Old St. Francis History Pub

Wallace Stegner (1908-1993) often gained praise as a superlative western author and thinker, as a Wise Man of the American West. More than once, the New York Times referred to Stegner as the Dean of western writers. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his fiction and wide attention for his biographies and histories. Environmentalists usually name him among the leading western spokespersons on conservation/ecology. What was it about this modest son of a frontier ne’er-do-well that attracted readers throughout the country? What led so many observers to think of him as our Western Wise Man? Should his controversial research for his classic novel Angle of Repose (1971) call into question his larger roles as novelist, historian, and environmental advocate? This slide-illustrated presentation will deal with Stegner’s major contributions and will raise probing questions about his career as westerner, public intellectual, and wilderness defender.