1909-1921 Wallace Stegner: Frontier Childhood

Wallace Earl Stegner was born into a family that roamed the West in a restless search for the good life. His frontier childhood shaped his writing for the rest of his life. Jim Foley

British CANADA Columbia Alberta Saskatchewan Ontario Eastend THROWING Redmond/Seattle Washington Great Falls Grand Forks A North Dakota Minnesota Oregon Montana

LONG Idaho South Wisconsin Dakota SHADOW Wyoming Industry & History of Museum Seattle Lake Mills Nebraska Then to Seattle, where the boys lived briefly in an Iowa orphanage like this Seattle Children’s Home. Nevada Pictured from L to R: Wallace, age 3 (a sickly child), Illinois

mother Hilda, brother Cecil, age 5 (a robust and California Utah Colorado athletic child), and Aunt Mina (Hilda’s sister). Kansas “Being reared on the tail end of the Not pictured: father George. Seattle, 1912. Missouri Wallace (second from the right) and Eastend friends American frontier over a span on the bank of the White Mud River in town. Wallace was born near Lake Mills, Iowa New Jim Foley of time from the horse-drawn plow on February 18, 1909. His warm and loving Arizona Mexico Oklahoma Arkansas “I never returned to town in early September mother, Hilda Paulson, had married hard- without a surge of joy—back to safety to the information age gave Stegner living, risk-taking, self-centered vagabond, and shelter, back to friends, games, Sunday what he called an ‘overweening George Stegner. His father unsuccessfully The family moved often: “My first five years school parties, back to school, where I were in constant motion, and what I retain could shine.”

tried farming, gambling, prospecting, and www.runnerduck.com Ken Bloomquist at 7 sense of place; almost a pathological bootlegging. of them is no more than flits and flashes: —wallace stegner rare sun on the roof of our tent in the deep In 1990, the Stegner house in town was restored and established as a Residence for Artists. sensitivity to the colors, smells, light, “My father was a boomer, a gambler, a woods where now stands Redmond, Then by horse and wagon to Eastend, Washington; the musty, buttery odor of the Next back to Iowa and Wallace’s strict grandfather’s Saskatchewan. land, and life forms of the segments rainbow-chaser, as footloose as a tumble- “After two years [in Eastend], my father bread crusts distributed from a dishpan home. This is a typical Midwestern Norwegian weed in a windstorm. My mother was farmhouse built about 1908.

built a house and a small barn down in Jim Foley of earth on which I’ve lived.’ ” at mid-morning in the Seattle orphanage “We lived the first winter in the dining car The original Stegner homestead site. always hopefully, hopelessly, trying to nest. the west end.” where my desperate mother stashed my [such as the living quarters pictured above]. 448 Fourth Avenue North was the Stegner’s —james thalman1 Like many western Americans, especially —wallace stegner4 the poorer kinds, I was born on wheels.” brother and me for a while; the foreign Later we lived in a rented shack.” The Stegner’s isolated farm on the prairie new address. 3 —wallace stegner1 smells and sounds of my grandfather’s Congress of Library —wallace stegner was 50 miles outside of town. In the Norwegian-speaking house in Lake Mills From North Dakota to Redmond, Washington, where summers George and the boys tried to Six years later, after several seasons of when we retreated there in the winter the Stegner family lived in a tent camp like this one. grow wheat. crop failure, George moved his family to of 1913….” Great Falls, Montana into a house in an —wallace stegner2 “We plowed our first field, and dammed established community, a first for Wallace. our coulee, and built our shack, in the summer of 1915, and thereafter we spent “On my first day there I made the the summers on the homestead, the acquaintance of things that I had read winters in town.” about but never seen: lawns, cement —wallace stegner5 sidewalks, streetcars, streets with names, houses with numbers… hardwood floors “You become acutely aware of yourself. and a flush toilet.” The world is very large, the sky even larger, —wallace stegner8 and you are very small.” —wallace stegner6 1921-1930 A Sense of Belonging

Nine years in Salt Lake City gave Wallace the sense of community and belonging that his early nomadic childhood had lacked. Utah State Historical Society Utah State Historical Society

