Stegner, Wallace, 1909–93, American writer, b. Lake Mills, Iowa. He wrote perceptively of the American West in short stories, e.g., The Woman on the Wall (1950); novellas, e.g., On a Darkling Plain (1940); and novels, e.g., The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943), Angle of Repose (1971; Pulitzer), and Crossing to Safety (1987).

Stegner, Wallace (Earle)

(born Feb. 18, 1909, Lake Mills, Iowa, U.S.—died April 13, 1993, Santa Fe, N.M.) U.S. writer. Stegner studied at the University of Iowa and later taught at several universities, notably Stanford. The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943), a novel about a family traveling around the West seeking their fortune, was his first critical and popular success. His later novels include A Shooting Star (1961), Angle of Repose (1971, Pulitzer Prize), and The Spectator Bird (1976, National Book Award). His nonfiction includes two histories of the settlement of Utah, Mormon Country (1942) and The Gathering of Zion (1964), and Beyond the Hundredth Meridian (1954), a biography of John Wesley Powell.

Stegner, Wallace (Earle) (1909–93) writer, educator; born in Lake Mills, Iowa. The son of Scandinavian immigrants, he lived in a half-dozen western states with his family before they settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. After completing his education at the Universities of Utah (B.A. 1930) and Iowa (Ph.D. 1935), he began teaching English, a career that would take him to several major universities; for most of it he was at Stanford University where he directed the Creative Writing Center (1945–71). Starting with Restoring Laughter (1937), he published over two dozen novels, collections of short stories and essays, and historical works; The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943) was among his most popular novels while Angel of Repose (1972) won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. His nonfiction works include biographies of John Wesley Powell, Joe Hill, and Bernard DeVoto. Most of his works dealt with the American West, which he viewed with a mixture of skepticism about its stereotypes, yet respect for its strengths. In his later years he increasingly expressed his concern for the damage being done to the natural environment of the West.