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Mabel Dodge Luhan
[1879-1962]
 | short profile |
"Many who came to the Luhan House were at a critical point in their lives, physically, psychologically, or vocationally. For them, "What is needed is more, more, and always more consciousness, both in art and in life."
"I wanted to live in a world where a woman could choose her own role in life."
— Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Dodge Luhan [1879-1962] broke with East Coast & European tradition in order to find her own way – as a person, as an artist,
as an advocate for Native Americans and wilderness – and that way led her to the mountain village of Taos, New Mexico in 1917.
the house functioned as a kind of life crisis center, breaking down and healing, making - and sometimes unmaking –
love affairs and marriages. Because several visitors often stayed with the Luhans simultaneously, the opportunities
for mentoring, cross fertilization, and feuding were enormously rich." — biographer Lois Rudnick
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
In Paris, France, American expatriate Gertrude Stein introduced Mabel to modernist literary & artistic icons such as Pablo Picasso & Henri Matisse.
In Florence, Italy, Mabel and her second husband restored a DeMedici villa.
In New York City, Mabel hosted a famous literary salon at her home at 23 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village; participants included Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, Charles Demuth, Max Eastman, and journalist John Reed. She co-sponsored the famed Armory Show of 1913, which promoted European modern art.
By 1916, Mabel married her third husband and was a columnist for Hearst newspapers.
Disillusioned with the War In Europe, Mabel sent her new husband ahead to New Mexico, 'to paint the Indians of Santa Fe'. The story goes that she had a dream of a dark-faced man replacing her husband; fourth husband Tony Lujan said that he had a dream around the same time about a white woman coming to Taos. Mabel moved from Greenwich Village to Taos, New Mexico in 1917. On the advice of Taoseño Tony Lujan, she bought a 12-acre property in the town of Taos, and together they designed and built a massive adobe residence; Tony constructed a tepee in front of the house and pounded on a drum until Mabel gave in and joined him there for the night. Husband Maurice Sterne was sent away in 1919; Mabel sent him monthly support payments until the divorce was final, then married Tony Lujan in 1923. (Mabel spelled her new married name 'Luhan' so that her friends Back East would know how to pronounce it.) Tony was a member of a prominent & powerful family within the Taos Pueblo, but he was banished for marrying a white woman.
Mabel's houseguests & friends in Taos included photographer Ansel Adams, author Mary Austin, painter Dorothy Brett, author Myron Brinig, Willa Cather, John Collier, painter Andrew Dasburg, actress Greta Garbo, anarchist Emma Goldman, dancer Martha Graham, painter Marsden Hartley, painter Edward Hopper, poet Robinson Jeffers & wife Una, Carl Jung, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, author D.H. Lawrence & wife Frieda, journalist John Reed, activist Margaret Sanger, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, conductor Leopold Stokowski, photographer Paul Strand, author Thornton Wilder, playwright Tennessee Williams, and novelist Thomas Wolfe.
Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan died of a heart attack at home in Taos; she is buried in the nearby 'Kit' Carson Cemetery; Tony died 'soon after'. Her house was later owned by actor Dennis Hopper; while living there, he wrote the script for "Easy Rider" [1969], which was partly filmed in Taos and Santa Fe. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991 and is now operated as a bed-and-breakfast inn as well as a conference center.
Mabel Dodge Luhan entry at Wikipedia
browse the Mabel Dodge Luhan Store at Amazon
browse books by/about Mabel Dodge Luhan at Amazon
Primary Works
"Lorenzo In Taos: D.H. Lawrence and Mabel Dodge Luhan" [1932]
 | Based on correspondence between and among Luhan in Taos, New Mexico and Lawrence and his wife Frieda in Italy, with other material from poet Robinson Jeffers, and with references to painter Dorothy Brett and Luhan's secretary, Spud Johnson. The Sunstone Press edition is a facsimile of the 1932 original, with cover from a painting by Dorothy Brett, and the new Foreword is by Prof. Arthur J. Bachrach of Taos
Sunstone Press 9x6¼ pb [8/2007] for $25.04 Reprint Services Corp. 8½x5½ library hardcover [1999] for $79.00 Knopf 8¼x5½ hardcover [1935] out of print/used |
"Intimate Memories: The Autobiography of Mabel Dodge Luhan"
The four volumes were published separately in 1933, 1935, 1936 and 1937; the single-
volume abridged version edited by Lois Palken Rudnick was published in 1999.