Temple Block, 1920’s. The old Saltair resort pavilion on the Great Salt A Salt Lake City library in the 1920’s. At age 15 while in his senior year of high Lake, 1925. It was built to provide “a wholesome school, a miracle happened. Wallace grew “By his second year Wallace was in a place of recreation” under church control for 6 inches to slightly over 6 feet tall. fraternity [Sigma Nu], dating, and George Stegner again wanted a new business Mormons and others. “My long-term addiction to books had been “His friendship with Jack Irvine and his opportunity, so in the summer of 1921 he intensified by access to the Carnegie Library family led to a job [at the family’s flooring having a wonderful time, hanging out drove his family to Salt Lake City. on State Street. I was always down at the “Suddenly I was big enough to hold my own company], a job which gave Wallace the with the jocks in various beer joints “If I have a home town, a place where a part library taking books out four and six at in sports. Suddenly I had friends who looked money to buy his own clothes and pay his near campus.” of my heart is, it is Salt Lake City…. The “How it is dignified with monuments and a time.” on me as an equal and not as a mascot.” own way.” —jackson j. benson12 Mormons who built it and lived in it had 6 steeped in sun tempered with shade, and —wallace stegner4 —wallace stegner —jackson j. benson10 a strong sense of family and community, how it lies protected behind its rampart He continued getting A’s and was something the Stegners were notably mountains.” Wallace (right) and good friend Jack Irvine were included in the literary salons held for short of.” Wallace stated his novel Recapitulation co-captains of the University tennis team. —wallace stegner1 the brighter young English majors. At —wallace stegner2 portrays the relationship between himself school, Wallace found the acceptance and Jack Irvine: “Lead character Joe Mulder he so craved. He graduated from the [Jack] taught protagonist Bruce Mason Boise State University Library University State Boise Utah State Historical Society University of Utah in 1930, having grown [Wallace] not only tennis but confidence, Main building, University of Deseret, 1884. Name was Wallace took freshman English from a intellectually, athletically, and socially. changed in 1894 to University of Utah. radical young atheist professor, Vardis Fisher. and not only confidence but friendship. Joe rescued Bruce’s summer and perhaps After graduating from high school in 1925, “[Vardis Fisher] was one of those teachers his life.” 11 Wallace entered the University of Utah at who liked to take can openers to unopened —wallace stegner the tender age of 16. minds…. It was thrilling, in a way, to be treated almost like an adult.” Utah State Historical Society University of Utah Archives “That was the first chance any of us had to —wallace stegner9 East High School, Salt Lake City, 1920. Wallace in his tennis whites. see minds at work at all. My teachers were very kind to me and they opened up a lot “Between my 12th and 21st years [our family] Wallace declared that it was tennis that of doors. must have lived in 20 different houses, [so I really saved him from the army of the —wallace stegner8 trekked to school] across lots from many estranged and disaffected. different directions.” May 1922 issue of Boys’ Life, the official Boy —wallace stegner5 “I was fully a part of East High School and Scout magazine. the city, contented with myself and my Fortunately the family’s numerous homes place in the world.” “What I wanted most was to belong to were all within the attendance area for East —wallace stegner7 something. Once in the Boy Scouts, I went High. It was there that Wallace first pursued up through the ranks from tenderfoot to sports and joined the tennis team. Eagle like smoke up a chimney.” —wallace stegner3 1930-1939 From Grad Student to Professor

With no clear-cut career in mind, Wallace was saved by a Utah professor who negotiated a teaching assistantship for him at the University of Iowa in a Master’s program in English. Wallace survived the Depression in graduate school earning his masters and doctorate. During these years, Older brother Cecil at age 5. he weathered the loss of his childhood family but In his first year at Iowa, tragedy struck the family back in Salt Lake City when Cecil died discovered joy in starting a new family. He got his first unexpectedly at age 23. As young children,

