The wind was the cause of it all. The sand, too, had a share in it, and human beings were involved, but the wind was the primal force, and but for it the whole series of events would not have happened. there was nothing to break the sweep of the wind across the treeless prairies, when the sand blew in blinding fury across the plains. The winds were cruel to women that came under their tyranny. They were at them ceaselessly, buffeting them with icy blasts in winter, burning them with hot breath in summer, parching their skins and roughening their hair, and trying to wear down their nerves by attrition, and drive them away. The Wind by Dorothy Scarborough is a tensely written story about Letty Mason's descent into madness. The novel opens with Letty, an 18-year-old orphan from Virginia, on a westbound train headed to Sweetwater Texas. Letty, coming from the lush and verdant Virginia, is not prepared for the drought-burdened Texas desert where there is no escape from the incessant wind. Nor can she cope with the financial desperation of everyday life in Sweetwater. Masterfully written, liberally sprinkled with genuine Texas vernacular.