Modern America, 1914-present

Wallace Stegner, 1909-1993 "Civilizations grow by agreements and accommodations and accretions, not by repudiations." Angle of Repose by Mark Canada, professor, University of North Carolina at Pembroke A prolific writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction, Wallace Stegner is in some ways a writer of place: the West. He grew up there--in, among other places, Montana and Washington--attended the University of Utah, and set much of his work in that region. More than a mere backdrop, the West pervades his novel Angle of Repose, a book that explores humans' relationship to the land, promise and growth, disappointment and loss, and other themes suited to the Western landscape and Western culture. Specifically, this historical novel recounts the aspirations of two Americans, Susan and Oliver Ward, who stake their lives on the promise of the West in the latter half of the 19th century. Stegner renders their experience--an experience shared by many real Americans and, some might say, by all of America--beautifully through the metaphor of the Doppler Effect: the principle that things approach at a higher pitch than they recede. Writing of this novel, Richard H. Simpson praises Stegner's "grasp of western history, topography, and culture" (41). To think of Stegner only as a Western writer, however, is to neglect some of the most powerful features of his work. Angle of Repose, which won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize, has as much to say about marriage and art, for example, as it says about the American West. In content, Stegner has much in common with the Western novelist Vardis Fisher, who taught Stegner freshman composition at the University of Utah. Fisher, who spent much of his life in Idaho, explored marriage and humans' relationship with the land in novels such as Children of God and In Tragic Life. In a case of the student surpassing the teacher, however, Stegner was a far a greater prose stylist, a master of vivid imagery and imaginative metaphor. As Angle of Repose demonstrates, he also made extensive use of allusion--the first chapter alone contains more than 50 references to people, mythical figures, places, and publications--deepening both the book's realism and its meaning. Bibliography Simpson, Richard H. "Wallace Stegner." Dictionary of Literary Biography. 202 vols. New York: Gale, 1981.

Major Works Remembering Laughter The Big Rock Candy Mountain Angle of Repose The Spectator Bird Crossing to Safety Careers novelist professor Homes Lake Mills, Iowa East End, Saskatchewan, Canada Great Falls, Montana Salt Lake City, Utah Rock Island, Illinois Madison, Wisconsin Los Altos Hills, California Greensboro, Vermont Chronology 1909: born in Lake Mills, Iowa 1921: family moves to Salt Lake City, Utah 1930: enrolls in graduate school at University of Iowa 1930: brother dies 1932: earns M.A. from University of Iowa 1933: mother dies of cancer 1934: marries Mary Stuart Page 1935: earns Ph.D. from University of Iowa 1937: son, Page, is born 1937: begins teaching at University of Wisconsin 1937: Remembering Laughter 1938: The Potter's House 1939: On a Darkling Plain 1940: father commits suicide 1940-1944: teaches writing at Harvard University 1941: Fire and Ice 1942: Mormon Country 1943: The Big Rock Candy Mountain 1945: One Nation 1945-1971: directs writing program at Stanford University 1947: Second Growth 1950: The Women on the Wall 1950: The Preacher and the Slave 1951: The Writer in America 1961: A Shooting Star 1962: Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier 1954: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian 1956: The City of the Living, and Other Stories 1964: The Gathering of Zion 1967: All the Little Live Things 1969: The Sound of Mountain Water 1971: Angle of Repose (Pulitzer Prize) 1971: Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil 1972: Variations on a Theme of Discontent 1974: The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto 1974: Robert Frost and Bernard DeVoto 1976: The Spectator Bird (National Book Award) 1979: Recapitulation

 

Angle of Repose

Notes

• Publication: 1971
• Genre: historical novel

Study Questions

• Look up the term "historical novel" in a literary reference book such as A Handbook to Literature. What features make Angle of Repose a historical novel? What difference does its genre make in our understanding of the novel--that is, how does its form shape its meaning? What does the novel have to say about history and the study of it?
• Draw character sketches of the major characters: Lyman Ward, Shelly Rasmussen, Susan Burling Ward, Oliver Ward, Augusta Hudson, and Frank. Consider both their mental and physical attributes. How do the personalities of these various characters interact and shape one another? If we consider some of these characters as symbolic figures, what does the novel say about the course of American history, especially in the realms of culture and industry?
• Analyze Susan's initial reactions to the West. Consider the various stages she undergoes.
• Why does Susan marry Oliver Ward? Does she love him? Compare her feelings for Oliver and her feelings for Augusta.
• Do you find Stegner's prose engaging? Why or why not? Delineate some of the major features of his style.
• Why is Lyman Ward trying to capture the story of his grandmother?
• Two major metaphors at the heart of the novel are "angle of repose" and "Doppler Effect." Explain their thematic significance.
• What does this novel have to say about art? Consider Susan's style and approach to illustration--as it is described, for example on page 152. What is the significance of the term "picturesque," which appears several times in the novel? What do Susan's ideas about art reveal about her personality?

Annotations

Updated August 20, 1999 | canada@sassette.uncp.edu | © Mark Canada, 1999
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