University of Iowa the brothers had been very close, and Wallace taste of teaching and published his first book. In September 1930, Wallace arrived at the often recalled how Cecil had defended and University of Iowa. protected him.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— “[Cecil’s death] made me realize how tight a I took the one I was pushed into.” cluster [the Stegner family was], knotted —wallace stegner1 against respectable society, our own sole resource, our own prison.” “During an endless rainy fall, [I realized] —wallace stegner4 that I came from the arid lands, and liked where I came from. I was used to earth colors—tan, rusty red, toned white—and the endless green of Iowa offended me.” —wallace stegner2 Wallace returned to the University of Iowa In 1935, while carrying a one-semester in Spring 1934, just in time to meet graduate teaching position at Augustana College in student Mary Stuart Page, the woman he Illinois, Wallace completed the University of would love for the rest of his life. Iowa requirements for his Ph.D. in English with a dissertation on the Utah naturalist “He was tall, handsome, and well-built; Clarence Dutton. Wallace often led discussion sessions with his Wallace, the new father, Mary and Page George (left) and Wallace in happier times, she was slight and beautiful…. It was a University of Utah students at his home. with his only child, son playing in their first together on a hunting trip. Page. (1937) Wisconsin winter. courtship that went on intensely, but without much money… a lot of walking Wallace accepted a position at the University Although Wallace and his father had been Wallace achieved national success as a and talking.” of Utah starting in Fall 1935. estranged since George’s desertion of his writer when his Remembering Laughter was —jackson j. benson7 The happy newlyweds. dying wife in 1933, Wallace sent his down- “Wallace didn’t have any classes until published after winning the $2,500 prize in and-out father money whenever he could. Library of Congress of Library In June 1933, Wallace discovered his mother the Little, Brown Publishers short novel But in Salt Lake City in the summer of “I love you because you are fine and clean ten in the morning, so he sat down in their was dying of cancer. He left school and apartment every morning at eight and contest in 1937. 1939, the final chapter was written when While at Iowa, the Great Depression and youthful and high-hearted and honest moved to Salt Lake City so he could help wrote until he had to grab his coat and George Stegner, full of self-pity, defeated deepened. For his Master’s thesis, Wallace and loving and dozens and dozens of other care for her. True to form, his father soon books and race up the hill the two blocks “We had quite a party [to celebrate]. At the and weak, committed suicide after killing wrote a series of three short stories, adjectives that don’t mean anything in the departed for places unknown. Wallace never National Park Service to his first classroom.” end, Mary went into labor… and produced his girlfriend. completing his degree requirements by abstract, but mean much when applied forgave this final betrayal. He continued to —jackson j. benson10 a son. My new family and my new literary mid-1932. He decided to stay on and work to you.” Dutton explored and researched unique areas care for his mother until one cold day in that later became national parks, including Zion, life began together.” “For Wallace there was bitter irony in this —wallace stegner8 for his Ph.D. November, she whispered to him that he was Bryce, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Lassen, —wallace stegner11 act, which he considered the ultimate a “good boy” and gave up her difficult life. and Grand Canyon (pictured here). display of weakness… adding shame to “I looked outside and saw the Depression After the success of Remembering Laughter, the hatred, guilt and distaste.” so deep and black that it was frivolous to “I was not intelligent enough to comprehend “The dissertation shows [Stegner], a young Wallace packed up Mary and Page and —jackson j. benson13 think of going out into it and making a the kind of example you had been setting man of 25 who, in the mid-1930’s before accepted a new position at the University living. It was safer in school….” me, until it was too late to do anything but environmentalism became the movement of Wisconsin, Madison in 1937. A letter of 3 “Finally, like many another gambler no —wallace stegner hold your hand while you died.” it is today, was concerned about preserving recommendation written to Wisconsin by worse and no better, he died broke and —wallace stegner5 the beauties of the national parks and an Iowa professor stated, “My guess is that friendless in a fleabag hotel, having in conserving our land heritage.” Stegner is not likely to produce much his lifetime done more human and 9 “I was never lower in my life.” —jackson j. benson ‘research,’ though he will always handle his environmental damage than he could —wallace stegner 6 courses in a scholarly manner. What he will have repaired in a second lifetime.” produce—as things look now—is fiction.” —wallace stegner14 12 Six months from their first meeting, —norman foerster Wallace and Mary’s small wedding took place September 1, 1934, followed by a brief honeymoon. 1939-1945 The East Coast Years Harry Redl

Taking advantage of promising opportunities offered him on the East coast, Wallace continued to develop as a writer and teacher. And in these years he decided his literary career would be foremost. Middlebury College John Geery Middlebury College