 |
ABRIDGED Kindle Edition from UNM Press [5/2014] for $20.38 {sic}
Sunstone Press ABRIDGED 9x6 pb [12/2007] out of print/used UNM Press ABRIDGED 9¼x6¼ hardcover [9/99] out of print/used Volume 1: "Background, 1879-1918" [1933]
Volume 2: "European Experiences" [1935]
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 | Volume 3: "Movers and Shakers: Intimate Memories of The Salon at 23 Fifth Avenue and After" [1936] UNM Press 9x6 pb [9/85] out of print/40+ used UNM Press hardcover [9/85] out of print/used |
 | Volume 4: "Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape To Reality" [1937] The extravagant New York socialite Mabel Dodge gathered with the likes of Gertrude Stein, John Reed, and D.H. Lawrence before she moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1917 to reunite with her third husband, the artist Maurice Sterne; Mabel reveals here the spiritual awakening that she experienced through Taos, the Pueblo Indians, and Taos Indian Tony Luhan, whom she later married. Kindle Edition from UNM Press [1987 edition] for $12.99 UNM Press 9x6 pb [4/87] for $20.90 Harcourt, Brace & Co. hardcover [1937] out of print/scarce |
"Winter In Taos" [1935]
 | In stark contrast to Mabel's four-volume autobiography (1933-1937), she writes here about her life in the 'new world' that she found in the mountains north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, a desription of the land and the people rather than of herself; listed among the 100 Best Books In New Mexico [Jan 2011]; the Sunstone Press edition is a facsimile of the 1935 original, with cover from a painting by Regina Cooke, and the new Foreword is by Lynn Cline
Sunstone Press 8¾x6 pb [7/2007] for $19.43 Las Palomas De Taos 8x5½ pb [1983] out of print/used Harcourt, Brace & Co. hardcover [1935] out of print/used |
Other Works by Mabel Dodge Luhan
columnist for Hearst newspapers, 1916 to ?
"Ballad of A Bad Girl" [poem 1924] published in magazine "Laughing Horse"
unpublished "Family Affairs"
unpublished novel "Water of Life"
 |
"Taos and Its Artists" [1947] by Mabel Dodge Luhan
Among the many artists whom she discusses are Oscar E. Berninghaus, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Victor Higgins, Ila McAfee, Bert Geer Phillips, and Walter Ufer Duell, Sloan & Pearce 10¾x8 hardcover [1947] out of print/used |
 | "Una and Robin" [1976] by Mabel Dodge Luhan Written in 1933, not published until 1976; memoirs of Mabel Dodge Lujan of Taos, New Mexico regarding her friendship with poet Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962] & his wife Una, and with D.H. Lawrence [1885-1930] & his wife Frieda Friends of The Bancroft Library pb [1976] out of print/used Friends of The Bancroft Library pb [1976] out of print/used |
Black Swan Books hardcover [4/96] out of print/scarce
"Amazing Mabel: Sketches by Mabel Dodge Luhan" [1996]
by Charmay Allred, Foreword by Frank Waters
One Horse Land & Cattle Ltd. hardcover [7/96] out of print/used
 | "Mabel Dodge Luhan: In Her Own Words" [Oct 2010]
oversized scrapbook format at 14½x11" • not available on Amazon or B&N available from publisher Palisade Press for $59 + $2.75 s/h available from Mabel Dodge Luhan House for $59 + $10 s/h |
 | "The Suppressed Memoirs of Mabel Dodge Luhan: Sex, Syphilis, and Psychoanalysis In The Making of Modern American Culture" [2012] Edited by Lois Palken Rudnick The original texts of Mabel's memoirs were restricted by her family until 2000. Kindle Edition from Univ New Mexico Press [7/2012] for $19.22 Univ New Mexico Press 9x6 hardcover [7/2012] for $34.95 |
Movies, Stageplays, Other Media
None of Mabel's books have been filmed, and her listing as a character on IMDb is incomplete.
