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Courtesy Los Altos History Museum |
IT HAS BEEN 12 years since
Wallace Stegner died at age 84 after a car accident
in New Mexico, but he lives on through his books, environmental
achievements, and students mentored during a 26-year
career teaching creative writing at Stanford. Stegner’s
legacy has never been more evident than it is now at
the Los Altos History Museum, where a major retrospective
of the longtime Los Altos Hills resident is on view
through June 12, Thursday to Sunday, noon till 4.
Two years in the making, the exhibit provides a comprehensive
biographical tour featuring photographs, documents,
memorabilia and multimedia stations presenting interviews
with Stegner and those who knew him. In a re-creation
of his study, visitors can see the desk where the Pulitzer
Prize-winning author wrote Angle of Repose, Crossing
to Safety, All the Little Live Things and Spectator
Bird—and take a look at his notes, revisions,
correspondence and awards.
The exhibition’s title, Throwing a Long Shadow,
refers to Stegner’s influence beyond Stanford
and literary circles. An ardent campaigner for wilderness
preservation, Stegner co-founded the local Committee
for Green Foothills and helped save Dinosaur National
Monument in Utah. In 1961 he served as special assistant
to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, working
to expand national parks. Stegner’s famous “Wilderness
Letter” introduced the bill establishing the National
Wilderness Preservation System in 1964 and has since
been reprinted on posters around the world.
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