Maple Cottage on the Bread Loaf campus One summer’s faculty at Bread Loaf: (rear) Raymond of Middlebury College in Vermont. Everitt, Robeson Bailey, Herbert Agar, Herschel Brickell, Wallace Stegner, Fletcher Pratt; (center) Gorham Munson, But it was the war years, and Wallace Professionalism in writing was emphasized Bernard DeVoto, Theodore Morrison, Robert Frost, John Gassner; (front) Mary Stegner, Helen Everitt, soon found he was teaching writing in at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a Kathleen Morrison, Eleanor Chilton. the Army Specialized Training Program celebrated summer program for authors held exclusively. The government program in Vermont. Wallace was invited to join the Besides influencing his writing, many of had essentially taken over Harvard’s staff in 1938, and continued to participate the famous authors and poets at Bread curriculum. until 1946. Loaf, like Robert Frost, became Wallace’s The title page of One Nation. life-long friends. “I can remember vignettes from those In 1944, Wallace accepted an assignment evenings: Eudora Welty sitting worshipfully “[At Bread Loaf], for the first time in my Jon Chase/Harvard News Office News Chase/Harvard Jon Middlebury College with Look magazine to write a series at the feet of Katherine Anne Porter after life I was moving among people who Harvard’s Memorial Hall. Bernard DeVoto. of photojournalism articles about a reading, Truman Capote holding himself really rattled my brain.” The Stegners with their good friends from Vermont, Mary, Wallace, Page, and their Phil and Peg Gray. dog Koofna, Winter 1942. discrimination in wartime America. conspicuously aloof from Louis Untermeyer —wallace stegner2 after Untermeyer called T.S. Eliot a writer Wallace’s next career move was facilitated of society verse, Carson McCullers in her Charmed with Vermont and its residents, When offered a sabbatical from teaching by colleagues from Bread Loaf’s faculty, For over a year the Stegners traveled while starched white boys’ shirt deep in talk the Stegners bought an old 200-acre farm in 1942, Wallace and his family spent a especially Bernard DeVoto and Theodore researching, interviewing and writing. But with W.H. Auden.” for $600 outside of Greensboro. They fixed memorable winter in Vermont so he could Morrison. Harvard University offered Look deemed the articles too controversial, 1 up the house and barn and then spent finish writingThe Big Rock Candy Mountain. Wallace a teaching fellowship in 1939. The and instead published a summary book, —wallace stegner Library Princeton University almost every summer there. Stegners packed up, left the University of One Nation, in 1945. “It was not the best of conditions for writing: Wisconsin, and moved to Cambridge. “It was a melancholy job to see these “Everybody who grows up [in Vermont] grows typing while sitting at a table in the living “[Stegner] was fighting as far back as the eager guys from Philadelphia ghettos, up working hard, and at all kinds of jobs. room, wearing a wool shirt and two sweaters, “Cambridge was our Athens and our Rome.” mid-1940s… advocating a nation of who had been drafted into the army. They’re all jacks–of-all-trades. They can fix sitting surrounded by a kerosene lamp and —wallace stegner5 cultural diversity and arguing the They found themselves in Harvard, things, toggle them up. That’s a characteristic enough candles to read by, and having to get importance of the preservation of Native wide-eyed and loving it, but it would Middlebury College of any frontier, and that’s the kind of West up every few minutes to stir or stoke the fire.” America, African-American, and Latino only last a quarter, a semester, and that I grew up in.” —wallace stegner4 heritages decades before the phrase 1940 Fellows and Faculty at Bread Loaf Summer they would be gone to lose the top of Writers’ Conference. Rear: Eudora Welty, John —wallace stegner3 ‘cultural diversity’ was coined.” their heads” Ciardi, Brainard Cheney, Edna Frederickson, —jackson j. benson7 Louis Untermeyer. Front: Marian Sims, Theodore —wallace stegner6 Morrison, Carson McCullers. 1945-1950 Stanford: The Early Years Roland Wolf Roland

In these, his most satisfying teaching years, Wallace founded the prestigious Stanford Creative Writing Program that inspired many successful authors and poets. He built a home in Los Altos Hills where he and Mary lived until his death. And he began in earnest his life-long commitment to environmental issues.

Early on, Wallace and Mary joined a cooperative housing association that was planning a community behind the campus. But upon learning no FHA loans would be forthcoming unless discriminatory rules were allowed, the Stegners withdrew and bought land on a hilltop in Los Altos Hills.

No Mills College appointment for Wallace.

