Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist. Some call him "The Dean of Western Writers." He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977.
im starting to fall out of love with stegner--i dont agree with all his straitjacket views about land in the West (its too close to anti-immigration sentiment)--but he is a very good writer, and he writes exceptionally about "place." what it means to call somewhere home, what a landscape does to an individual, what you carry away with you and what you may/may not find when you return. there are some beautiful metaphors in here that touch me--i understand the feelings he's fundamentally describing when it relates to nyc or to a few other places ive spent time in and love--even though he speaks of prairies and southwest mountain landscapes ive never seen. and that, in my book, is one mark of good writing. also, he has a deep, languid voice that makes this, my first experience in audio reading, pleasurable.