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Conversations on History and Literature
Book by Stegner, Wallace, Etulain, Richard W.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionEssays
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
68 people want to read
About the author
Wallace Stegner
187 books2,136 followersWallace 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.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 28, 2014
When a book moves from stimulating to exciting, you know you're on to something. THIS ONE DOES IT. I've read Stegner all my life. He won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and about every other award that waS winnable. But, this book is about his OWN personal views on a whole broad range of subjects, but mostly about western literature, and what living in the west means. I LOVED THIS BOOK. By the way, the interviewer, Richard Etulain, is masterful. WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BE A FRIEND OF WALLACE STEGNER'S!!
November 15, 2023
As stated in the Afterword: this conversation took place in August 1980 in Stegner's home in Los Altos, CA. It is informal, as 'conversation' suggests, and yet the pages are packed with information and well formed ideas/opinions. It is the perfect blend of sounding like a genuine conversation while also being extremely readable. The topics I found most interesting: Stegner living in Salt Lake City, writers Stegner admires, the future of the West, Stegner's writing process/challenges with books he's written, the Western mind.
A point brought up many times that I wasn't aware of before reading is the connotations associated with 'Western', and the struggle of writers such as Stegner to not be pinned with the label. Edward Abbey seems to have inherited this from Stegner, writing in the Preface of Desert Solitaire: "Now I confess to being a nature lover... But I did not mean to be mistaken for a nature writer. I never wanted to be anything but a writer, period. An author. A creator of fictions and essays, sometimes poems." Only Stegner would probably add history. Because he did create history, in a way. He contributed material that helps us understand history better. His fiction allows reader to learn what it felt like to live in those times. He focused on the day to day of normal people, creating fictitious characters to tell the stories of people who had actually lived. He wrote what he knew, and a fair portion of which happened to consist largely of western landscapes with it's open spaces and rougher conditions.
Stegner's West is very different than say, Louis L'Amour's West. I can appreciate Stegner's desire to not be lumped into the same genre as such writers, but I was surprised by how indignant he was toward that type of portrayal of the West in general. He was in strong opposition to the cowboy myth. Stegner and Etulain both seem to have found it almost embarrassing, something malignant that needs to be amputated and buried away. It may be because of their deep appreciation for history, which made them frustrated that the majority of Americans have such a narrow and distorted view of what went on in the West in the late 19th century. So from a historical standpoint, which is where Stegner operated from, I can understand. Personally, I think the cowboy myth is too good to pass up on, the best exemplifier of this that I can think of being Larry McMurtry. I thoroughly enjoyed this passing comment:
Etulain: Larry McMurtry tries to do some of that. [Linking past and present of the West].
Stegner: Larry's quit writing novels, hasn't he?
Etulain: I heard him speak about a month ago, and he said he's working on a trail drive novel.
Little did they know what McMurtry was cooking up. Interesting though, that this conversation took place five years before Lonesome Dove was released. Side note: It appears that McMurtry originally wrote "Lonesome Dove" to be a movie, then returned to it a decade later to make it into a book. McMurtry, unlike Stegner, obviously had no qualms about furthering cementing the cowboy myth into the minds of readers. Somewhere in between, Edward Abbey parodies the myth in The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale in a New Time, exaggerating the cowboy figure and heightening the mystique by contrasting it with a later time period where he no longer belongs.
I feel a kinship to Stegner because he admits to feeling like he was born a century too late. I feel the same way myself. To me, 'old fashioned' is a positive trait, except for when it comes to politics. But I have come to agree with Stegner that people who are fascinated by the past and unmodernized ways of life shouldn't shirk their responsibilities and run off trying to recreate what is long gone. As he puts it: "When the world tightens around you, you can't do that anymore, [run off to somewhere open and wild] and it probably means a lot more unhappiness for people of that stamp." It's a hard pill to swallow, that given population increase and development, what was once in abundance is now a scarcity.
Stegner seemed to think that the downfall of the development of West will be a lack of water to meet population increase. I don't completely agree with his emphasis on water because even if it does cap the population at a certain point, it's apparent that we are still headed toward ecological ruin even if the population remained at what it is now. But water is something to be treated seriously too, I suppose, not just emissions/energy production. I never knew that much of the desert regions of the West look much different today than they did 150 years ago. The unfathomable amount of water required to sustain all of us has taken a huge toll on all types of Western ecosystems and has drastically altered even the desert environments we see today, which as it turns out, were not all like that to start out with.
Stegner's pragmatism and appreciation for the past makes him a good role model for us to look to today. He seems to have had his priorities straight and understood his place in the world, neither magnifying nor diminishing his contributions to society. He was in touch with his individuality but also saw himself as a part of something larger - whether that be called humanity, society, history - which he tried to capture in his books. Lucky for us that he left many to be read and learned from.
