In 1960 he wrote his famous Wilderness Letter on the importance of federal protection of wild places. He became involved with the conservation movement in the 1950's while fighting the construction of dam on the Green River at Dinosaur National Monument. Wallace Stegner wrote about the need to preserve the West, and he also fought for it.

His impact, historically and environmentally, is Western. His non-fiction, however, and one of his most eloquent statements about the environment, The Wilderness Letter, are definitely Western.

Many of his short stories have a variety of settings: Vermont, Egypt, the South of France, as well as the American West. All The Little Live Things is pure California, not typically Western. The Spectator Bird is in California and Denmark. One of his most successful novels, Crossing to Safety takes place in Wisconsin and Vermont. The nonfiction includes Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, 1954 Wolf Willow, (A History, A Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier), 1962 The Sound of Mountain Water, 1969 Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West, 1992, a collection of essays that earned him a nomination for the National Book Critics Circle award.Īlthough Wallace Stegner is called 'the dean of Western writers,' not all of his fiction is laid in the West. Among the novels are, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, 1943 Joe Hill, 1950 All The Little Live Things, 1967 (Commonwealth Club Gold Medal) Angle of Repose, 1972 (Pulitzer Prize) The Spectator Bird, (National Book Award), 1977 Recapitulation, 1979 Collected Stories, 1990, and Crossing to Safety, 1987. Wallace Stegner was born on Februin Lake Mills, Iowa. 'It is a book about what one man has taught us, by his example, about the accountable life a book about what it means to be a responsible, loving, thoughtful, constituent of the human race. In The Geography of Hope, A Tribute to Wallace Stegner, written by his friends, colleages, and his son, Page Stegner, we sense a far greater resonance than a mere collection of memorial applause. Wallace Stegner once said about his writing, 'In fiction I think we should have no agenda but to tell the truth.' Stegner's prose has inspired generations of Americans to seek their own truth.

Collected stories of wallace stegner