Marjorie Reed was a prominent 20th century Western artist best known for her paintings of the Butterfield-Overland Stage Trail. Reed made her living solely as a freelance artist for over 65 years and left behind a significant body of work. Every bit as colorful as the art is her biographical account. Reed's romantic attachment to her subject matter took her from a life of ease in the Hollywood Hills to rustic shacks in the Southwestern deserts and Bedouin tents in the Middle East. This account gives deep insight into Reed's character and personality. This book offers the first comprehensive account of Reed's life and work. She was an extremely private individual who led a transient lifestyle, claiming at the age of 81 to have moved once for each year she was alive. As a result, little biographical information about this respected and sought artist has been available... until now.Beautifully illustrated with over 300 color plates of her paintings and scores of never-before-published personal photographs, this volume tracks her beginnings as a 16 year-old commercial artist in Los Angeles until the last painting on her easel at the time of her death six decades later.