Austin, Mary: - Mary Austin (1868-1934) was a prolific American novelist, playwright, essayist, and critic. Her best-known work, The Land of Little Rain, was an immediate success upon publication and launched Austin's thirty-year writing career. In addition to making a special study of life in the Mojave Desert, Austin was also an early advocate of women's rights, a protector of the environment, and a champion of Native American and Mexican American rights. In all, she produced more than thirty books and two hundred and fifty articles by the time of her death in 1934.