Wallace Stegner
Encyclopedia
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American
historian
, novelist, short story
writer, and environmentalist
, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
in 1972.
, and grew up in Great Falls, Montana
, Salt Lake City, Utah, and southern Saskatchewan
, which he wrote about in his autobiography Wolf Willow. Stegner says he "lived in twenty places in eight states and Canada". Stegner summered in Greensboro, Vermont. While living in Utah, he joined a Boy Scout
troop at a LDS Church (although he himself was a Presbyterian) and earned the Eagle Scout
award. He received a B.A.
at the University of Utah
in 1930. He also studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop
at the University of Iowa
, where he received a master's degree
in 1932 and a doctorate
in 1935.
In 1934, Stegner married Mary Stuart Page. For 59 years they shared a 'personal literary partnership of singular facility,' in the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Stegner died in Santa Fe, New Mexico
, on April 13, 1993, from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on March 28, 1993.
Stegner's son, Page Stegner
, is a novelist, essayist nature writer
and professor emeritus at University of California, Santa Cruz
. Page is married to Lynn Stegner, a novelist. Page co-authored "American Places" and edited the 2008 Collected Letters of Wallace Stegner.
and Harvard University
. Eventually he settled at Stanford University
, where he founded the creative writing program. His students included Sandra Day O'Connor
, Edward Abbey
, Wendell Berry
, Simin Daneshvar
, George V. Higgins
, Thomas McGuane
, Robert Stone, Ken Kesey
, Gordon Lish
, Ernest Gaines
, and Larry McMurtry
. He served as a special assistant to Secretary of the Interior
Stewart Udall
and was elected to the Sierra Club
's board of directors for a term that lasted 1964–1966. He also moved into a house in nearby Los Altos Hills
and became one of the town's most prominent residents.
Stegner's novel Angle of Repose
(first published by Doubleday in early 1971) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
in 1972, and was directly based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote
(first published in 1972 by Huntington Library Press) as the memoir A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West). Stegner's use of uncredited passages taken directly from Foote's letters caused a continuing controversy. But note that Stegner used only unpublished archival letters in his novel and he explained this briefly at the beginning of Angle of Repose. Stegner also won the National Book Award
for The Spectator Bird in 1977. In the late 1980s, he refused a National Medal from the National Endowment for the Arts
because he believed the NEA had become too politicized.
Stegner's non-fiction works include Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (1954), a biography of John Wesley Powell
, who was the first man to explore the Colorado River
through the Grand Canyon
and later served as a government scientist and advocate of water conservation
in the American West
. Stegner wrote the foreword and edited "This Is Dinosaur," with photographs by Philip Hyde
, a Sierra Club
book that was used in the campaign to prevent dams in Dinosaur National Monument
and helped launch the modern environmental movement. A substantial number of his works are set in and around Greensboro, Vermont
, where he lived part-time. Some of his character representations (particularly in Second Growth) were sufficiently unflattering that residents took offense, and he did not visit Greensboro for several years after its publication.
reflected in The New York Times on the writer's legacy, including his perhaps troubled relationship with the newspaper itself. Over 100 readers including Jane Smiley
offered comments on the subject.
One commenter to The Times, Stephen Trimble, a 2008–2009 Wallace Stegner Fellow at the University of Utah
's Tanner Humanities Center, drew attention to the broader Utah
birthday tribute to Stegner through leading conversations about Stegner’s work in communities across Utah. Gov. Jon Huntsman
's declaration of February 18, 2009 as Wallace Stegner Day highlighted Stegner as "one of Utah's most prominent citizens...a legendary voice for Utah and the West as an author, educator, and conservationist...[who was] raised and educated in Salt Lake City and [at] the University of Utah, [and] possess[ed] a lifelong love of Utah’s landscapes, people, and culture." See more on the Utah centennial tributes at www.stegner100.com.
In recognition of Stegner's legacy at the University of Utah
, The Wallace Stegner Prize in Environmental or American Western History was established in 2010 and is administered by the University of Utah Press
. This book publication prize is awarded to the best monograph the Press receives on the topic of American western or environmental history within a predetermined time period.
The Stegner Fellowship
program at Stanford University
is a two-year creative writing fellowship. The house Stegner lived in from ages 7 to 12 in Eastend, Saskatchewan
, Canada
was restored by the Eastend Arts Council in 1990 and established as a Residence for Artists. In 2003, indie rock
trio Mambo Sons
released the Stegner-influenced song "Little Live Thing / Cross to Safety" written by Scott Lawson and Tom Guerra
, which resulted in an invitation for Lawson to serve as Artist-in-Residency for March 2009.
