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Wallace Stegner
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Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier (Penguin Classics) Paperback – December 1, 2000

by Wallace Stegner (Author), Page Stegner (Contributor)
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Wallace Stegner weaves together fiction and nonfiction, history and impressions, childhood remembrance and adult reflections in this unusual portrait of his boyhood. Set in Cypress Hills in southern Saskatchewan, where Stegner's family homesteaded from 1914 to 1920, Wolf Willow brings to life both the pioneer community and the magnificent landscape that surrounds it.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    December 1, 2000
  4. Grade level
    12 and up
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    7.76 x 5.08 x 0.7 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0141185015
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0141185019
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Beautiful and moving...In many ways the best of all the good books Stegner has written. -- Walter Van Tilberg Clarck

Enchanting, heartrending, and eminently enviable. -- Vladimir Nabokov

About the Author

Wallace Stegner was born in 1909 in Lake Mills, Iowa. The son of Scandinavian immigrants, he traveled with his parents and brother all over the West-to North Dakota, Washington, Saskatchewan, Montana, and Wyoming-before settling in Salt Lake City in 1921. Many of the landscapes he encountered in his peripatetic youth figure largely in his work, as do characters based on his stern father and athletic, outgoing brother. Stegner received most of his education in Utah, graduating from the University in 1930. He furthered his education at the University of Iowa, where he received a master's and a doctoral degree. He married Mary Stuart Page in 1934, and for the next decade the couple followed Wallace's teaching career-to the University of Wisconsin, Harvard, and eventually to Stanford University, where he founded the creative writing program, and where he was to remain until his retirement in 1971. A number of his creative writing students have become some of today's most well respected writers, including Wendell Berry, Thomas McGuane, Raymond Carver, Edward Abbey, Robert Stone, and Larry McMurty.

Throughout his career and after, Stegner's literary output was tremendous. His first novel, Remembering Laughter, was published in 1937. By the time of his death in 1993 he had published some two dozen works of fiction, history, biography, and essays. Among his many literary prizes are the Pulitzer Prize for Angle of Repose (1971) and the National Book Award for The Spectator Bird (1976). His collection of essays, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs (1992), was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award.

Although his fiction deals with many universal themes, Stegner is primarily recognized as a writer of the American West. Much of his literature deals with debunking myths of the West as a romantic country of heroes on horseback, and his passion for the terrain and its inhabitants have earned him the title 'The Dean of Western Letters'. He was one of the few true Men of Letters in this generation. An historian, essayist, short story writer and novelist, as well as a leading environmental writer. Although always connected in people's minds with the West, he had a long association with New England. Many short stories and one of his most successful novels, Crossing to Safety, are set in Vermont, where he had a summer home for many years. Another novel, The Spectator Bird, takes place in Denmark.

An early environmentalist, he actively championed the region's preservation and was instrumental-with his now-famous 'Wilderness Letter'-in the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Honest and straightforward, educated yet unpretentious, cantankerous yet compassionate, Wallace Stegner was an enormous presence in the American literary landscape, a man who wrote and lived with ferocity, energy, and integrity.

Page Stegner is a Professor Emeritus of American Literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Publishing Group (December 1, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141185015
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141185019
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.76 x 5.08 x 0.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner

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Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
200 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the writing superbly descriptive, skillful, and beautiful. They describe the book as enthralling, captivating, and refreshing. Readers also mention it's thoughtful and impactful.

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Writing qualityEnthralling
7 customers mention "Writing quality"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing quality superb, beautiful, and skillful. They say the book blends history and narrative and illuminates westward wanderlust.

"...He captures the time & place with skill and expertise...." Read more

"...This novella is, I believe, fiction writing at its absolute finest. And I say that having been a bit disappointed in some of Stegner's other novels." Read more

"His writing is beautiful, but I struggled with all of the information and detail in the beginning...." Read more

"...the 'winter that killed the Saskatchewan cattle industry' was superbly descriptive." Read more

5 customers mention "Enthralling"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book captivating, mesmerizing, and refreshing. They describe it as thoughtful and impactful. Readers also mention that the short story is outstanding.