"Priest of Love" feature film [Filmways Oct 1981]
 | After British author D.H. Lawrence's latest book "The Rainbow" is banned, he and wife Frieda travel to the United States, then to Mexico, where he contracts tuberculosis. They then visit England and settle in Italy, where he writes "Lady Chatterley's Lover". Along the way they visit Aldous Huxley and Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, New Mexico. Co-produced & directed by Christopher Miles; script by Alan Plater, from a book by Harry T. Moore; starring Ian McKellen (as Lawrence}, Janet Suzman {as Frieda}, Ava Gardner {as Mabel Dodge Luhan}, Penelope Keith, Jorge Rivero {as Tony Lujan}, Maurizio Merli, John Gielgud, James Faulkner {as Huxley}, Mike Gwilym, Massimo Ranieri, Marjorie Yates & Wendy Allnutt Kino Intl. 115-minute widescreen color Blu-ray [6/2011] for $26.99 Kino Intl. 115-minute widescreen color DVD [6/2011] for $16.99 H.B.O. Cannon Video 125-minute color VHS [undated] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
"Red Bells (Krasnye Kolokola)" in two parts
 | "Part I: Mexico On Fire" [Russia/Mosfilm 1982] American journalist John Reed's description of the beginnings of the revolution in Mexico, circa 1913. 135-minute film co-written & directed by Sergei Bondarchuk; based on the 1919 book "Ten Days That Shook The World" by John Reed [1887-1920]; starring Franco Nero {as John Reed}, Ursula Andress {as Mabel Dodge}, Jorge Luke {as Emiliano Zapata}, Blanca Guerra, Heraclio Zepeda & Jorge Reynoso {as Pancho Villa}; won Crystal Globe Award at Karlovy Vary Film Festival DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia "Part II" [Russia/Mosfilm 1983] American journalist John Reed's description of the beginnings of the revolution in Russia, 1917-18. 139-minute film co-written & directed by Sergei Bondarchuk; based on the 1919 book "Ten Days That Shook The World" by John Reed [1887-1920]; starring Franco Nero {as John Reed}, Sydne Rome, Olegar Fedoro DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
"A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz"
TV movie [P.B.S./American Playhouse July 1991]
| The story of the artistic and romantic relationship of painter Georgia O'Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz in pre-World War I New York City and in New Mexico. Directed by Edwin Sherin; script by Julian Barry; starring Jane Alexander {as O'Keeffe}, Christopher Plummer {as Stieglitz}, David Patrick Kelly {as Ansel Adams}, Sasha von Scherler {as Mabel Dodge Luhan}, White Eagle {as Tony Lujan}, Vernel Bagneris, Christina Haag, Tresa Hughes, Randle Mell & Joanna Merlin • VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb |
®
"Georgia O'Keeffe" [Sony TV/Lifetime TV Sept 2009]
 | Unknown artist Georgia O'Keeffe discovered that New York City gallery owner & photographer Alfred Stieglitz [1864-1946] was displaying her paintings without permission. She confronted him and was charmed into allowing him to manage her career. The working relationship turned romantic, but Georgia's fame eclipsed Alfred's, and he became bitter and took a younger mis-tress. Georgia fled to the wide-open skies of the West, settling in north-ern New Mexico, where her art and career flourished, and where she lived for another 50 years. Location filming in Abiquiu, Montezuma & Santa Fe, New Mexico. Directed by Bob Balaban; written by Michael Cristofer; starring Joan Allen {as O'Keeffe}, Jeremy Irons {as Stieglitz}, Ed Begley Jr., Kathleen Chalfant, Linda Emond, Henry Simmons, Tyne Daly {as Mabel Dodge Sterne}, Chad Brummett, Jenny Gabrielle & Robert Mirabal {as Tony Lujan}; nominated for 9 Emmy Awards, won W.G.A. Award for Best Longform TV Script
