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DODGE from page 7
Some writings also suggest that Mabel may have been in competition with Frieda, wanting more than just Lawrence's literary talents. Mabel wrote a profile of Lawrence for the February 1936 issue of New Mexico Magazine that illustrated his effect on her.
D.H. Lawrence will live forever in the memories of those who knew him and who walked with him, who with him beside them, watched the clouds cross over the mountains, or looked down into the hazy valley and saw the sunlight moving across the gray desert land. ...He seemed to be conscious of the meaning beneath the appearances in nature and in people, and the beauty and the terror of life that he perceived communicated itself to whomever he was with…
He always knew what he was doing. And this quick life in him quickened the
dulled or oblivious life in others when they were near him and made them con-
scious, too awakened them to small, real experiences that usually they did not notice, so that ordinary things took on a sharp, sweet aspect and became wonder-ful to them.
("D.H.Lawrence Feeling the Magic," p.40)
The relationship between the Lawrences and Mabel grew more tumultuous as time passed. Mabel's antics did not help. She was not yet married to Tony, though he lived in the house, and she had not yet fully realized his significance to her. It was Lawrence on whom she had set her sights. When he suggested that they write a book together, Mabel met him for their first session on the roof outside her bedroom wearing only some loose flowing gown type garment. Her legs were bare, and she had on moccasins. Lawrence was displeased. After some silence he said, "I don't know how Frieda's going to feel about this," and Mabel replied, "Well, surely she will understand…" (Mabel, p.166) He insisted she would not. This was the only private time Mabel and Lawrence worked on the book together, and the project was soon abandoned.
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After some months the Lawrences moved from Mabel's home to a ranch in the area, and eventually Mabel and Tony were quietly married.
Mabel finally settled down, perhaps lulled into a more peaceful existence by the beauty around her, perhaps calmed by the influence of her Native American husband. During the 1920s Mabel wrote a four-volume memoir: Background, European Experiences, Movers and Shakers, and Edge of Taos Desert. She also wrote multitudinous articles in support of Native American culture, health, and tribal land protection. During this phase of her life, she left her beloved Taos only once, convinced by her son that New York needed a salon once more. However, New York had changed, and Mabel soon rejoined Tony in Taos. Guests still visited, though none so famous as in the earlier days. She died of a heart attack on August 13, 1962 and was buried in Kit Carson Cemetery in Taos. Mabel hated Carson for being an "Indian killer," but when Kit Carson Park was established in the 1950s the board had wanted to honor her by insuring her a final resting-place near the famed Carson. After much protest she capitulated.
In the 1920s a reporter described Mabel as, "the most peculiar common denominator that society, literature, art, and radical revolutionaries ever found in New York and Europe." (Encyclopedia of World Biography Vol. 10) And New Mexico! Today Mabel Dodge Luhan's spirit is still in Taos where the restored Mabel Dodge Luhan House graces the landscape reminding those that will listen of Mabel's own words.
This is the provocative landscape that stirs the emotions. Tender and strong, sometimes darkening dramatically, the half-circle of mountains surrounds the somnolent desert and embraces the oasis that is named Taos…. In this high valley there is not a day that does not evoke the emotion of poesy, com
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