"...these authors have a clarity in their writing syle that is mesmorizing and refreshing to me." Read more

"...at the reviews by famous people, and see that V. Nabokov found it "enthralling, captivating, and infinitely ...." oh, I can't..." Read more

"...at the far end of the rainbow. Romantic. Wistful. Mandatory reading for the occidentaphile...." Read more

"I learned so much about lower Canada. His conclusion is impactful. The short story is outstanding. One of my favorite Stegner books." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

d dawn
5.0 out of 5 stars The Map and Stegner as my guide.
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2015
Verified Purchase
One of my favorite Stegner books. The map at the beginning of the book is invaluable and Stegner's research is impressive. He captures the time & place with skill and expertise. Interesting to note that he & Ivan Doig are young boys in the same general area of Montana and the Canadian border. I was able to locate places on Stegner's map that showed up in Nocturnal Prairie by Doig. Both of these authors have a clarity in their writing syle that is mesmorizing and refreshing to me.
5 people found this helpful
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Thomas Ricks
4.0 out of 5 stars Wolf Willow
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2010
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Wallace Stegner, the inveterate fiction/non-fiction writer of western America, is at his best with this autobiographical account of his six years (aged 10 to 16)living with his family in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada with frequent visits to north-central Montana in the period of the "closing of the Canadian Frontier" with thrashing machines replacing short-horn/long-horn cattle drives from Canada to the US and vice-versa. Stegner's eye for details and the nuances of life on the Canadian/American praries is never failing in capturing both the people and the times (1910-16)particularly his novella half way through his autobiographical memories of the great blizzard of 1907 and the last cattle drive from French River to Montana through the eyes of a benighted English gentlemen hellbent on learning about cowboy life first hand. The book, named for a yellow bush found along river banks in Canada and Montana, and known for its distinctive pleasing fragrance, is a tour de force of the continental Great Plains and life on the turn of the century prairie Canada. An excellent companion to Willa Cather's quasi-biographical O, Pioneers!
5 people found this helpful
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Sharon
5.0 out of 5 stars Wallace Stegner's Wolf Willow: A Visceral Precis
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013
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Wolf Willow is Wallace Stegner's "memoir" of his youth in Saskatchewan nearly a century ago, a narrative augmented by his gripping reconstruction of the vicissitudes of a landscape hard and hostile towards those who sought to subdue and settle it. You'll find the heart of his account in the back-to-back chapters entitled "Genesis" and "Carrion Spring," which stand as irrefutable witness to the lucid style which won Stegner his Pulitzer.

My recommendation: if parts of this tale seem, on occasion, thick and ploddy, isolate those two chapters and have a rigorous go at their 100 pages. Here you'll discover the rhythms of Stegner's poetic prose as you meet trapper Schultz (with"his passionate taciturnity" behind eyes "gray as agates"), along with his Russian wolfhounds (his alter egos), along with his pimply-faced kid, as feral and menacing as the old man. Here you'll encounter Rusty and Ray and their cohorts in a winter "wilderness [that] howled in all its voices," listen to "the faint dark monotone of wolves," and glimpse "a horn of moon declining toward the western horizon," above men trapped in harshest circumstance, "welded and riveted into a society of friends and brothers."

In the end, Wolf Willow will expose you to a time and trek of epic desolation and perdurable haunting, under the guidance of a writer so mesmerizing and compelling that long after you've put down his book you'll find yourself unable to put down his story.

J. Michael Thompson
mazais@aol.com
Sept. 30, 2013
14 people found this helpful
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moviegoer
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book. You will not be sorry.
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2009
Verified Purchase
Over the past couple of months, I have brought up "Wolf Willow" to a couple of friends who are readers. It's a difficult book to sell to friends, though. Ones says, "Well, it's part history, part
essay, part memoir, and their eyes glaze over." Today I took the bull by the horns and bought a copy and had it sent to the second friend. Then I realized that I hadn't bothered to leave a
review on amazon.com, and so here I am, like the Ancient Mariner, to tug at people's sleeves, hoping that anyone who happens by this site might read my words and be tilted toward buying
this book. It is wonderful. You don't need to take my advice: look at the reviews by famous people, and see that V. Nabokov found it "enthralling, captivating, and infinitely ...." oh, I can't
remember the exact words, buy Nabokov's point was that he envied Stegner's work in this book. (For Nabokov, that's high praise).

