Good Scribes Only #141 Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner (Colorado)
About the Book:
Winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Angle of Repose is a sweeping American saga that blends history, family drama, and the search for meaning. The novel follows retired historian Lyman Ward as he pieces together the life of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward—a cultured artist and writer who left the East Coast in the late 19th century to follow her husband, a mining engineer, into the rugged, unsettled landscapes of the American West.
As Lyman reconstructs their lives through letters and documents, he uncovers a marriage tested by hardship, ambition, and compromise. The story becomes as much about Lyman’s own reckoning—with his failed marriage, his estranged family, and his sense of purpose—as it is about the generations before him. With luminous prose and profound insight, Stegner examines how personal choices are shaped by time, place, and the slow erosion—or preservation—of dreams.
About the Author:
Wallace Stegner was an American novelist, historian, environmentalist, and teacher often called “the dean of Western writers.” Born in 1909 in Iowa and raised in Montana, Utah, and Saskatchewan, he drew on the landscapes and histories of the American West throughout his work. Over his career, he published more than thirty books, including The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943), The Spectator Bird (1976), and Crossing to Safety (1987).
A passionate advocate for land preservation, Stegner was instrumental in the establishment of the National Wilderness Preservation System. He taught at Stanford University for decades, mentoring a generation of writers. His fiction often explored the intersection of personal relationships, history, and the environment, earning him both critical acclaim and lasting influence. Stegner died in 1993, leaving behind a literary legacy rooted in the beauty, contradictions, and endurance of the West.