Brief Book Review: Wallace Stegner's West

Wallace Stegner's West (edited by Page Stegner, Heyday Books, $19, Oct. 2008)

Wallace Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. But his greatest contribution might well have been as mentor to arguably the most influential, environmentally savvy writers America has seen since Emerson and Thoreau’s transcendentalism. The director and founder of Stanford University’s creative writing program, his sphere of influence included Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey, Larry McMurtry, Barry Lopez, and Robert Hass.

Wallace Stegner’s West gives us the very best of his visionary writing, framing the West in his own words. Compiled, edited, and introduced by his son Page, several previously unpublished essays are part of this important collection.

--Pamela Biery