A point brought up many times that I wasn't aware of before reading is the connotations associated with 'Western', and the struggle of writers such as Stegner to not be pinned with the label. Edward Abbey seems to have inherited this from Stegner, writing in the Preface of Desert Solitaire: "Now I confess to being a nature lover... But I did not mean to be mistaken for a nature writer. I never wanted to be anything but a writer, period. An author. A creator of fictions and essays, sometimes poems." Only Stegner would probably add history. Because he did create history, in a way. He contributed material that helps us understand history better. His fiction allows reader to learn what it felt like to live in those times. He focused on the day to day of normal people, creating fictitious characters to tell the stories of people who had actually lived. He wrote what he knew, and a fair portion of which happened to consist largely of western landscapes with it's open spaces and rougher conditions.
Stegner's West is very different than say, Louis L'Amour's West. I can appreciate Stegner's desire to not be lumped into the same genre as such writers, but I was surprised by how indignant he was toward that type of portrayal of the West in general. He was in strong opposition to the cowboy myth. Stegner and Etulain both seem to have found it almost embarrassing, something malignant that needs to be amputated and buried away. It may be because of their deep appreciation for history, which made them frustrated that the majority of Americans have such a narrow and distorted view of what went on in the West in the late 19th century. So from a historical standpoint, which is where Stegner operated from, I can understand. Personally, I think the cowboy myth is too good to pass up on, the best exemplifier of this that I can think of being Larry McMurtry. I thoroughly enjoyed this passing comment:
Etulain: Larry McMurtry tries to do some of that. [Linking past and present of the West].
Stegner: Larry's quit writing novels, hasn't he?
Etulain: I heard him speak about a month ago, and he said he's working on a trail drive novel.
Little did they know what McMurtry was cooking up. Interesting though, that this conversation took place five years before Lonesome Dove was released. Side note: It appears that McMurtry originally wrote "Lonesome Dove" to be a movie, then returned to it a decade later to make it into a book. McMurtry, unlike Stegner, obviously had no qualms about furthering cementing the cowboy myth into the minds of readers. Somewhere in between, Edward Abbey parodies the myth in The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale in a New Time, exaggerating the cowboy figure and heightening the mystique by contrasting it with a later time period where he no longer belongs.
I feel a kinship to Stegner because he admits to feeling like he was born a century too late. I feel the same way myself. To me, 'old fashioned' is a positive trait, except for when it comes to politics. But I have come to agree with Stegner that people who are fascinated by the past and unmodernized ways of life shouldn't shirk their responsibilities and run off trying to recreate what is long gone. As he puts it: "When the world tightens around you, you can't do that anymore, [run off to somewhere open and wild] and it probably means a lot more unhappiness for people of that stamp." It's a hard pill to swallow, that given population increase and development, what was once in abundance is now a scarcity.
Stegner seemed to think that the downfall of the development of West will be a lack of water to meet population increase. I don't completely agree with his emphasis on water because even if it does cap the population at a certain point, it's apparent that we are still headed toward ecological ruin even if the population remained at what it is now. But water is something to be treated seriously too, I suppose, not just emissions/energy production. I never knew that much of the desert regions of the West look much different today than they did 150 years ago. The unfathomable amount of water required to sustain all of us has taken a huge toll on all types of Western ecosystems and has drastically altered even the desert environments we see today, which as it turns out, were not all like that to start out with.
Stegner's pragmatism and appreciation for the past makes him a good role model for us to look to today. He seems to have had his priorities straight and understood his place in the world, neither magnifying nor diminishing his contributions to society. He was in touch with his individuality but also saw himself as a part of something larger - whether that be called humanity, society, history - which he tried to capture in his books. Lucky for us that he left many to be read and learned from.
June 14, 2017
I think I would have enjoyed this book more had I not already read Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs. It contained many of the same themes and observations. *An aside--I found the multiple pictures of Mr. Stegner and his interviewer in relatively the same pose, place, and sweaters an amusing and strange choice.
May 30, 2009
I love pretty much anything about or by Stegner that I can get my hands on. He was a westerner and very thoughtful about living his life. If you haven't checked him out, do so now.
May 30, 2015
Stegner is unreal. This book answered a lot of questions I had after reading his novels, short stories, and essays. Stegner was a realist for sure, but a creative one.
February 20, 2020
Once again Wallace Stegner teaches me so much about the West, literature, writing, conservation, and living. I can't read him without a pencil to highlight and ponder in my journal later. Simply one of the great gifts we've been given
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews