Marking the sparrow's fall : Wallace Stegner's American West

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First Title value, for Searching:

Marking the sparrow's fall : Wallace Stegner's American West

First Author value, for Searching:

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993.

ISBN:

9780805044645

9780805062960

Personal Author:

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993.

Edition:

1st ed.

Display Publication Info:

New York :

H. Holt,

1998.

Physical Description:

xix, 359 pages ; 25 cm

General Note:

"A John Macrae book."

Contents:

Foreword: I sing of America -- HOME GROUND : Child of the far frontier -- The making of paths -- That Great Falls year -- At home in the fields of the Lord -- Xanadu by the Salt Flats -- The world's strangest sea -- Lake Powell -- Back roads river -- Back roads of the American West -- Why I like the West -- TESTIMONY : Wilderness letter -- It all began with conservation -- The best idea we ever had -- Qualified homage to Thoreau -- Living on our principal -- Bernard DeVoto -- Conservation equals survival -- Now, if I ruled the world ... -- INHERITANCE : The twilight of self-reliance --Living dry -- The Rocky Mountain West -- Land : America's history teacher -- GENESIS : Genesis.

Abstract:

Marking the Sparrow's Fall is Wallace Stegner's biggest collection and the first since his death in 1993. His son, Page, has selected fifteen essays that have never before been published in any book and placed them alongside Wallace Stegner's most powerful pieces in the book's three nonfiction parts: Home Ground (memory), Testimony (defense of the earth), and Inheritance (history). The fourth section of the book is devoted to a magnificent little-known novella, Genesis.

Personal Subject:

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993.

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993. (OCoLC)fst01754578

Subject Term:

Travel. (OCoLC)fst01155558

Geographic Term:

West (U.S.) -- Description and travel.

United States, West. (OCoLC)fst01243255

États-Unis (ouest) -- Descriptions et voyages.

Added Author:

Stegner, Page.

Personal Subject:

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993.

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993. (OCoLC)fst01754578

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Jackson	Book	020029018307	978 STE	Non-fiction Collection	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"All my life I have been going away east and coming home west", writes Wallace Stegner in this collection of his writings, which has been selected and annotated by his son, Page Stegner.

These are Wallace Stegner's major writings about the American West, a collection of essays and a little-known novella, "Genesis". They are as relevant today as the day they were written; each reveals the stylistic grace and intellectual rigor that earned Stegner his enormous readership and fame.

Before Marking the Sparrow's Fall, 15 of these essays have only appeared in magazines and newspapers: "I Sing of America", "That Great Falls Year", "Xanadu by the Salt Flats", "The World's Strangest Sea", "Lake Powell", "Back Roads River", "Backroads of the American West", "Why I like the West", "The Best Idea We Ever Had", "Living On Our Principal", "Bernardo DeVoto", "Conservation Equals Survival", "Now If I Ruled the World", "The Function of' Aridity", and "Land: America's History Teacher". Three essays have only appeared in anthologies (and are therefore not available in books authored by Stegner alone): "Qualified Homage o Thoreau", "The Twilight of Self Reliance", and "The Rocky Mountain West".

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Showcasing a talent often as breathtaking as the landscape that was Stegner's lifelong muse, this first posthumous essay collection by the novelist, historian and biographer who died in 1993 confirms his rank as one of the American West's preeminent literary champions. Though some of Stegner's most celebrated work is included among these 23 essays and one novella (all written between 1948 and 1992), many are little-known items culled from magazines and journals. Even in more obscure pieces, such as a travelogue describing the Great Salt Lake originally published in 1957 in Holiday magazine, readers will find the themes that Stegner used in his fictional efforts to save the American frontier from becoming irrevocably commodified. "Aridity" as the great cultural forge is an overarching motif here, but the writing is never dry. "Who built the West as a living-place, a frugal, hard, gloriously satisfying civilization scrabbling for its existence against the forces of weather and a land as fragile as it is demanding was not rugged individualists but cooperators, neighbors who knew how to help out in a crisis," he writes in "Land: America's History Teacher," a brilliant overview of frontier land "disposal" since the 18th century. In "At Home in the Fields of the Lord," he says of Salt Lake City, "Having blown tumble-weed fashion around the continent so that I am forced to select a hometown, I find myself selecting the City of the Saints." Stegner is himself a contemporary saint to the modern conservation movement that, without him, "would still be trying to mine quotable nuggets from Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold," according to Page Stegner, his son and editor. Agent, Don Congdon Associates. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

A prolific and gifted writer, Wallace Stegner (1909-93) helped shape the literature of the American West. Here Stegner's son Page collects a series of his father's writing, including environmental essays and the "Wilderness Letter," which is often cited as one of the seminal documents of the environmental movement. The essays are grouped into three general sectionsautobiographical, ecological, and academicfollowed by the novella "Genesis." Though each section's preface gives publication dates where appropriate, individual essays are not dated according to when they were originally written, making it difficult to place them in historical context. All the essays are polished and intelligent compositions. Recommended for all Stegner collections as well as environmental and regional collections.Katherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., Greensburg, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.