Mudhead Kiva was a book that, according to Tony Hillerman, "..never quite got written."
Nevertheless, it got far enough into HarperCollins' production schedule that a book cover was produced and submitted to Mr. Hillerman for his approval. As he has written on the inside front fold of the dustwrapper (see below), he did not approve -- and eventually Mudhead Kiva was superseded by Sacred Clowns.
Below is the scanned text of Mr. Hillerman's comments on the dustwrapper cover (inside front fold) pictured above. A typed transcipt follows:
Here's the proposed cover of the book that never quite got written. I objected to the skull of the koshore clown figure on the sensible grounds that it would offend Pueblo Indian folks. HarperCollins promised to change it. Then I had to have a cancer operation. Time I was thinking again Mudhead had died. I dumped it and built Sacred Clowns on the grave. So this is an oddity I guess -- Tony Hillerman
We were happy offer this 'oddity' for sale. Full size glossy dustwrapper for Mudhead Kiva with handwritten note on the (otherwise blank) inside front fold of the wrapper. SOLD
