Wallace Stegner, A Descriptive Bibliography by Nancy Colberg

Abstract

Reviews 161 Conversations with Wallace Stegner: On Western History and Literature. Revised Edition. Interview' by Richard W. Etulain. Foreword by Norman Cousins. (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1990. 207 pages, $10.95.) Etulain has put together a masterful interview. His Conversations is an excellent measure of not only Stegner himself, but of the West generally. You can turn to this work, of course, for Stegner’s assessment of his writ­ ing, especially of The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943) and of Angle of Repose (1971), which get full chapters. But there is also information on Stegner’s formative years in Canada and Montana, his life among the Mor­ mons, his academic career, and his work to protect wilderness. At the end, there seems hardly a stone of Stegner’s that remains unturned. At the same time, it is exciting to find an interviewer who can keep pace with his subject. Etulain’s parts in the exchanges are themselves instructive. He appears to have taken full advantage of his many bibliographies and other editions of western history and literature. What this adds up to is something more balanced and readable than the typical interview. It is an extension of the so-called “great conversation,” the value of which seems greater than the sum of its facts. RUSSELL BURROWS Northwest College of Wyoming Wallace Stegner, A Descriptive Bibliography. ByNancy Colberg. Introduction byJames R. Hepworth. American Authors Series (Lewiston:Confluence Press, 1990. xxxvi + 280 pages, $50.00.) Wallace Stegner’s stature seemingly grows and grows—on all fronts and in spite of James Hepworth’sfear that he has been held captive by self-serving “regional” critics. A number of the younger contemporary writers look to him as the Dean. Witness, for example, Ivan Doig’sRide With Me, Mariah Mon­ tana—the last of his Montana trilogy—dedicated to Stegner as “one in a century.” And for years Stegner has enjoyed a general audience independent of such respect or the scholarly and critical interest in his work. Nancy Colberg’s book indicates he has roused equal enthusiasm among book collectors. Here one finds careful descriptions of thirty-four separate Stegner publications from Clarence Edward Dutton (1935) to The American West as Living Space (1987). Six additional sections of her book list other Stegner material, ranging from his contributions to books and edited works to manuscript collections. A short appendix identifies selected articles, books, essays and dissertations written in response to his writing. 162 Western American Literature Scholars and critics will find particularly helpful Sections C and D, describing articles and short stories (respectively) published in periodicals and newspapers. The listing is complete and therefore includes some of the “reams of grocery-buying junk” Stegner claims he has written. As one who has searched for some of this unindexed and all-but-inaccessible material, I appre­ ciate Colberg’scareful work. One can also appreciate James Hepworth’s enthusiastic “Introduction” testifying to Stegner’s productive career as teacher and writer, his influence, and the excellence of his work. But the West has always had its pitchmen, and I think we should be wary about selling Stegner to the Nobel Prize Committee for Literature just yet. Western (literary) country contains plenty of wasteland; resourceful and rewarding writers are still too few. On the other hand, a writer’s resources are not synonymous with (other) natural resources; one is never sure where a writer will find a story. I understand they are leasing upper reaches of the Columbia basin for the disposal of urban coastal waste—something akin to an idea the author of “The Town Dump” teased into a story many years ago. I find that story a pleasure; but Stegner’s stories belong to anyone who reads them, or writes about them, or likes to hold them in hand and collect them. Our task is to act intelligently in these matters. The work should sell itself. MERRILL LEWIS Western Washington University Matt Braun. By Robert L. Gale. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 92, 1990. 55 pages, $3.95.) George Wharton James. By Peter Wild. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 93, 1990. 52 pages, $3.95...