程中与美国原住民妇女的相遇。这些人物和人物以多种方式回应了平原的景观和挑战，随附的文章帮助读者将其置于传记，历史和史学的语境中。几篇文章摘录自桑德兹（Sandoz）的摘录

该系列的许多可爱功能之一是其结构。Sandoz和其他Sandhills人物和场景的照片复制品在各章之间增加了引人入胜的间断。字幕将图像连接到Sandoz，Sandhills或随后的论文。Sandoz文章与批评性文章的搭配使这本书像对话一样，使读者可以直接参考主要文献来评估文章的优点和缺点。桑多斯（Sandoz）对人，天气和风景的描述具有极高的精确度，结合历史和文学分析以及照片，为桑德希尔斯地区营造了生动的三维感。该系列以桑多斯（Sandoz）的作品中的女性为主题，但最终最吸引人的照片是桑多斯（Sandoz）本人，她是最著名的人物之一。