Sunstone Press releases three new books with New Mexico connections

THREE NEW BOOKS FROM SUNSTONE PRESS

Richard Polsky of Santa Fe is the author of the newly published book “Native Genius: The Perils of Being an American Indian Artist.”

In it, Polsky explores contemporary American Indian art in the Southwest. He contends that these Native artists “are trapped in a world over which they have little control. If they paint what the tourists expect them to paint … then they’re going to find gallery representation and sell work. Conversely, if they paint the subject of their choice, they have a hard time finding a gallery and making sales.”

Sunstone Press releases three new books with New Mexico connections

A second book just out from Sunstone is “The Las Puertas Tales/Los Cuentos de las Puertas” by David Dexter Correa. The book is a collection of four novellas set in a fictional town in northeast New Mexico.

The author lived in Las Vegas, New Mexico, during the 1970s. He currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.

The third recent book from Sunstone is “Finding the First Greeks of Santa Fe: A Walking Tour of Downtown Santa Fe.” The author is Katherine Pomonis with help from her son, Yorgos Marinakis.

Sunstone Press is based in Santa Fe.

A NEW MEXICO OUTLAW NOT BILLY THE KID

The University of North Texas Press has just published “Murder on the Largo: Henry Coleman and New Mexico’s Last Frontier” by Eleanor Williams.

In his lengthy introduction to the book, historian Jerry Thompson writes that Coleman was to Socorro County as Billy the Kid was to Lincoln County — “a larger-than-life character whose legacy seemed only to grow with the passing of time.”

Coleman, his deeds and misdeeds, however, are more obscure today than Billy the Kid’s.

Thompson writes that Coleman, sometimes accused of murder and cattle rustling, died at the hands of a sheriff’s posse at Goat Ranch, 30 miles northwest of the village of Quemado, in 1921, 40 years after Billy the Kid’s death.

Thompson also served as editor of Williams’ book, which broadly focuses on the violence in western New Mexico, mostly in Socorro and Catron counties, in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Her study, Thompson writes, was initially published in eight parts in the New Mexico Electric News in 1964 and 1965. The News was a monthly magazine for New Mexicans who belonged to an electrical co-operative.

Thompson rearranged and edited Williams’ text for clarity.

He is a history professor at Texas A&M International University — Laredo. Thompson said he attended elementary school in Pietown, New Mexico, and graduated from Quemado High School.