The Conquest of Don Pedro

New York: William Morrow and Co., 1954. Hard Back. Good/Poor. 5" x 8. 250 pages. Front endpaper missing and dust jacket is tattered. The book is straight and clean with no marks or stamps. A novel of New Mexico after the Civil War. Leo Mendes was the only man who had ever dared challenge the power of Don Augustin Vierra, feudal overlord of the New Mexican village of Don Pedro. Leo, a wandering Jewish peddler, opened a trading post in Don Pedro which made him immensely wealthy. And when he made friends with the beautiful Lupe, Don Augustin's sensuous wife, he became socially accepted too. But this friendship ripened into a dangerous passion. What would Don Augustin do if he learned that Leo was Lupe's secret lover? And what would Lupe do when she discovered that Leo was to marry the dark-haired Magdalena, Don Augustin's jealously guarded ward? These were the days following the Civil War. New Mexico was on the verge of change, balanced between the new ways and the old. Powerful Spanish families still ruled the land, resisting all inroads of American civilization, backing and filling against the inexorable tide. The author has known the wild and beautiful country of New Mexico all his life. He knows it well and loves it deeply, and this gives a special warmth to his writing; a sharp and personal brilliance to his characterizations.