Wallace’s friend Robert Frost came to Stanford Wanting to move back to the West and on several occasions and met with the creative wishing to find a faculty position that would writing students. offer more pay and flexibility, Wallace applied for an opening at Mills College in Oakland— Believing that famous and accomplished but was turned down! writers should visit the creative writing seminars to critique and inspire the students, “The president of Mills wanted [Stegner The Stegners frequently invited fellows from the Creative Writing Program to their home for food Wallace invited well-known friends and and conversation. Ed McClanahan (far left), Wallace (center), Larry McMurtry (in plaid jacket), on faculty] badly, but he was vetoed by colleagues to travel to Stanford. As in Vermont, Wallace did much of the new house’s Mort Grosser (far right). the board of trustees, several of whom carpentry and landscaping himself. considered The Big Rock Candy Mountain Family time for Wallace and Page. Wallace spoke to Japanese authors Once again a Bread Loaf colleague stepped Thanks to Wallace’s persistence in securing Mary, Wallace and Page about to fly to ‘too pornographic.’ ” “My wheels didn’t stop rolling until, at the another city on their literary goodwill tour. to encourage literary exchanges. in. Upon Edith Mirrielees’ recommendation, endowed funding, the “Stegner Fellows” —jackson j. benson1 age of thirty-six, after several years of The family took many summer trips to parks, Stanford University offered Wallace the program attracted aspiring poets and graduate school in Iowa and California natural areas, and backroads while Wallace To promote the postwar exchange of “For two years after our return I was perfect job: a full professorship with tenure. novelists. and a decade of teaching in Illinois, Utah, researched his biography of John Wesley literature between Eastern and Western involved in a program to introduce His half-time appointment included teaching Wisconsin, and Massachusetts, I arrived Powell’s exploration of the West. Wallace also writers, in 1950 Wallace and his family Asian writers to American readers.” literature as well as founding the world- “Instead of green nineteen and twenty- 8 with my wife and son at Stanford and the wrote witty travel articles, which nonetheless traveled around the world for seven —wallace stegner renowned Creative Writing Program. year-olds, my classes were full of mature, house in the Coast Range foothills, within warned of over-development of the land. He months. The journey, with its hectic highly-motivated men and women with sight of the last sunsets on the continent, was becoming more and more involved in schedule of speeches and meetings, was “When I came to Stanford in 1945, they were hard experience, serious minds, and an Linda A. Cicero/Stanford News Service News LindaCicero/Stanford A. where we have lived ever since.” environmental issues. sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. still cutting oats right up to the walls of the urge to catch up lost time…. Teaching had —wallace stegner5 library. There were only a few men on never been, and has not been since, the “When the university is a great one, as “My father could never just look at scenery. “Six weeks in England, Germany, France, campus. It seemed like a quiet girls’ college.... pure pleasure that it was in those years.” Stanford is, the suburb or town in which He had a kind of holistic relationship with Italy, and Egypt [were] followed by And then came September and the GIs and —wallace stegner3 it is set takes on a glow. It offers the best the land, and he couldn’t look at it without five months in India, Thailand, the University of Utah Archives the place just exploded. My own part in that that has been thought and said in the remembering its geological history, its Philippines, and Japan.” explosion of growth, the writing program Wallace in early days past, and it holds the key to the future.” exploration, its social development, its —wallace stegner7 at Stanford. that I established in 1946, was a direct —wallace stegner4 contemporary problems, and its prognosis response to their energy, their talent, and for the future.” their need.” —page stegner6 —wallace stegner2 Art Frisch

Wallace writing in the office sanctuary designed to look out over the foothills, where he wrote many of his famous books. 1950-1965 A Man for the Land Ansel Adams

Wallace became fully engaged in the battle for the environment on many fronts—at home, in the national parks, across the nation and across Wallace was in all ways a man for the the seas. His powerful writings about the land had an enormous impact land. For his work with the Sierra Club, he was made an honorary life member. on the thinking and perceptions of the public and its leaders. With the Wilderness Society, he worked for laws that protect wilderness areas. For the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, he pursued saving Canyonlands from the uranium mining boom of the 1950’s.