In May 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Stegner's Los Altos Hills home, which was sold in 2005, is scheduled to be demolished by the current owners. Lynn Stegner said the family attempted to sell the home to Stanford University in an attempt to preserve it, but the university said the home would be sold at market value, customary for real estate donated to Stanford. The current owners apparently refused to allow a PBS affiliate to film at the property for a centennial documentary on Stegner that aired in 2009.
Plus: Three O. Henry Award
s, twice a Guggenheim Fellow (1949 and 1959), Senior Fellow of the National Institute of Humanities, member of National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters, member National Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
The Encyclopedia of World Biography reports that the Little Brown prize was for "$2500, which at that time was a fortune. The book became a literary and financial success and helped gain Stegner [the] position ... at Harvard."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, novelist, short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer, and environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...
in 1972.
Life
Stegner was born in Lake Mills, IowaLake Mills, Iowa
Lake Mills is a city in Winnebago County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,140 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lake Mills is located at ....
, and grew up in Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
, Salt Lake City, Utah, and southern Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, which he wrote about in his autobiography Wolf Willow. Stegner says he "lived in twenty places in eight states and Canada". Stegner summered in Greensboro, Vermont. While living in Utah, he joined a Boy Scout
Scouting in Utah
Scouting in Utah has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.-History:...
troop at a LDS Church (although he himself was a Presbyterian) and earned the Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
award. He received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
in 1930. He also studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, where he received a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1932 and a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in 1935.
In 1934, Stegner married Mary Stuart Page. For 59 years they shared a 'personal literary partnership of singular facility,' in the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Stegner died in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, on April 13, 1993, from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on March 28, 1993.
Stegner's son, Page Stegner
Page Stegner
Page Stegner is a novelist, essayist, and historian who has written extensively about the American West. He is the son of novelist Wallace Stegner.-Career:...
, is a novelist, essayist nature writer
Nature writing
Nature writing is generally defined as nonfiction prose writing about the natural environment. Nature writing often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world; at the same time, it is frequently written in the first person and incorporates personal observations of and...
and professor emeritus at University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
. Page is married to Lynn Stegner, a novelist. Page co-authored "American Places" and edited the 2008 Collected Letters of Wallace Stegner.
Career
Stegner taught at the University of WisconsinUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Eventually he settled at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he founded the creative writing program. His students included Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...
, Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
, Simin Daneshvar
Simin Daneshvar
Simin Dāneshvar is an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer and translator of literary works from English, German, Italian and Russian into Persian. Daneshvar has a number of firsts to her credit. In 1948, her collection of Persian short stories was the first by an Iranian woman to be...
, George V. Higgins
George V. Higgins
George V. Higgins was a United States author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor. He is best known for his bestselling crime novels. His full name was George Vincent Higgins, but his books were all published as by George V. Higgins. ACtually, his full name was George V...
, Thomas McGuane
Thomas McGuane
Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American author. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors.-Early life:...
, Robert Stone, Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
, Gordon Lish
Gordon Lish
Gordon Jay Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, and Richard Ford.-Early life and family:...
, Ernest Gaines
Ernest Gaines
Ernest James Gaines is an African-American author. His works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works have been made into television movies.His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the...
, and Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...
. He served as a special assistant to Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
Stewart Udall
Stewart Udall
Stewart Lee Udall was an American politician. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B...
and was elected to the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
's board of directors for a term that lasted 1964–1966. He also moved into a house in nearby Los Altos Hills
Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 7,922 at the 2010 census. Located in Silicon Valley, Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.-Strictly residential:...
and became one of the town's most prominent residents.
Stegner's novel Angle of Repose
Angle of repose
The angle of repose or, more precisely, the critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip of the slope relative to the horizontal plane when material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. This angle is in the range 0°–90°.When bulk granular...
(first published by Doubleday in early 1971) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...
in 1972, and was directly based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote
Mary Hallock Foote
Mary Hallock Foote was an American author and illustrator. She is best known for her illustrated short stories and novels portraying life in the mining communities of the turn-of-the-century American West.-Overview:...
(first published in 1972 by Huntington Library Press) as the memoir A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West). Stegner's use of uncredited passages taken directly from Foote's letters caused a continuing controversy. But note that Stegner used only unpublished archival letters in his novel and he explained this briefly at the beginning of Angle of Repose. Stegner also won the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for The Spectator Bird in 1977. In the late 1980s, he refused a National Medal from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
because he believed the NEA had become too politicized.
