A book review, 100 years late

I bought this little book at our library's used book sale this spring, thinking it was just the cutest little thing, and exactly 100 years old, and needed to come live at my house with some other old books (and an old bookworm). It's not in perfect condition, and has a red cloth cover, which, I belatedly discovered, bleeds when it gets wet. It is titled Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White. I believe Stewart might have been British, as he spells color "colour".

Anyway, I intended at first to just put the book on my shelf with my other old books. Then I thought, maybe I should actually read it. What a concept!

The first part is made up of various stories told by a group of cowboys about cattle drives, branding, rustling, treasure hunting, etc. The last section is about Buck Johnson, owner of the ranch that most of the cowboys work for, and how his growing appreciation of the desert's beauty leads him to search out a wife via the personal ads in the newspaper.

I tried to read it as if I was living in 1907, and curious about the wild western US. White's descriptions of the desert landscape are vivid; but could I see it in my mind because of his painterly words, or because I live in the high desert? I'll never know for sure, but I did enjoy reading it. And now it is happily living on my shelf, having celebrated its 100th birthday by being read and appreciated yet again.