BOOKS

BOOKSHELF BY BUDGE RUFFNER SAVORING THE SOUTHWEST. By

Roswell Symphony Guild Members. Roswell Symphony Guild Publica tions, P.O. Box 3078, Roswell, New Mexico 88201. 1984. 329 pages. $15.95, hardcover, plus $1.75 post age and handling. A well-known newspaper colum nist once said that if he wanted to write a popular column he would write about a dog, a doctor, or Abra ham Lincoln. His magnum opus he hoped to produce some day would be a column about Abraham Lin coln's doctor's dog. Savoring the Southwest, the superb cookbook compiled by the Roswell Symphony Guild, very nearly matches that de gree of general interest.

This is far more than a cookbook. Besides creative recipes that focus on the Southwest, it also includes numerous others, rooted in distant lands and cultures. Interspersed in the pages of this well-bound book are 14 full-color reproductions of paintings by such prestigious artists as Peter Hurd, Sidney Redfield, and Henriette Wyeth.

Nor is regional and social history ignored. Throughout the book, excerpts from Roswell newspapers, published from 1896 through 1915, tell of the mores, humor, love, and tragedies of the time.

Roswell's proud son and Pulitzer Prize winner, Paul Horgan, sets the tone of the publication and the character of the land it came from in his introduction. Horgan's dramatic description of the Southwest, arid and awesome, is as vivid and broad as the country he chronicles.

Savoring the Southwest was produced and published as a fund-raising effort of the Roswell Symphony Guild. The fact that Roswell, a community of some 40,000 people, has had a symphony orchestra for twenty-five years certainly says something about the city. Ros well is a culturally freestanding com munity not beholden to, nor depen dent upon, distant neighbors to supply it with artistic inventory. The values of the people of Roswell and their regard for excellence are reflec ted in this publication.

The book contains more than 500 recipes and is logically arranged into major sections. The first fifty-eight pages deal with what could best be characterized as Southwestern or Mexican cuisine. Here, the best of the borderlands is included, and while such old faithfuls as posole and green chile stew are featured, new and exotic offerings will tempt the more adventurous. The section opens with several helpful hints on chile preparation and serving and also includes a gringo glossary for those who have just begun the taco trek and don't know their albondigas from their huevos.

Originally, more than 900 recipes were submitted. These were edited down to the approximately 500 se lected. The material, arranged as a meal would be served, begins with appetizers and progresses through soups, sal ads, entrees, and a number of desserts so seductive they may require absolution. Orderly and easy to use, this com plete cookbook will neither intimidate the novice nor disappoint the expert.

The publication of a cookbook is certainly not a new idea for an organization to use as a fund-raising device. Every year there are thousands, most of which must be classed as mediocre. Savoring the Southwest ranks among the best as a comprehensive, innovative, and tasteful kitchen treasure well worth its modest price.

GRAND CANYON. By Sandra

Scott. National Travel Tapes Inc., 986 East 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105. 1985. Sixty-minute cassette tape and twenty-four page full-color booklet. $9.95, softcover, plus $1.00 postage.

Several professional narrators have been used in the production of this tape. The variety of voices, tempo changes, and audio background effects all sustain interest. The natural history, geology, folklore, facilities, and information sources of the Grand Canyon are cleverly woven into the program. For the first-time visitor or the longtime lover of this natural wonder.

MAYNARD DIXON/ED MELL, IMAGES OF THE SOUTHWEST: PAST & PRESENT. Dewey Galleries

74 East San Francisco, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. 1985. 26 pages. $12, softcover, postpaid.

This elegant gallery catalog contains fourteen full-color reproductions of the work of Dixon and Mell. The text by Donald J. Hagerty provides concise profiles of the two men, both of whom saw in the Southwest landscape colors, configurations and infinite space Absent elsewhere.

Dixon, who died in 1946, saw the Southwest from horseback or the shriveled floorboards of a Model T. Mell, a rapidly ascending Arizona artist of today, often views the same scenes from a helicopter. If the land is indeed the stage of humankind, their art needs no actors.