The Spectator Bird

The Spectator Bird

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2013-04-04

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0141392339

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Literary agent Joe Allston, the central character of Stegner's novel All the Little Live Things, is now retired and, in his own words, 'just killing time until time gets around to killing me.' His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, had not been his choice. He passes through life as a spectator. A postcard from an old friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he and his wife had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birthplace, where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough. Wallace Stegner was the author of, among other works of fiction, Remembering Laughter (1973); The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943); Joe Hill (1950); All the Little Live Things (1967, Commonwealth Club Gold Medal); A Shooting Star (1961); Angle of Repose (1971, Pulitzer Prize); Recapitulation (1979); Crossing to Safety (1987); and Collected Stories (1990). His nonfiction includes Beyond the Hundredth Meridian (1954); Wolf Willow (1963); The Sound of Mountain Water (essays, 1969); The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard deVoto (1964); American Places (with Page Stegner, 1981); and Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West (1992). Three short stories have won O.Henry prizes, and in 1980 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievements.


Book Synopsis The Spectator Bird by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book The Spectator Bird written by Wallace Stegner and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary agent Joe Allston, the central character of Stegner's novel All the Little Live Things, is now retired and, in his own words, 'just killing time until time gets around to killing me.' His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, had not been his choice. He passes through life as a spectator. A postcard from an old friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he and his wife had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birthplace, where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough. Wallace Stegner was the author of, among other works of fiction, Remembering Laughter (1973); The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943); Joe Hill (1950); All the Little Live Things (1967, Commonwealth Club Gold Medal); A Shooting Star (1961); Angle of Repose (1971, Pulitzer Prize); Recapitulation (1979); Crossing to Safety (1987); and Collected Stories (1990). His nonfiction includes Beyond the Hundredth Meridian (1954); Wolf Willow (1963); The Sound of Mountain Water (essays, 1969); The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard deVoto (1964); American Places (with Page Stegner, 1981); and Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West (1992). Three short stories have won O.Henry prizes, and in 1980 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievements.


Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Modern Library

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0307430863

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Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams Afterword by T. H. Watkins Called a “magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom” by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.


Book Synopsis Crossing to Safety by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book Crossing to Safety written by Wallace Stegner and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams Afterword by T. H. Watkins Called a “magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom” by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.


The Spectator Bird

The Spectator Bird

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 052543187X

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This tour-de-force of American literature and a winner of the National Book Award is a profound, intimate, affecting novel from one of the most esteemed literary minds of the last century and a beloved chronicler of the West. Joe Allston is a cantankerous, retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "just killing time until time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, has not been his choice. He has passed through life as a spectator, before retreating to the woods of California in the 1970s with only his wife, Ruth, by his side. When an unexpected postcard from a long-lost friend arrives, Allston returns to the journals of a trip he has taken years before, a journey to his mother's birth­place where he once sought a link with his past. Uncovering this history floods Allston with memories, both grotesque and poignant, and finally vindicates him of his past and lays bare that Joe Allston has never been quite spectator enough.


Book Synopsis The Spectator Bird by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book The Spectator Bird written by Wallace Stegner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tour-de-force of American literature and a winner of the National Book Award is a profound, intimate, affecting novel from one of the most esteemed literary minds of the last century and a beloved chronicler of the West. Joe Allston is a cantankerous, retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "just killing time until time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, has not been his choice. He has passed through life as a spectator, before retreating to the woods of California in the 1970s with only his wife, Ruth, by his side. When an unexpected postcard from a long-lost friend arrives, Allston returns to the journals of a trip he has taken years before, a journey to his mother's birth­place where he once sought a link with his past. Uncovering this history floods Allston with memories, both grotesque and poignant, and finally vindicates him of his past and lays bare that Joe Allston has never been quite spectator enough.


Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2014-11-04

Total Pages: 674

ISBN-13: 1101872764

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An American masterpiece and iconic novel of the West by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner—a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of our national past. Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history, recently confined to a wheelchair by a crippling bone disease and dependant on others for his every need. Amid the chaos of 1970s counterculture he retreats to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, to write the biography of his grandmother: an elegant and headstrong artist and pioneer who, together with her engineer husband, made her own journey through the hardscrabble West nearly a hundred years before. In discovering her story he excavates his own, probing the shadows of his experience and the America that has come of age around him.