Wallace’s writings often spoke eloquently of the land, especially his 1954 biography of John Wesley Powell, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian. It identifies Powell, the first man to explore and survey the full length of the Colorado River, as a key historical figure in the development of a rational federal land policy in the West. National Park Service National Park Service “When I read Beyond the Hundredth Dinosaur National Monument today. River trip photo taken in Glen Canyon’s Hidden Congress finally passed the Wilderness Act of 1964 “[I gained] a quick, deep look into the A special friend of Josephine and Frank Duveneck, Wallace Stegner looking out over Black Meridian, Stegner provided me with a Passage before Congress dammed the Colorado River which preserved and protected wilderness areas. politics of conservation as it might operate Wallace actively supported the Duveneck’s Hidden Rock Desert, part of his “geography of hope.” Wallace embraced Powell’s conviction that way of thinking about the American West, in 1963. Wallace is 5th from left, top row; Mary is Pictured above is Olympic National Forest. when friends of conservation were in power, Villa nature preserve, working farm, and camp for the West’s open spaces should not be seated 3rd from the right. children of diverse backgrounds. the importance of finding true partnership as well as a good lesson in how long ideas Wallace’s famous Wilderness Letter is exploited. Encouraged by the Sierra Club between human beings and the land. The “multiple use” policy in the National that seemed self-evident could take to be known all over the world. and other organizations, in 1955 Wallace However, as a political trade-off, environ- “The Committee for Green Foothills was He showed us the limitations of aridity Parks and Forests in the 1950’s was proving translated into law.” edited a booklet, This is Dinosaur: Echo Park mentalists stopped challenging the organized in 1960 to try to save for everyone and the need for human institutions to disastrous to the preservation of wildernesses. —wallace stegner7 “[The Wilderness Letter] has been respond in a cooperative way.” Country and Its Magic Rivers, which was damming of Glen Canyon. Wallace and On one December afternoon in 1960, Wallace some of the health that flows down across made into posters in half-a-dozen 1 —bruce babbitt distributed to all legislators. It persuaded Sierra Club President, David Brower, took wrote the famous “Wilderness Letter” in the green ridges from the Skyline, and some countries. It’s in the Canadian parks, Secretary of the Interior Congress to halt the scheduled building of one last trip down that canyon before it support of undeveloped public land. of the beauty and refreshment of spirit that under President Clinton the Australian parks; it’s in South two dams, thus saving Dinosaur National was irretrievably lost. “It was an incredibly are still available to any resident of the Africa, in the Sinai Desert, [and] in Monument. sad occasion, a wake that the environ- “We simply need that wild country available Wallace was not only busy on the national valley who has a moment, and the wit, to a tree house in Kenya, with animals mental movement will never forget.” to us, even if we never do more than drive front, he was also an activist on environ- lift up his eyes unto the hills.” 4 10 running down below. ” “It is a better world with some buffalo left —jackson j. benson to its edge and look in. For it can be a means mental issues at home. The Stegners joined —wallace stegner —wallace stegner11 in it, a richer world with some gorgeous of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as many groups dedicated to maintaining or Wallace and Mary often rode in the hills by their home. canyons unmarred by signboards, hot-dog “By such a river it is impossible to believe creatures, a part of the geography of hope.” improving the local environment, including: The Committee for Green Foothills also stands, super highways or high tension that one will ever be tired or old. Every —wallace stegner6 the Peninsula Housing Association, Page The Stegners and others, concerned by thwarted Stanford’s plan to develop a lines, undrowned by power or irrigation sense applauds it. Watch its racing Mill Road Association, Committee for Green builders’ plans for housing developments massive industrial park south of the campus reservoirs. If we preserved as parks only current, its steady renewal of force: it is National Park Service Foothills (founding President), Hidden Villa, in the foothills under county rule, fought and Palo Alto’s intention to build homes for those places that have no economic transient and eternal.” Wallace served on the National Parks Advisory Palo Alto Building Association, Los Altos for the incorporation of Los Altos Hills in 50,000 people in the foothills to the west 5 Board 1962–1966 and continued to write about possibilities, we would have no parks.” —wallace stegner Trail Club, State Scenic Highway Advisory 1956. Thus one-acre-minimum residential of campus. 3 conservation and preservation of public land. —wallace stegner Committee, Peninsula Open Space Trust, zoning was preserved and open trails National Park Service and the Midpeninsula Regional Open “National Parks are the best idea we ever were created. “Nine men had plunged into the unknown from the Space District. last outpost of civilization on the sixth of July, 1869. had. Absolutely American, absolutely On August 30, six came out. Only the loyalty of five democratic, they reflect us at our best We were trying to save [our foothills] from men and Powell’s own resolution had kept it from rather than our worst.” ending in failure on the very brink of success.” 8 county carelessness. The county seat was 2 —wallace stegner —wallace stegner down in San Jose, a long way off, and Wallace (left) and Mary nobody gave a damn about the foothills with Stewart Udall, 1961. down there. The developers were doing pretty much as they pleased.” 9 Taking a sabbatical from teaching at Stanford, —wallace stegner Diligence for the preservation of the foothills Wallace joined the Kennedy Administration continues today. in 1961 as Special Assistant to Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior. 1965-1971 Stanford: The Tumultuous Years

