The Most Beautiful Place on Earth: Wallace Stegner in California

As author of the "Wilderness Letter" and major award-winning novels, histories, essays, and biographies, Wallace Stegner worked throughout his life to protect western lands, places, and peoples. His writing was and remains an inspiration and guide for countless people attempting to cultivate a sense of place in the American West while tacking their way through uncertain times.

This book tells the story of Stegner and his family as they made a home just outside of Palo Alto, California, dur­ing its transition from the Valley of Heart's Delight (known for its rolling hills and orchards) to Silicon Valley. In this thoughtful study of the novels Stegner wrote in Califor­nia--including his Pulitzer Prize-winning Angle of Repose--readers are invited to consider with Stegner what the practice of place requires in the American West. Specialists in the literature and history of the American West will find new analyses of Stegner and his influential work. Other readers will be guided through Stegner's work in concrete and accessible prose, and anyone who has longed for home and a sense of place will encounter a powerful, beautiful, and at times tragic attempt to build and preserve it.

Author: Matthew D. Stewart
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Published: 05/20/2022
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.91w x 0.79d
ISBN13: 9781647690564
ISBN10: 1647690560
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | State & Local | West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT
- Literary Criticism | American | Regional
- Biography & Autobiography | General

About the Author
Matthew D. Stewart teaches humanities at The Ambrose School in Meridian, Idaho, and is associate editor at Front Porch Republic. He holds a PhD in his­tory from Syracuse University.