Lifetime widescreen color DVD [4/2010] for $11.99 full credits at IMDb • official movie site |
"Awakening In Taos: The Mabel Dodge Luhan Story"
TV movie [K.N.M.E./P.B.S. 11/2015]
| Announced 2011; produced, written & directed by Mark J. Gordon; narrated by Ali McGraw; featuring Elmo Baca, Art Bachrach, Flannery Burke, Leslie Harrell Dillen {as voice of Mabel}, Alfredo Lorenzo Lujan, historian Peter Mackanass, Gerald Peters, Rena Rosequist, biographer Lois Rudnick, Blue Spruce Standing Deer, art historian Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall, Carmen Velarde, and Barbara Waters; with archive photos of Ansel Adams, Dorothy Brett, Willa Cather, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe
DVD/Blu-ray not yet available • credits at IMDb • official movie site watch 10/2015 official trailer [2:15] on Vimeo • watch 6/2010 official trailer & excerpts [10:00] on YouTube |
Works About Mabel Dodge Luhan
oval oil portrait of Mabel Ganson Evans painted by the Swiss-born American artist
Adolfo Müller-Ury [1862-1947] in early 1904
Gertrude Stein's famous essay "Portrait of Mabel Dodge At The Villa Curonia" [1911]
portrait of Mabel Evans Dodge painted by Mary Foote [1872-1968], circa 1913
{ view in new window }
"Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works" [1922 novel] by Carl Van Vechten
Mabel Dodge is the model for the character Edith Dale
BiblioBazaar 8¾x5¾ pb [6/2009] for $21.99
BiblioLife 8x5 pb [6/2009] for $19.57
BiblioLife 9¼x6 hardcover [6/2009] for $30.99
 | "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" [1933] by Gertrude Stein The book covers Gertrude's & Alice's years together in Europe from 1907 to 1932, and was partly (60%) published in The Atlantic Monthly Magazine; book mentions Mabel Dodge and her second husband, architect Edwin Sherrill Dodge Vintage 8x5¼ pb [3/90] for $10.20 Vintage mass pb [1960] out of print/used book entry at Wikipedia |
 | "Mabel: A Biography of Mabel Dodge Luhan" [1977] by Emily Hahn Houghton Mifflin 9¼x6¼ hardcover [1977] out of print/40+ used |
"Mabel Dodge Luhan" biography [1984] by Winifred L. Frazer
Twayne Publng hardcover [12/84] out of print/used
 | "Mabel Dodge Luhan: New Woman, New Worlds" [1984] by Lois Palken Rudnick UNM Press 9x6 pb [3/87] for $17.77 UNM Press hardcover [10/84] out of print/many, many used |
 | "A History of Having A Great Many Times Not Continued To Be Friends: The Correspondence Between Mabel Dodge and Gertrude Stein, 1911‑1934" [1996] by Patricia R. Everett UNM Press 9x6 hardcover [2/96] out of print/many used |
 | "Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and The American Counter-culture" [UNM Press 1996] by Lois Palken Rudnick
UNM Press 9x6 pb [2/98] for $22.95 UNM Press 9½x6½ hardcover [5/96] out of print/many used |
 | "Mabel's Santa Fe and Taos: Bohemian Legends, 1900-1950" [1999] by Elmo Baca Gibbs Smith Publrs 10¾x8½ hardcover [12/99] out of print/used |
 | "A Woman's Place: Women Writing New Mexico" [2005] by Maureen Reed featuring the lives & work of Navajo writer & activist Kay Bennett; authors Mary Austin, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca & Cleofas Jaramillo; arts patron Mabel Dodge Luhan; and Pueblo Indian painter & author Pablita Velarde Univ NM Press 9x5¾ pb [5/2005] for $21.95 |