Wallace found the excesses of the 1960’s in sharp conflict with the values he believed in and lived by. The political turmoil, when it erupted on campus, played a major role in his decision to retire early from teaching.

“The year as a Stegner Fellow changed my writing life. I will always be grateful to Mr.

Stegner for his trust and support.” Service News LindaCicero/Stanford A. —stephen dixon1 Leo Holub Leo

“All the Little Live Things (1967) was his generation-gap novel about a retired literary curmudgeon repulsed by hippie cultists and drawn to a young mother’s reverence for all life; it could stand as his bittersweet farewell to Stanford.” —baine kerr8 Leo Holub Leo Lisa Law Lisa

Ken Kesey gained instant success with his Stanford students at Frost Amphitheater, 1970. At Stanford, as across the nation, peaceful Although Wallace marched against the war, he book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. anti-Vietnam War demonstrations took place. was appalled that some students and outsiders used the unrest over the war to disrupt classes “Every year this teaching business gets “As a group they are reckless, they stampede and destroy property. At the same time that Wallace felt growing Over the years, the Creative Writing Program more like being broken on the wheel. It toward the emancipated future like dry “We were both opposed to the war—very conflicts of personalities and beliefs in his nurtured many of America’s best writers. But seems to me the kids get progressively cattle scenting a water hole. To a puzzled much so—but Wally didn’t like the way academic community, he was witnessing for Wallace, dissension with both colleagues brighter and worse-educated, so that they elder, they often seem to throb rather students were trashing the campus, and unsettling changes in his environmental and students began to grow in the 1960’s. need to be told more, and give you more than think.” he didn’t like the fact that they didn’t organizations as well. Feeling out of step Perhaps best known was the jarring relation- hell while you’re telling them.” —wallace stegner4 come to class. He decided he didn’t have with the times, in 1971 Wallace retired early ship between Wallace and Ken Kesey, a —wallace stegner3 to teach, and he said there was no point from Stanford. rising star from Stegner’s Creative Writing in teaching when people weren’t coming Program. Kesey came to symbolize the to class.” That ends it. I’m not going to do anything 5 counter-culture of the 1960’s and his easy —mary stegner more. I’m washing my hands of this whole living philosophy was in direct opposition business.” to Wallace’s hard work ethic. —wallace stegner6

“As soon as I took LSD, and [Stegner] drank “I don’t really belong in the twentieth Jack Daniel’s, we drew the line between century. My demands upon life are us right there. His dislike of what I was nineteenth-century demands rather doing, what we were doing, was the kiss than twentieth.” of approval in some way.” —wallace stegner7 —ken kesey2 1971-1993 The Years of Fulfillment

The years following Wallace’s early retirement from Stanford were some of his most productive. Writing critically acclaimed novels and essays, championing environmental issues, lecturing, and traveling filled his days.

