{{Short description|American lecturer, photographer and journalist (1858–1923)}} {{Infobox writer | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Portrait of the photographer George Wharton James, ca.1890-1905 (CHS-3994).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = <!-- {{Lang|language code|text}} --> | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = 27 September 1858 | birth_place = [[Lincolnshire]], England | death_date = 1923 | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = lecturer, photographer, journalist | language = | nationality = | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = | subject = California and the American Southwest | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | module = | website = <!-- www.example.com --> | portaldisp = }}
'''George Wharton James''' (27 September 1858<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=James, George Wharton}}</ref> – 8 November 1923<ref name="Thrapp1991">{{cite book|author=Dan L. Thrapp|title=Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: G-O|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hc35mM0PqSQC&pg=PA720|date=1 August 1991|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-9419-0|pages=720}}</ref> was an American popular lecturer, photographer, journalist and editor. Born in [[Lincolnshire]], England, he emigrated to the United States as a young man after being ordained as a Methodist minister.
He served in parishes in Nevada and Southern California, gradually beginning his journalism and writing career. An editor of two magazines, he also wrote more than 40 books and many articles and pamphlets on [[California]] and the [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]].
==Biography== George Wharton James was born in [[Lincolnshire]], England. He married and was ordained as a Methodist minister. He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1881.
He served in parishes in Nevada and southern California. However, in 1889 his wife sued for divorce, accusing him of committing numerous acts of adultery. He was tried by the Methodist Church, charged with real estate fraud, using faked credentials, and sexual misconduct. He was defrocked, although he was later reinstated.<ref name="starr"/>
In addition to writing his own books, James was associate editor of ''[[The Craftsman (magazine)|The Craftsman]]'' (1904–05), and editor of ''[[The Land of Sunshine|Out West]]'' (1912–14).<ref>{{OCLC|3687761}} and {{OCLC|702604648}}</ref> In the style of the times, he was a popular lecturer in the region. He also lectured at both the [[Panama-Pacific Exposition|Panama-Pacific]] and [[Panama-California Exposition|Panama-California]] expositions 1915–16.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
James had a long-running feud with [[Charles Fletcher Lummis]], a California writer with similar regional interests.<ref name="starr">[[Kevin Starr|Starr, Kevin]] (1985). ''Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era''. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref> Both men also explored the American Southwest, becoming acquainted with Father [[Anton Docher]], a French-born [[missionary]] priest who served at [[Pueblo of Isleta]] in New Mexico for 34 years.
James's books included the well-received ''The Wonders of the Colorado Desert'' (1906),<ref>{{cite journal|last=Adams|first=Cyrus C.|title=Wonders of the Far West: George Wharton James's New Book on the Colorado Desert|journal=[[The New York Times Book Review|The New York Times Saturday Review of Books]]|date=March 2, 1907|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/03/02/104980987.pdf|access-date=August 30, 2012|quote=...[James] has gifts of observation far above the common and the literary art of vivid and picturesque description.}}</ref> ''Through [[Ramona]]'s Country'' (1909), ''In and Out of the Old Missions of California'' (1905), and ''The Lake of the Sky'' (1915). Characteristics of his writing included [[romanticism]], an enthusiasm for natural environments, the idealization of aboriginal lifeways, and the promotion of health fads.
After his divorce, James married again, living in [[Pasadena, California]] with his second wife at 1098 North Raymond Avenue. Writer Lawrence Clark Powell later described James's home as serving as "a kind of museum salon in the same way that El Alisal served as the center for his rival booster [[Charles Fletcher Lummis|Lummis']] Los Angeles followers. He founded the Pasadena [[Robert Browning|Browning]] Society and the Anti-Whispering Society. According to Powell, the Anti-Whispering Society was "devoted to the suppression of (1) talking audiences, (2) peanut fiends, and (3) crying babies."<ref>{{cite book |title=California Classics |last=Powell |first=Lawrence |publisher=Calpra Press |year=1971 |isbn=0-88496-184-2 |location=Santa Barbara |pages=[https://archive.org/details/californiaclassi00powe/page/57 57] |url=https://archive.org/details/californiaclassi00powe/page/57 }}</ref>
James was an advocate of outdoor nakedness or nudism.{{sfn|Shrank|2019|p=2}}
==Honors== *His books and pamphlets were collected by the [[California State Library]] and the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. *A collection of his photographs is on file at the [[University of New Mexico]]. *The [[Southwest Museum]] in [[Los Angeles]] has some of his papers and photographs. *The [[Huntington Library]] in [[San Marino, CA]] has some of his papers and photographs. *The [[University of Nevada, Reno]] in [[Reno, NV]] has some of his papers and photographs.
==Bibliography== [[File:George Wharton James.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.8|George Wharton James in his workshop.]]
