THE SELECTED LETTERS OF WALLACE STEGNER, edited by Page Stegner, Shoemaker-Hoard, 420 pages, $30
Wallace Stegner is Utah's adopted son, having grown up in Salt Lake City and gone to school at the University of Utah, where he even taught. Oddly enough, his son, Page, also a writer, takes Utah off his father's resume and makes it sound as if the elder Stegner went from Iowa to California, where he died at the age of 84 in 1993.
Stegner was born in Iowa but raised in Utah (17 years), graduated from East High and the University of Utah, then attended graduate school at the University of Iowa — and ended his career at Stanford University as a professor of creative writing. He returned to Utah often to lecture at the U. — and he wrote one of his better essays, "Born a Square," about his childhood here.
Stegner was not only a wonderful novelist but a bonafide expert on the history and culture of the American West, which he loved. He was an unusually deep thinker and a pure craftsman with words, whether spoken or written. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1972 novel, "Angle of Repose," and the National Book Award in 1976 for "The Spectator Bird."
His son, Page, is a professor emeritus of English at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In organizing and editing his father's letters, he has made a rich contribution to the literature of the American West. In his introduction, the junior Stegner quotes his father describing his letter-writing process as "warming up the fingers."
The son wrote that "his letters were not notes dashed off in rapid-fire, shorthand fashion of today's e-mail. Virtually without exception they were thoughtful, articulate and carefully crafted, with attention to minutia ... they employed simile, metaphor, poetic imagery, deliberation of voice and, above all, attention to the melody of language."
The letters prove the son to be right. They are mesmerizing — no matter the subject. For anyone who heard Stegner speak, these letters flow with the sound of his voice in the ear. But even if you've read none of his books, you are likely to be blown away by his letters. The choice of words and the depth of thought is just terrific.
His letters to Mary, the love of his life, while they were separated because of his graduate study, are delightful. "Love me, darling, in spite of the fact that I'm screwy. If the time comes soon when we can be together for good, the first thing I am going to do is make you go walking with me in a thunderstorm, and the next thing, love you physically, mentally and spiritually until you know how much I love your warmth, your actualness, your intelligence, your sunshiny affection. Thank God you are no abstraction, except at rare moments. I prefer to love a human being."
He had to gently let down another young woman, telling her he had fallen in love with Mary. "I have fallen in love, stupidly, goofily, insanely in love. I tried not to, honestly I did. I have been agonized for two months, trying to fight out of it, but it's no go, Sally. It's as if I'm being driven with whips."
The collection includes many letters to his good friends, fellow scholars, family, etc. Each contains a healthy dose of fun, humor and affection. E-mail can never compare.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com