And that's it. If you reading these words, you're half-way home, half-way to deciding to read this book. I hope these words are the finger on the scale that makes you purchase "Wolf Willow."
If you do, you'll remember this review, I'll bet.
10 people found this helpful
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P. Hawker
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015
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If you are a fan of Stegner, you will probably like this book. It did take me a little bit to get into it, as the first chapters read more like a history book than an actual tale. Once I was hooked though I couldn't put it down. The tale of the storm/cattle drive of 1906 is worth the price of admission! I was actually very cold reading this part. The slow amble, the characters and story line are indeed a pleasant reminder of how hard these first pioneers really had to work, just to survive. Stegner really makes you feel like you are part of the history. If the history books in my formative school years had been half this interesting, I could've been a real scholar. Definite winner.
12 people found this helpful
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T. Cutter
5.0 out of 5 stars fiction writing at its absoulte finest. And I say that having been a bit ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2016
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Here is all you need to know about Wolf Willow: go to about the middle part of the book. There is a novella called "Genesis," a stand alone body of work that is exceptional. Very exceptional. You do not need to read anything before or after (although "Carrion Spring," right after Genesis, is good). This novella is, I believe, fiction writing at its absolute finest. And I say that having been a bit disappointed in some of Stegner's other novels.
One person found this helpful
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Faithnofear
3.0 out of 5 stars Tough book to start
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2016
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His writing is beautiful, but I struggled with all of the information and detail in the beginning. Once it hit the fiction part of the book it definitely got me intrigued and the remainder of the book was so descriptive of the frontier life.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Sojourner
5.0 out of 5 stars Evocative memoir of growing up on the prairie
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2017
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Beautifully written account of growing up in a small town in the Cypress Hills area of the Canadian prairie. Part evocative memoir and part history - but always with a personal touch. If like me you love the prairie, especially first hand accounts of those early the pioneer days, then you will love this book.
One person found this helpful
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Dan Earle
5.0 out of 5 stars Multifaceted read
Reviewed in Canada on January 14, 2013
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As a setting - When I started reading this book I needed to get a sense of the period of time of Stegner's childhood years on the plains. It so happens that he and my father both grew up in exactly the same generation and that Stegner's son, Page, was born the same year I was, 1937. I could also relate to his freedom to roam as a young boy as I did the same but in a much less harsh environment. So, I was able to develop a strongly felt personal connection to the "boyhood" aspect of this book even a generation away.

However, the boyhood aspect of the book is just one thread. I found it to be a beautiful story interrelating the forces of physical, cultural and economic geography. He talks of the land and its long geological history and its importance as a great drainage divide. He places the Cypress Hills height above the prairie in perspective as being not only physical but also culturally important. One sees the hills as a place of refuge and protection. We move through a cultural transition from plains Indians, to Metis, ranchers, homesteaders and town builders. We see international boundaries develop as the American side and the Canadian side take on their own persona. We see how closely the economic life of the region is tied to the vagary of climate and weather through the clever use of two books within the book. The book also contains a very useful map. I love books with maps.

In the end, he is empathetic to the state of small rural towns, thankful for the time and experience of the years he spent there, but also understanding of why the young and the restless need to move away to make their way to a more full and richer life. His Epilogue, sadly, is the story of many rural towns throughout the United States and Canada even today, even here in my town in southwest Nova Scotia, a long way from Stegner's prairie and hills.
3 people found this helpful
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:)
4.0 out of 5 stars What a perspective
Reviewed in Canada on April 16, 2020
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The novel was a good read and at times hard to read the harsh reality of the writer's memory
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Keren
5.0 out of 5 stars A history, a story, a memoir.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2013
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An incredible insight into the American West in the nineteenth century. ZA compelling mixture of history, fiction and memory. One of Stegner's best
2 people found this helpful
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Clive W.Gardam
5.0 out of 5 stars We are our past
Reviewed in Canada on April 1, 2021
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Who are we as Canadians or Americans? We are a product of our historical past, our ways of thinking and acting hark back to the lives of our ancestors. 'Wolf Willow' revisits the author's childhood years in a small Canadian town in S.W. Saskatchewan at the turn of the last century. We are lead to see how 'the wild West' is the driving idea that underlies small town values, for better or worse. This sounds so analytical, but I loved this book very much, it revealed all my own unexamined ways of seeing the world, my ideals and my predudices.
One person found this helpful
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