* {{cite book| title = The Wonders of the Colorado Desert| url = https://archive.org/details/wonderscolorado00jamegoog| location = Boston| publisher = Little, Brown, and Company| year= 1906 | oclc =3313620}} {{LCC|F868.S15 J2}} (with illustrations by [[Carl Eytel]])<ref>Eytel contributed the color plate ''Mirage in the Desert'' (1905) and over 300 drawings – {{cite book| last1 = Edwards| first1 =Elza Ivan | title = Desert Harvest | location = Los Angeles| publisher = Westernlore Press | year= 1962| pages = 128| oclc = 2022836}} {{LCC|Z1251.S8 E3}}</ref> * {{cite book|year=1909|title=Indian basketry|publisher=Henry Malkan|isbn=0-486-21712-4|url=https://archive.org/details/indianbasketry000jame}} * {{cite book|year=1909|title=Through [[Ramona]]'s Country|publisher=Little, Brown|oclc=1710960}} * {{cite book|year=1914|title=Indian Blankets and Their Makers|url=https://archive.org/details/indianblanketsth00jamerich|publisher=A.C. McClurg and Co.|isbn=0-486-22996-3}} * {{cite book|year=1917|title=The Story of Captain, the Horse with the Human Brain|publisher=Radiant Life Press, Pasadena}} * {{cite book|year=2009|title=The Old Franciscan Missions of California|publisher=The echo library|isbn=978-1-4068-2950-1|edition=Illustrated}} * {{cite book|year=2009|title=The Lake of the Sky|publisher=The echo library|isbn=978-1-4068-2952-5}} * {{cite book|year=2009|title=The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It|publisher=The echo library|isbn=978-1-4068-5328-5}} * {{cite book|year=2003|title=In and Out of the Old Missions of California|isbn=978-0766142237}} * {{cite book|year=2009|title=Quit Your Worrying!|publisher=The Echo Library|isbn=978-1-4068-5330-8}} * {{cite book|year=2011|title=Indian Basketry, and How to Make Indian and Other Baskets |publisher=BiblioBazaar|isbn=978-1-178-58712-8}} * {{cite book|year=1929|title=New Mexico, the Land of the Delight Makers |publisher=The Page Company|asin= B008LH6ZN0}} * {{cite book|year=2008|title=The Legend of [[Tahquitz (spirit)|Tauquitch]] and Algoot |publisher=Forgotten Books|isbn=978-1605068480}}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{refbegin}} * Bourdon, Roger Joseph (1966). ''George Wharton James, Interpreter of the Southwest''. Los Angeles, CA: University of California, Los Angeles. Ph.D. thesis. pp. 375. {{OCLC|28143279|32290472|52598780}} * {{cite book|last=Farquhar|first=Francis Peloubet|title=The Books of the Colorado River & the Grand Canyon: A Selective Bibliography|year=1953|publisher=Glen Dawson|location=Los Angeles|page=54|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3911386;view=1up;seq=70|author-link=Francis P. Farquhar |oclc=31136472}} * {{cite book |last=Larson |first=Roger Keith |title=Controversial James: An Essay on the Life and Work of George Wharton James |year=1991 |publisher=The Book Club of California |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=90 |asin=B0006EY8AS |oclc=24570433}} {{LCC|F865.J35 L37 1991}} * [[Kevin Starr|Starr, Kevin]] (1973 and 1986). ''Americans and the California Dream, 1850–1915''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 494. {{ISBN|978-0195016444}} (1986) {{OCLC|641725018|254930084}} *{{cite book|last=Shrank|first=Sarah |title=Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp67DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|date= 2019|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-5142-5}} * {{cite book |last=Wild |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Wild |title=George Wharton James |year=1990 |publisher= [[Boise State University#Publishing|Boise State University "Western Writers Series"]] (#93) |location=Boise, ID |pages=52 |author2=Chatterton, Wayne |author3=Maguire, James H. |isbn=978-0-88430-092-2}} {{oclc|754890912|22357424}} {{refend}}
==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{commons category|George Wharton James}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=892| name=George Wharton James}} * {{FadedPage|id=James, George Wharton|name=George Wharton James|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Wharton James |sopt=t}} * {{Librivox author |id=9877}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028034037/http://www.geocities.com/shioshya/1899beaver/index.htm |date=October 28, 2009 |title="An Adventure in Beaver Canyon 1899" }} * [http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/basketmakers/ "Basket Makers," ''Sunset'' 8(1)] (1901) * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/som/index.htm "A Saboba Origin-Myth"] (1902) * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/lta/index.htm "The Legend of Tauquich and Algoot"] (1903) * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028034037/http://www.geocities.com/shioshya/1899beaver/index.htm |date=October 28, 2009 |title=''The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It'' }} (1910) * {{gutenberg|no=13854|name=The Old Franciscan Missions Of California by George Wharton James}} (1913) * {{Find a Grave|13833080}} *George Wharton James as minister at Cedarville Methodist Church [https://californiagenealogy.org/modoc/cedarvillechurch.htm] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, George Wharton}} [[Category:American nature writers]] [[Category:American non-fiction outdoors writers]] [[Category:American travel writers]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Writers from California]] [[Category:1858 births]] [[Category:1923 deaths]] [[Category:American naturists]] [[Category:Social nudity advocates]] [[Category:British emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Writers from Lincolnshire]]