May Price Mosley

Library of Congress, WPA Writers Project

Lovington, N. Mex.

26 May 1936

BIOGRAPHY May Price Mosley: Born in Midland, Texas, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Price, who at that time made their home on the Quinn ranch in Terry County, Texas. Mrs. Mosley was the  child in that county for some time, and her mother often the only woman. The family first moved into what is now Lea County (N. Mex.) in 1896, moving to the old E Ranch, which was located some twenty miles northeast of where Lovington mow is; and since that date this section has been home to her most of the time.

"Education," writes Mrs. Mosley," in those days and circumstances, was necessarily a very fragmentary affair and mine acquired by an especially patchy process." She learned her letters reading the various brands on cattle that drank at the ranch water trough during open range. Later, her parents usually managed to sandwich in a year's schooling (far away from home) for her, between each year of home study. So much alone-ness made of her an omnivorous reader. And so much reading seems early to have given her the desire to put the drama of life into written words. "Leisure," she declares, "was the only thing on the ranch of which there was plenty." She had two years at a fresh water college, but spent most of her time while there on music.

She is married and spends her time as do most housewives, save that she often substitutes study for parties, and for pastime prefers piecing colorful words into paragraphs rather than gay scraps into patchwork quilts. "The only thorn on the rose of writing for pleasure," she writes, "is the alone-ness of the game; just like sol: no partners --- and so much happens, while you write, that you are left out of." Due to early environment, she declares, she will always be a little afraid of people --interesting as she finds them--- and feels much freer with animals, of which she and her husband are equally fond.