December 1954 | Volume 6, Issue 1 Paul Horgan tells a lyric
story of the Rio Grande Valley, where Spanish and Indian
cultures met in a conflict of arms and ideas Great River is the
story of the Rio Grande Valley and the four great cultures which
have flourished there: Indian, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-
American. The selection published here covers the story of the
Spanish explorers, from the appearance of Pineda’s fleet at the
river’s mouth to the bitter end of Coronado’s search for the
golden city of Quivira. No other book of American history this
season has received such rousing critical acclaim. Carl Carmer
called it “one of the major masterpieces of American historical
writings.” Orville Prescott in the New York Times prophesied it
would win the Putilizer Prize or the National Book Award “or
both.” Published in two volumes (price $10), Great River was
fourteen years in the writing. Paul Morgan is a native of
Buffalo, N.Y., but has lived in the Southwest since he was
twelve and has written of it in novels,