Shortly before the turn of the twentieth century, in September 1898, artists Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein discovered Taos, New Mexico, and became cofounders of one of America’s most famous art colonies. In a few short decades, a dazzling assortment of artists, writers, and intellectuals were to make their way into Taos and Santa Fe. From D. H. Lawrence to Georgia O’Keeffe to Edna St. Vincent Millay to the Russian, Nicolai Fechin, all seemed lured by its landscape and lifestyle. An American “vie de bohème” had been established.

            This memoir, using previously unpublished documents, letters, and photographs, explores the life of these two art colonies from the mid-1950s to the present. As an artist with paintbrush and camera, Missouri-born R. H. Dick gives both the scholar and general public a fascinating glimpse into the now vanishing world of the artists of his generation.

            R. H. Dick is a native of Missouri. Born in Kansas City, he holds a B.S. in education and an M.A. in American history from the University of Central Missouri. Graduate work was completed in French history and economics at the University of Missouri–Columbia. He has done additional work at Harvard, Yale, Columbia (New York), and the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. As an artist he has been the recipient of numerous awards and has had several successful one-man exhibitions. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.