“When I have wit enough to think about it, [I am] terribly proud to be a man and an American, with all the rights and privileges that those words connote; and most of all I am humble before the responsibilities that are also mine. For no right comes without a responsibility, Wallace’s passport. and being born luckier than most of Lee Foster Lee Wallace was recognized with awards “Wallace’s busy life also included extensive the world’s millions, I am also born and honors as the literary world travel. “When I was on the Serengeti Plains “Actually I would like, and would always have acknowledged his talent. a few years ago, I thought it was just like “The older you get, the more the relation of Wallace Stegner’s life came to a more obligated.” liked, nothing better than to stay home and Saskatchewan.” past and present grows on you, because you tragic end as a result of injuries write novels and histories. I am a paper tiger.” —wallace stegner1 Susan Heintzelman remembers —wallace stegner8 have more history to look at…. No matter suffered in an automobile accident —wallace stegner1 Wallace as a frequent customer and how old you get, you don’t feel old. You’re in 1993. First off the press after retirement was willing book signer at her store in Los His life-long involvement in environ- still the same guy inside, and so there is a Angle of Repose, the Pulitzer Prize winning Altos. “Are you sure you can sell all these mental issues remained an unwavering continuity there, within yourself. You can’t “When my father died, there was not books? I don’t want you to be burdened commitment. ignore it.” only a tremendous expression of novel for 1972. 13 with copies that you won’t be able to sell.” —wallace stegner condolence and sympathy to the —wallace stegner5 immediate family but wide-spread Poster advertising the Wallace with Herb Grench, Bay Area environmental The Stegner family clan in this early 1990’s photo But as Wallace reached his late 70’s, he media acknowledgment of a great short-lived opera. “Wally was far from resting on his laurels leader. The attached business card thanks the Stegners includes: [Standing in back row, left to right]: “Most of all, I thank my wife, Mary, who was beginning to feel his years. public loss.” “Not only did we sell all 200 copies of for their generous donation to the Midpeninsula Page (son), Mary, Sheridan (great-grandson), and spending all his time in wistful for reasons known only to herself has put 15 Where the Bluebird Sings, but several Regional Open Space District. Rachel (granddaughter), Wallace, Lynn (daughter- —page stegner San Francisco Opera Director Kurt Adler recollection of a time more innocent. up with me for nearly sixty years, has boxes more!” in-law); [Middle row, standing]: Michelle and In reaction to his hip operation in Fall commissioned a Bicentennial opera He couldn’t have been busier during Nicole (step-great-granddaughters); [Front row, planted and tended ideas in my head, has —susan heintzelman6 “We can support such agencies as the 1991: “Oh, I’m getting around fine, just need based on Angle of Repose. When reviews these years.” kneeling:] Shawn (granddaughter-in-law), Allison guarded my health and my working hours, Midpeninsula Regional Park District, which a stump puller to get out of the chair.” panned it as too radical and atonal, it —jackson j. benson6 (granddaughter), Kerry (grandson-in-law). has made me go back and improve the 14 preserves land in large enough patches so —wallace stegner closed after only five performances. manuscripts I brought her looking for that it makes a sort of railroad right of way “If I were to give my grandchildren my “Here I am writing lectures and preparing praise, and who remains the principal for plant species to keep their toehold in, patriarchal blessing, I would tell them: “Unlike many novelists who write their best seminars for the University of Colorado, reason why I go on putting words on paper and provides a habitat for wildlife which Don’t try to control the earth beyond the books at the beginning of their careers, and writing a literary speech for the New Wallace and Ansel Adams were featured at a and taking an interest in a world that I AP wire photo: “Los Altos increasingly has no place to go. Such a absolute minimum. Work with the earth, Stegner’s novels have gotten better and York Public Library, and writing another Stanford environmental event, 1982. am often inclined to disavow in disgust.” Hills, California May 2, 1972. [preserve] is beyond price, and needs active not against it. For the earth does not better. He has defied the cult of youth and talk for the Dartmouth Bookstore and —wallace stegner12 HIS NOVEL A WINNER.” protection.” triumphed with age.” some Berkeley bookstore and the Stanford Wallace Stegner paid Ansel Adams the belong to you. You belong to the earth.” 10 11 Mary Stegner sitting on the Wallace Stegner —jackson j. benson3 ultimate compliment: “We work in —wallace stegner —wallace stegner “One of the nicest things about this Pulitzer Bookstore….” memorial bench in the 1,000-acre Long Ridge 7 Prize is all sorts of people call up, and wire, —wallace stegner different media, different symbolic systems Open Space Preserve on the western slopes “There’s a broader rainbow of work from of transference; but if I have any validity of Skyline Blvd. and write. And it touches us, it really does, Wallace at Kepler’s Books, to see how many people seem genuinely to Stegner almost than was imaginable. He as an artist, I would like to be an artist of wrote short stories, novels, essays, history, Menlo Park, for book signing Ansel’s kind. If I have any choice about “Wallace Stegner’s life was a gift to us all.” wish us well.” of Collected Stories, 1990. —william kittredge16 —wallace stegner2 biography, and a magical book we can’t what sort of man to be, I would like to be even classify—Wolf Willow.” a man of Ansel’s kind.” —ivan doig4 —wallace stegner9