Wallace Stegner His Lasting Legacy at the University of Utah By Amiee Maxwell
T
his year, Wallace Stegner’s Pulitzer
and Stanford universities, Stegner willed
Prize-winning novel “Angle of Repose”
his entire collection of papers, letters,
turns 50 years old, thrusting him once
and other memorabilia to the University
again into the spotlight as one of the
of Utah, which Gregory Thompson,
American West’s greatest writers. His
historian and Associate Dean of Special
nomadic childhood led him to form a
Collections at the University of Utah’s J.
deep bond with Salt Lake City, as he spent
Willard Marriott Library, calls the library’s
much of his adolescence here hawking hot
most important collection. “His papers
dogs at Saltair resort, adventuring in the
are just wonderful,” says Thompson, of
wilderness with his LDS Church Boy Scout
Stegner’s archives, and he enjoys seeing
troop (although he was a Presbyterian
the many people who comb through them
himself), and playing tennis on the
hoping to gain some insight and a deeper
University of Utah team.
understanding of the life of this literary
Despite spending much of his adult life teaching creative writing at Harvard
26 | utahstories.com
giant.