Stegner's non-fiction works include Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West (1954), a biography of John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions...
, who was the first man to explore the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
through the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
and later served as a government scientist and advocate of water conservation
Water conservation
Water conservation refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation.- Water conservation :Water conservation can be defined as:...
in the American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
. Stegner wrote the foreword and edited "This Is Dinosaur," with photographs by Philip Hyde
Philip Hyde (photographer)
Philip Hyde was a pioneer landscape photographer and conservationist. He attended Ansel Adams' photography program at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute, beginning with the Summer Session in 1946 and enrolling in the full-time professional photography training,...
, a Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
book that was used in the campaign to prevent dams in Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...
and helped launch the modern environmental movement. A substantial number of his works are set in and around Greensboro, Vermont
Greensboro, Vermont
Greensboro is the southernmost town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 770 at the 2000 census. The town includes the places of Campbells Corners, East Greensboro, Gebbie Corner, Greensboro Four Corners, Greensboro Bend, The Four Corners, Tolmans Corner, and Burlington...
, where he lived part-time. Some of his character representations (particularly in Second Growth) were sufficiently unflattering that residents took offense, and he did not visit Greensboro for several years after its publication.
Legacy
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Stegner's birth, Timothy EganTimothy Egan
Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who resides in Seattle. He currently contributes opinion columns to The New York Times as the paper's Pacific Northwest correspondent...
reflected in The New York Times on the writer's legacy, including his perhaps troubled relationship with the newspaper itself. Over 100 readers including Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
offered comments on the subject.
One commenter to The Times, Stephen Trimble, a 2008–2009 Wallace Stegner Fellow at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
's Tanner Humanities Center, drew attention to the broader Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
birthday tribute to Stegner through leading conversations about Stegner’s work in communities across Utah. Gov. Jon Huntsman
Jon Huntsman, Jr.
Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr. is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 16th Governor of Utah. He also served in the administrations of four United States presidents and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.Huntsman worked as a White House staff assistant for...
's declaration of February 18, 2009 as Wallace Stegner Day highlighted Stegner as "one of Utah's most prominent citizens...a legendary voice for Utah and the West as an author, educator, and conservationist...[who was] raised and educated in Salt Lake City and [at] the University of Utah, [and] possess[ed] a lifelong love of Utah’s landscapes, people, and culture." See more on the Utah centennial tributes at www.stegner100.com.
In recognition of Stegner's legacy at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
, The Wallace Stegner Prize in Environmental or American Western History was established in 2010 and is administered by the University of Utah Press
University of Utah Press
The University of Utah Press is the independent publishing branch of the University of Utah and is a division of the J. Willard Marriott Library. Founded in 1949 by A. Ray Olpin, it is also the oldest university press in Utah...
. This book publication prize is awarded to the best monograph the Press receives on the topic of American western or environmental history within a predetermined time period.
The Stegner Fellowship
Stegner Fellowship
The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner , an historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty member who founded the university's creative writing program. Ten...
program at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
is a two-year creative writing fellowship. The house Stegner lived in from ages 7 to 12 in Eastend, Saskatchewan
Eastend, Saskatchewan
-Infrastructure:The Saskatchewan Transportation Company provides intercity passenger and parcel express service to Eastend.-Attractions:Local Attractions:...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
was restored by the Eastend Arts Council in 1990 and established as a Residence for Artists. In 2003, indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
trio Mambo Sons
Mambo Sons
Mambo Sons is an American guitar-based rock and roll indie trio led by guitarist Tom Guerra and vocalist/bassist Scott Lawson, and rounded out by drummer Joe "the Cat" Lemieux...
released the Stegner-influenced song "Little Live Thing / Cross to Safety" written by Scott Lawson and Tom Guerra
Tom Guerra
Tom Guerra of Hartford, Connecticut is an American guitarist.Since the late 1970s, Guerra has been a popular guitarist on the New England club circuit, playing with a host of leading blues, rock n' roll and R&B acts...
, which resulted in an invitation for Lawson to serve as Artist-in-Residency for March 2009.
In May 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Stegner's Los Altos Hills home, which was sold in 2005, is scheduled to be demolished by the current owners. Lynn Stegner said the family attempted to sell the home to Stanford University in an attempt to preserve it, but the university said the home would be sold at market value, customary for real estate donated to Stanford. The current owners apparently refused to allow a PBS affiliate to film at the property for a centennial documentary on Stegner that aired in 2009.
