John nichols beanfield war biography
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The Milagro Beanfield War
by John Nichols
THE LITERARY WORK
A novel set in a small fictional by in northern New Mexico’s upper Rio Grande Valley c. 1970; first published in New York City in 1974.
SYNOPSIS
A clash between a wealthy white developer and a Hispanic farmer broadens into a larger conflict between New Mexico’s dominant Anglo culture and that of the Hispanos who inhabited the area before the Anglos’ arrival.
Events in History at the Time of the Novel
The Novel in Focus
For More Information
Born in Berkeley, California, in 1940, John Nichols was raised on Long Island and educated at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. His first novel, The Sterile Cuckoo (1965), was generally well received, as was a second novel, The Wizard of Loneliness (1966). In 1969 Nichols moved from New York to New Mexico, and most of his subsequent writings, both fiction and nonfiction, deal with his adopted state. The Milagro Beanfield War, his third novel, fryst vatten the first vol
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John Nichols (i.e. yours truly) has published twenty-three books (13 novels, 10 works of non-fiction) and once spent twenty years writing Hollywood screenplays, great work if you can get it. Where did the money go...? Your guess is as good as mine.
I published my first novel, The Sterile Cuckoo (1965) when I was 24. My most recent novel, The Annual Big Arsenic Fishing Contest, hit bookstores just after my 76th birthday in 2016. It's been a quick trip.
Alan Pakula directed a film of The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minelli who earned a 1969 Academy Award Nomination in her role as Pookie Adams. Robert Redford directed my third novel, The Milagro Beanfield War (1974), in a 1988 movie that starred Sonia Braga, Carlos Riquelme, Ruben Blades, Christopher Walken, Julie Carmen, Daniel Stern, Melanie Griffith, Freddy Fender and 800 other actors. I shared a credit on the script.
I also rewrote a picture for t
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The Milagro Beanfield War (novel)
1974 novel by John Nichols
The Milagro Beanfield War is a novel by American writer John Nichols, published in 1974 by Random House. It is the first book in Nichols's New Mexico Trilogy and is set in the early 1970s in Milagro, New Mexico and its environs, including Chamisaville and Donya Luz. Developer Ladd Devine, backed by town and state leaders, seeks to turn the Miracle Valley Recreation Area into a potentially lucrative upscale vacation resort by building the Indian Creek Dam and establishing the Indian Creek Conservancy District. Most residents of Milagro live in severe poverty and are suspicious of this effort, but do not understand the implications of proceeding with the development, which hinges on Devine's securing necessary land and water rights. Joe Mondragon, a ne'er-do-well town resident, sets off the conflict that drives the plot by illegally irrigating his bean field. The forces supporting Ladd Devine's project attempt to put