British writer Alec Waugh was also around and Baron Wrangle, who never wears that patch he has in the Hathaway shirt ads in public. And, oh yes, one night when I was having a quiet drink in El Remo Prince Rainer and Grace Kelly came in for dinner and a mutual friend introduced us—although I haven't the vaguest idea why. I suppose he thought that everybody would like the opportunity of meeting Grace and her prince. But that's the way it is in an art colony. Complete informality, no one better than anyone else. If a celebrity comes to town, no matter what field he might be in, you'll meet him at one of the local parties, one of the local bars, or possibly sitting around on the beach or at a sidewalk cafe. This, of course, applies to American art colonies as well as European ones. § CASE HISTORY No. I. I mentioned in an introductory chapter that some of the case histories I planned to use in this book were ones that concerned me personally and this is one of these. In my easy going travels about the United States, I arrived in Taos, New Mexico in the summer of 1989 and was immediately impressed by the great beauty of this section which British writer D. H. Lawrence once described as the most beautiful valley in the world. It was a time when I was more than ordinarily pressed for funds because I had been doing a great deal of traveling—just for the fun of it. I decided to settle down awhile to recoup my fortunes. After a few days in town I found that although rents in Taos proper weren't particularly high, you could beat them amazingly by going out to one of the nearby towns such as Arroyo Seco, or Arroyo Hondo, both of which were about eight miles out of town. I looked about and found also that this area supports some of the most poverty stricken people to be found in our country. They are of Spanish and Indian descent and a considerable number of them, even though they and their ancestors have lived in this country since before the Pilgrims landed in New England, don't even speak English. They are usually small farmers, and seldom
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