Awards
- 1937 Little BrownLittle, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
Prize for Remembering Laughter - 1945 Houghton-Mifflin Life-in-America Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardAnisfield-Wolf Book AwardsThe Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are United States literary awards dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture...
for One Nation - 1950–1951 Rockefeller fellowshipRockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
to teach writers in the Far East - 1953 Wenner-Gren Foundation grant
- 1956 Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral SciencesCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral SciencesThe Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is an American interdisciplinary research body in Stanford, California focusing on the social sciences and humanities . Fellows are elected in a closed process, to spend a period of residence at the Center, released from other duties...
fellowship - 1967 Commonwealth ClubCommonwealth Club of CaliforniaThe Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States...
Gold Medal for All the Little Live Things - 1972 Pulitzer Prize for FictionPulitzer Prize for FictionThe Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...
for Angle of Repose - 1976 Commonwealth ClubCommonwealth Club of CaliforniaThe Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States...
Gold Medal for The Spectator Bird - 1977 National Book AwardNational Book AwardThe National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for The Spectator Bird - 1980 Los Angeles Times Kirsch award for lifetime achievement
- 1990 P.E.N. Center USA West award for his body of work
- 1991 California Arts CouncilCalifornia Arts CouncilThe California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento. Its eleven council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature...
award for his body of work - 1992 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
(refused)
Plus: Three O. Henry Award
O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
s, twice a Guggenheim Fellow (1949 and 1959), Senior Fellow of the National Institute of Humanities, member of National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters, member National Academy of Arts
National Academy of Arts
The National Academy of Arts is an institution of higher education in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It is the oldest and most renowned academy of arts in the country....
and Sciences.
The Encyclopedia of World Biography reports that the Little Brown prize was for "$2500, which at that time was a fortune. The book became a literary and financial success and helped gain Stegner [the] position ... at Harvard."
Further reading
- 1982 Critical Essays on Wallace Stegner, edited by Anthony ArthurAnthony ArthurAnthony Arthur PhD was an American author.Educated in Pennsylvania and later California he spent three years in the US Army before becoming a journalist in Arizona. He returned to education and completed an MA in English at Penn State University and in 1970 completed his PhD in English. He was a...
, G. K. Hall & Co. - 1983 Conversations with Wallace Stegner on Western History and Literature, Wallace Stegner and Richard Etulain, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City
- 1984 Wallace Stegner: His Life and Work by Jackson J. Benson
- 1991 "A Perspective on Wallace Stegner" by Patricia Rowe Willrich (Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1991, pp. 240–259)
- 1998 Stealing Glances: Three Interviews with Wallace Stegner by James R. Hepworth (Albuquerque: University of New MexicoUniversity of New MexicoThe University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
Press, # ASIN: B0014JC0I6) - 2007 "Wallace Stegner's Formative Years in Saskatchewan and Montana" by Philip FradkinPhilip L. FradkinPhilip L. Fradkin is an American environmentalist historian, journalist and author. Fradkin has authored books ranging from Alaska, California and Nevada, with topics ranging from water conservation, earthquakes, and nuclear weapons....
("Montana The Magazine of Western History," Winter 2007, Vol. 57, No. 4, pages 3-19) - 2007 "A Residual Frontier Town: Wallace Stegner's Salt Lake City," by Robert C. Steensma ("Montana The Magazine of Western History," Winter 2007, Vol. 57, No. 4, pages 20-23)
- 2007 Wallace Stegner's Salt Lake City by Robert C. Steensma, 224 p., University of Utah Press, ISBN 0-87480-898-7, ISBN 978-0-87480-898-8.
- 2008 Wallace Stegner and the American West by Philip L. Fradkin
- 2008 The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner Page Stegner, ed., 480 p., Counterpoint LLCCounterpoint LLCCounterpoint LLC is a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent Soft Skull Press. The company publishes books under the...
/Shoemaker & Hoard (publ.), ISBN 1-58243-446-8, ISBN 978-1-58243-446-9.
External links
- The Wallace Stegner Environmental Center website
- Books by Wallace Stegner: An Annotated Bibliography
- Website for PBS Wallace Stegner documentary
- Web site for Wallace Stegner at Marriott Library, University of Utah
- Wallace Stegner's West at California Legacy Book Series
- Wallace Stegner Bio from San Francisco Public Library
- Wallace Stegner Bio on Answers.com
- 2 short radio segments of Stegner's writing from California Legacy Project Radio Anthology (scripts and audio)
- Profile of Stegner marriage, on Beyond the Margins