The northeastern quadrant of New Mexico, with a slice of Colorado, Oklahoma, and West Texas, is the area Max Evans has dubbed the Hi Lo Country. He bought a ranch there when he was seventeen, he painted it as a young artist, and has used the land as the setting for most of his well-known writings. His novels The Rounders and The Hi Lo Country were made into Hollywood movies. Jan Haley is also from the heart of Hi Lo Country, where she has documented in her photography the vanishing homesteads and ranches in this region anchored by four mountains: Eagle Tail, Sierra Grande, Capulin, and Rabbit Ears. Her pictures of the spectacular landscapes will enthral not just fans of Max Evans but anyone who wants to see the True West that still exists within a day's drive of the big cities that are now the population centres of the country. The Max Evans text written specifically for this book is in his unmatched storytelling style and full of entertaining anecdotes. His writing is rich in heartfelt emotion and, coupled with Haley's photos, is a tribute to a neglected part of the world we can now treasure forever.
Jan Haley's photographs have appeared in New Mexico newspapers and New Mexico Magazine. She lives in Hillsboro, New Mexico. Max Evans's most recent books are Now and Forever, Madam Millie, and Hot Biscuits, the latter of which he coedited with Candy Moulton. All are available from UNM Press. Evans lives in Albuquerque. Max Evans is a novelist and screenwriter who lives in Albuquerque. Among his best-known works are Bluefeather Fellini, The Hi Lo Country, and The Rounders.
"Haley's photographs are a fine accompaniment to Evans' lyrical exposition. She is a master of the panoramic landscape, and her images capture spreading fields and lowering skies." ""Max Evans' Hi Lo Country Under the One-Eyed Sky" is a crafted collaboration between a writer and a photographer with a common love of place and a reverence for Western heritage." ""Max Evans' Hi Lo Country" captures the vivid landscapes of northeastern New Mexico." "Haley's photographs capture the essence of northeastern New Mexico. . There are spectacular views of the landscape in all its natural beauty. . The text by Evans gives his personal views about the area, where he worked as a cowboy in his adolescence. He has both a keen understanding as well as a deep love for these places." "Haley's photos are stunning and stark as they capture the essence of Hi-Lo Country: the ever expansive, sweeping, open-range, severe-weather-impacted landscape; abandoned homesteader structures and deritus, forlorm communities; and other generally lonely but hauntingly beautiful scenes. Evans' 20-page essay and occasional quotes sprinkled through the rest of the book provide neccessary perspective to the photos." "Photographer Jan Haley captures the grandeur of that region Max Evans has dubbed "Hi Lo Country." . . Max Evans writes eloquently of his Hi Lo Country, evoking images for the reader to muse over like one would when viewing the work of great artists; plucking out memories for the reader's perusal. . . The photographs steal your breath away, but Max's prose steals your soul." "The Hi-Lo Country has had its poet for over 40 years. Now it has an artist as well." "Jan Haley's photographs show a place where the people were so tough the Depression felt right at home, and it never left. The rusting 1950 purple Hudson still sits on blocks where the owner left it, imagining shiny renovation someday. . . . Winds so strong, it seemed the outhouse blew over, and is still horizontal. . . And many an old ranchhouse . . . lean[s] abandoned in the wind."
