As a dealer in Southwestern American Indian fine arts and hand crafted, traditional items, I am always on the lookout for books I can recommend to our collectors and students of the indigenous arts here in America.

The Peabody Museum Press has produced a work that should be included the library of every serious collector of traditional Southwestern American Indian handcrafted arts. For collectors of Navajo and Pueblo textiles and baskets we consider it mandatory reading. It's overview and cataloging of the highly regarded William Wright Collection is particularly notable for its excellent introduction, descriptions of the lifeways and cultural traditions of the artists, and collateral detail notes found throughout. Editor, Penelope Ballard Drooker has given us a very readable distillation of information from many sources which serves to enhance the understanding of the evolution of the state of the arts invbolved in the time frame they were collected: 1960's - 70's.

We especially appreciated the detail photography. While the reproduction of some of the images seemed a bit flat, overall they were still well -lit and shot with sufficient depth of field to convey the textural nature of many of the items very well. The color sections, especially conveyed the vitaltiy of the works pictured.

From the perspective of the serious collector, Publications like this provide us with insight and further expand our knowledge of the development and marketing of these arts as well as the acheivements of individual artists. Few of us can travel frequently enough to benefit from exhibitions of collections as broad and thoughful as the William Wright Collection. Catalog publications, when presented in as complete a manner as Makers and Markets allow us all the benefits without the miles.

We will encourage our collectors to obtain copies for their own continuing education and enjoyment.