 | "The Taos Truth Game: A Novel" [2006] by Earl Ganz A fictional account of gay author Myron Brinig's time in New Mexico, among literary figures Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frieda Lawrence, Robinson & Una Jeffers, and Frank Waters, with cameo appearances by Gertrude Stein & Henry Roth Univ NM Press 9x6 pb [1/2007] for $12.95 Univ NM Press 9¼x5¾ hardcover [3/2006] for $18.96 Myron Brinig [1896-1991] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore |
 | "Literary Pilgrims: The Santa Fe and Taos Writers' Colonies, 1917-1950" [2007] by Lynn Cline includes both well- and lesser-known literary figures of New Mexico: Mary Austin, Witter Bynner, Willa Cather, Fray Angélico Chávez, Erna & Harvey Fergusson, Alice Corbin Henderson, Paul Horgan, Spud Johnson, Oliver La Farge, D.H. Lawrence, Haniel Long, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Raymond Otis, Lynn Riggs & Frank Waters Univ New Mexico Press 9x6 pb [3/2007] for $19.95 |
 | "From Greenwich Village To Taos: Primitivism and Place at Mabel Dodge Luhan's" [2008] by Flannery Burke
Univ Press KS 9x5¾ hardcover [5/2008] for $28.59 |
"Creator of Creators" article by Peter B.G. Shoemaker in May 2016 issue of New Mexico Magazine
read full article (with pictures)
"Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company" exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum of Art [Oct 2016 to Jan 2017
Image Gallery
Family & Friends
of Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan [1879-1962]
born in Buffalo, New York in 1879; moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1917; died in Taos at age 83 in 1962
first husband steamship heir Karl Kellog Evans [], married 1900, widowed 1903
son John Ganson Evans [b. 1900?]
second husband architect Edwin Sherrill Dodge [1874-1938]
married 1904, estranged 1911, divorced 1916
lover journalist John Reed [1887-1920], during 1913 & 1916
third husband painter-sculptor Maurice Sterne [1878-1957]
married 1916, estranged 1919, divorced 1923
fourth husband Antonio 'Tony' Lujan [?-1962?], married 1923, widower 1962
Walter Willard 'Spud' Johnson [1897-1968] of Taos, New Mexico
hired as secretary to Mabel Dodge Luhan in 1927 • Wikipedia {empty}
neighbor painter Nicolai Fechin [1881-1955]
Artcyclopedia •
Wikipedia •
Taos Art Museum at the Fechin House [built 1927]
houseguest poet Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962] and his wife Una [1884?-1950]
neighbor & friend artist Georgia O’Keeffe [1887-1986]
houseguest D.H. Lawrence [1885-1930] and his wife Frieda von Richthofen [1879-1956]
D.H. Lawrence Society of North America [est. 1975]
| | "Lorenzo In Taos: D.H. Lawrence and Mabel Dodge Luhan" [1932] Based on correspondence between and among Luhan in Taos, New Mexico and Lawrence and his wife Frieda in Italy, with other material from poet Robinson Jeffers, and with references to painter Dorothy Brett and Luhan's secretary, Spud Johnson. The Sunstone Press edition is a facsimile of the 1932 original, with cover from a painting by Dorothy Brett, and the new Foreword is by Prof. Arthur J. Bachrach of Taos Sunstone Press 9x6¼ pb [8/2007] for $25.04 Reprint Services Corp. 8½x5½ library hardcover [1999] for $79.00 Knopf 8¼x5½ hardcover [1935] out of print/used |
 | "D.H. Lawrence In New Mexico: The Time Is Different There" [2006] by Arthur J. Bachrach UNM Press 8x5½ pb [9/2006] for $16.95 |
L i n k s
Mabel Dodge Luhan entry at Wikipedia
historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico
Mabel Dodge Conference Center in Taos, New Mexico
browse Mabel Dodge Luhan Bibliography at Amazon
browse books by/about Mabel Dodge Luhan at Amazon
here on the Mabel Dodge Luhan [1879-1962] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore
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