The New York Times once called him by the wrong name. The East Coast elite generally shunned the “Western writer.” But decades later, millions of people applaud Wallace Stegner, a prominent author whom many have called “the dean of Western writers.”
Stegner, who died in 1993, would have turned 100 this year, prompting the U to celebrate his life and impact on the generations that followed.
“He was an inspiration. He was a wonderful example and a good friend,” said Page Stegner, Wallace Stegner’s son. “Literature was always integral to the family. It was part of the daily routine.”
Stegner, born in Lake Mills, Iowa, spent his formative years in Salt Lake City, attending East High School and the U. Although he lived in more than 20 cities throughout his life, he regarded Salt Lake City as his hometown.
“He had a lot of memories here,” said Robert Steensma, a former U English professor who wrote Wallace Stegner’s Salt Lake City, a history of Stegner’s time in Utah. “He had a lot of friends. It was the first place he really had any roots.”
Although Stegner spent his adolescence in Utah, he didn’t stay long. Stegner received his bachelor’s degree in English from the U in 1930, where he made acquaintance with future prominent Utah figures J. Willard Marriott, O.C. Tanner, Gordon B. Hinckley and Ken Garff. Stegner then moved to Iowa, where he earned his master’s degree and doctorate degree from the University of Iowa.
Stegner returned to the U to teach English in 1934, then left for the University of Wisconsin, then Harvard, and finished his career at Stanford University.
During his time teaching at the U, Stegner wrote the first of his 35 novels, Remembering Laughter, which earned him the Little, Brown prize, valued at $2,500.
“That was a lot then, considering his income for that entire year was about $1,300,” Steensma said.
However, his time in Utah wasn’t made up entirely of good memories.
“He had bitter memories of Salt Lake as well,” Steensma said. “There were so many things that interacted to make this his hometown.”
In 1931, his brother, Cecil, died of pneumonia. Two years later, his mother passed away from breast cancer and in 1939, Stegner’s father, George Stegner, killed his lover and then himself at the Hotel Heron, just off of 200 S. State Street in downtown Salt Lake City.
“He didn’t like his father at all,” said Page Stegner. “It was not somebody that he cared to reminisce about. We didn’t hear very much about Grandpa.”
Stegner overcame the obstacles and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his most well-known novel, Angle of Repose, as well as various other literary honors.
While at Stanford, Stegner founded the creative writing program in 1947.
“At the time, Iowa (had) the only other program in the nation,” said Mary Popek, an administrator for Stanford’s Creative Writing Program. “He is still widely respected. He contributed greatly to the programs at Stanford.”
Stegner ran the program until he retired in 1971 to focus on writing and also, Steensma said, because he couldn’t “stand the violence on campuses nationwide, particularly that of Stanford.”
Stegner, whose legacy is as much rooted in environmentalism as it is in literature, has his name attached to the environmental law center within the U’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.
“He was three things: a great teacher, an important voice in wilderness preservation and a writer,” said Page Stegner. “There have been many voices, but no other writer has come close to Wallace Stegner.”
UtonianWallace Stegner, right, was a member of the U tennis team in 1928, Stegner would be 100 years old this year and the U is celebrateing his life and the impact he had.