Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegnerwas an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth18 February 1909
CountryUnited States of America
book teaching discovery
Every book that anyone sets out on is a voyage of discovery that may discover nothing. Any voyager may be lost at sea, like John Cabot. Nobody can teach the geography of the undiscovered. All he can do is encourge the will to explore, plus impress upon the inexperienced a few of the dos and don'ts of voyaging.
teaching writing thinking
Young writers should be encouraged to write, and discouraged from thinking they are writers.
teacher teaching people
A teacher enlarges people in all sorts of ways besides just his subject matter.
among bird boasting drinking fellow fighting found sit whom
It is something-it can be everything-to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below.
dream memories eye
Floating upward through a confusion of dreams and memory, curving like a trout through the rings of previous risings, I surface. My eyes open. I am awake.
character people towns
Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.
mean world chance
One means of sanity is to retain a hold on the natural world, ... Americans still have that chance, more than many peoples.
rugged-individualism chance scenery
Have a chance to create a society to match its scenery.
summer past rose
Salt is added to dried rose petals with the perfume and spices, when we store them away in covered jars, the summers of our past.
drinking fighting bird
It is somethingit can be everything-to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below.
book weekend two
A western buckaroo, I share his scorn for people who go camping by the book, relying on the authority of some half-assed assistant scoutmaster whose total experience outdoors probably consists of two overnight hikes and a weekend in the Catskills. But we have just had that confrontation. The one who goes by Pritchard's book is Sid's wife, and I am wary. It is not my expedition. I am a guest here.
summer halloween night
The perfect weather of Indian Summer lengthened and lingered, warm sunny days were followed by brisk nights with Halloween a presentiment in the air.
moving mountain desert
Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains.
fossils
We are fossils in the making.