John Nichols (writer)

Nichols is the author of the "New Mexico trilogy", a series about the complex relationship among history, race and ethnicity, and land and water rights in the fictional town of Chamisaville, New Mexico.[1] The trilogy consists of The Milagro Beanfield War (which was adapted into a movie of the same title directed by Robert Redford), The Magic Journey, and The Nirvana Blues.

Two of his other novels have been made into films. The Wizard of Loneliness was published in 1966, and the film version with Lukas Haas was made in 1988. Another movie adaptation was of The Sterile Cuckoo, published in 1965 and then adapted for a film by Alan J. Pakula in 1969.[2] He also had a hand, uncredited due to a decision in an arbitration with the Writers Guild, in the Oscar-winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Costa-Gavras' 1982 film Missing.[3]

Nichols also has written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. Nichols has lived in Taos, New Mexico for many years. His latest (2022) book is a memoir I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer. He is the subject of a feature documentary by director Kurt Jacobsen and co-producer Warren Leming entitled The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols, which premiered at the 2012 Albuquerque Film Festival and screened at a dozen more film festivals.[4]

Nichols also is a photographer. Many of his photographs appear in his book On the Mesa, among others. He also participated as an instructor in fine art photographic workshops, most notably with the Los Angeles photographer Ray McSavaney. He is long-time political activist for progressive and especially environmental causes.[5]

He is the grandson of ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols and a first cousin of Massachusetts politician William Weld.[6]

Novels

• The Sterile Cuckoo. David McKay Company, Inc. 1965.
• The Wizard of Loneliness. Putnams. 1966.
• New Mexico Trilogy
  • The Milagro Beanfield War. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1974.
  • The Magic Journey. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1978. ISBN 9780345310491.
  • The Nirvana Blues. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1981. ISBN 9780345304650.
• A Ghost in the Music. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1979. ISBN 9780030425769.
• American Blood. Henry Holt & Co. 1987.
• An Elegy for September. Henry Holt & Co. 1992. ISBN 9780805019940.
• Conjugal Bliss: A Comedy of Martial Arts. Henry Holt & Co. 1994.
• The Voice of the Butterfly. Chronicle Books. 2001. ISBN 9780811832014.
• The Empanada Brotherhood. Chronicle Books. 2007.
• On Top Of Spoon Mountain. University of New Mexico Press. 2012.
• The Annual Big Arsenic Fishing Contest!. University of New Mexico Press. 2016.
• Goodbye, Monique. Acequia Madre Press. 2019.

Non-fiction

• Non-fiction trilogy
  • If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir. With William Davis (photographer). Knopf. 1979.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn. Henry Holt & Co. 1982.
  • On the Mesa. Gibbs Smith. 1986.
• A Fragile Beauty: John Nichols' Milagro Country. Gibbs Smith. 1987.
• Keep It Simple: A Defense of the Earth. Norton. 1992.
• Dancing on the Stones:Selected Essays. University of New Mexico Press. 2000.
• An American Child Supreme: The Education of a Liberation Ecologist. Credo Series. Milkweed Editions. 2001. ISBN 9781571312532.
• I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer. University of Mexico Press. 2022

• Official website
• John Nichols Interview for New Mexico in Focus New Mexico PBS, raw footage
• Collection: John Nichols Papers, University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research
• John Nichols, Writing the Southwest, University of New Mexico