Introduction

The gestation of this project has been elephantine. My co-everything (including, now, co-editor) Ron Nelson and I first learned of it when we were asked to compose its initial essay, back in February 1994. The invitation came from New Mexico, from novelist Ronald L. Donaghe (that's DON-uh-gee—hard "g" as in geese, I learned) whose first book, Common Sons, I had admired, and wrote him so. A correspondence developed, and co-Ron (to distinguish one Ron from the other) and I even visited Donaghe and his then-new and still-younger lover, Cliff, in their Las Cruces home, on our way to a long-intended visit to Big Bend, Texas, in May 1993.