- Paperback: 284 pages
- Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (April 1 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0816645728
- ISBN-13: 978-0816645725
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.5 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,069,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The most important woman in the history of southern California never lived. The eponymous heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's popular 1884 novel Ramona, a half-Indian beauty raised on a wealthy Mexican rancho, nonetheless left an indelible imprint on southern California's landscape. Within a year of its publication, landmarks identified with Ramona's fictional life - her birthplace, her home, the site of her wedding, and her grave - became important, even canonical parts of a visit to southern California. One could take the Ramona freeway to town, cook like Ramona, and smell like Ramona. The novel's romanticized version of California's Hispanic past also inspired films, songs, musical instruments, jewelry, clothes, beer, wine, canned goods, collectibles, and a play that still draws thirty thousand people annually. Although historians and other writers have acknowledged Ramona's importance in the shaping of southern California's regional identity, there has never been an in-depth study of the origins and evolution of the "Ramona Myth" itself - until now. In Ramona Memories, Dydia DeLyser traces the myth's emergence within the context of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century tourist industry. DeLyser explores the establishment of tourist attractions by fans of the novel. She details the stories of individual Ramona enthusiasts who, guided by numerous travel books and articles, wove the text of the novel and its lavishly described locations into their own lives, from pilgrimages to either of the two ranchos acclaimed as Ramona's home to Ramona-themed luncheons and hopeful honeymoon visits to the Wishing Well at her marriage place. Based on more than a decade of meticulous research, Ramona Memories reveals how a fiction - and the real places and products that it inspired - helped to make an idealized past visible, permeating southern California's social memory.
Book Description
The most important woman in the history of southern California never lived. The eponymous heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's popular 1884 novel Ramona, a half-Indian beauty raised on a wealthy Mexican rancho, nonetheless left an indelible imprint on southern California's landscape. Within a year of its publication, landmarks identified with Ramona's fictional life - her birthplace, her home, the site of her wedding, and her grave - became important, even canonical parts of a visit to southern California. One could take the Ramona freeway to town, cook like Ramona, and smell like Ramona. The novel's romanticized version of California's Hispanic past also inspired films, songs, musical instruments, jewelry, clothes, beer, wine, canned goods, collectibles, and a play that still draws thirty thousand people annually. Although historians and other writers have acknowledged Ramona's importance in the shaping of southern California's regional identity, there has never been an in-depth study of the origins and evolution of the "Ramona Myth" itself - until now. In Ramona Memories, Dydia DeLyser traces the myth's emergence within the context of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century tourist industry. DeLyser explores the establishment of tourist attractions by fans of the novel. She details the stories of individual Ramona enthusiasts who, guided by numerous travel books and articles, wove the text of the novel and its lavishly described locations into their own lives, from pilgrimages to either of the two ranchos acclaimed as Ramona's home to Ramona-themed luncheons and hopeful honeymoon visits to the Wishing Well at her marriage place. Based on more than a decade of meticulous research, Ramona Memories reveals how a fiction - and the real places and products that it inspired - helped to make an idealized past visible, permeating southern California's social memory.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Examines the myth of Ramona in the regional tourist history, Oct 6 2005
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California (Paperback)
The heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona started a trend of Ramona naming of landmarks which became part of many a tourist's journey to Southern California at the time. Surprisingly, Ramona Memories: Tourism And The Shaping Of Southern California is the first study to consider the influence of Jackson's fictional character and setting on the real world of Southern California. DeLyser examines the myth of Ramona in the regional tourist history, the establishment of attractions by fans of the novel, and tells of numerous Ramona enthusiasts who took elements of the novel and made them a part of their lives.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Read, Oct 27 2010
By Tesscar "Tesscar" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California (Paperback)
This is an enjoyable book. It transports you back to a simpler time and does a good job at portraying the sense of adventure and wonder the Easterners had for the West during the mid 1800's.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent scholarly work, April 30 2012
By Carolyn Schimandle - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California (Paperback)
Don't expect a light read when you pick up this book; it is a scholarly work, extensively referenced and footnoted. But it is well-written, and for those of us interested in history&memory and California history, it should be a must-read. The story of how a fictional work shaped the California landscape and image is fascinating.
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