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.