Book Synopsis Angle of Repose by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book Angle of Repose written by Wallace Stegner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An American masterpiece and iconic novel of the West by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner—a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of our national past. Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history, recently confined to a wheelchair by a crippling bone disease and dependant on others for his every need. Amid the chaos of 1970s counterculture he retreats to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, to write the biography of his grandmother: an elegant and headstrong artist and pioneer who, together with her engineer husband, made her own journey through the hardscrabble West nearly a hundred years before. In discovering her story he excavates his own, probing the shadows of his experience and the America that has come of age around him.


All the Little Live Things

All the Little Live Things

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2013-05-02

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0718197518

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'Timely and timeless ... Will hold any reader to its last haunting page' Chicago Tribune The early life of Joe Allston, the retired literary agent of Stegner's National Book Award-winning novel, The Spectator Bird, features in this disquieting and keenly observed novel. Scarred by the senseless death of their son and baffled by the engulfing chaos of the 1960s, Allston and his wife, Ruth, have left the coast for a California retreat. And although their new home looks like Eden, it also has serpents: Jim Peck, a messianic exponent of drugs, yoga and sex; and Marian Catlin, an attractive young woman whose otherworldly innocence is far more appealing - and far more dangerous. 'The Great Gatsby captures the twenties and yet transcends them. All the Little Live Things is a comparable achievement for the sixties ... Stegner's craft is here at an apex' Virginia Quarterly Review


Book Synopsis All the Little Live Things by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book All the Little Live Things written by Wallace Stegner and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Timely and timeless ... Will hold any reader to its last haunting page' Chicago Tribune The early life of Joe Allston, the retired literary agent of Stegner's National Book Award-winning novel, The Spectator Bird, features in this disquieting and keenly observed novel. Scarred by the senseless death of their son and baffled by the engulfing chaos of the 1960s, Allston and his wife, Ruth, have left the coast for a California retreat. And although their new home looks like Eden, it also has serpents: Jim Peck, a messianic exponent of drugs, yoga and sex; and Marian Catlin, an attractive young woman whose otherworldly innocence is far more appealing - and far more dangerous. 'The Great Gatsby captures the twenties and yet transcends them. All the Little Live Things is a comparable achievement for the sixties ... Stegner's craft is here at an apex' Virginia Quarterly Review


The Sound of Mountain Water

The Sound of Mountain Water

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0525435433

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A book of timeless importance about the American West and a modern classic by National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wallace Stegner. The essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches collected in The Sound of Mountain Water encompass memoir, nature conservation, history, geography, and literature. Compositions delve into the post-World War II boom that brought the Rocky Mountain West--from Montana and Idaho to Utah and Nevada--into the modern age. Other works feature eloquent sketches of the West's history and environment, directing our imagination to the sublime beauty of such places as Robbers Roost and Glen Canyon. A final section examines the state of Western literature, of the mythical past and the diminished present, and analyzesd the difficulties facing any contemporary Western writer. Written over a period of twenty-five years, a time in which the West witnessed rapid changes to its cultural and natural heritage, and by a writer and thinker who will always hold a unique position in modern American letters, The Sound of Mountain Water is a hymn to the Western landscape, an affirmation of the hope emobided therein, and a careful and rich investigation of the West's complex legacy.


Book Synopsis The Sound of Mountain Water by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book The Sound of Mountain Water written by Wallace Stegner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book of timeless importance about the American West and a modern classic by National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wallace Stegner. The essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches collected in The Sound of Mountain Water encompass memoir, nature conservation, history, geography, and literature. Compositions delve into the post-World War II boom that brought the Rocky Mountain West--from Montana and Idaho to Utah and Nevada--into the modern age. Other works feature eloquent sketches of the West's history and environment, directing our imagination to the sublime beauty of such places as Robbers Roost and Glen Canyon. A final section examines the state of Western literature, of the mythical past and the diminished present, and analyzesd the difficulties facing any contemporary Western writer. Written over a period of twenty-five years, a time in which the West witnessed rapid changes to its cultural and natural heritage, and by a writer and thinker who will always hold a unique position in modern American letters, The Sound of Mountain Water is a hymn to the Western landscape, an affirmation of the hope emobided therein, and a careful and rich investigation of the West's complex legacy.


Bird Lovers, Backyard

Bird Lovers, Backyard

Author: Thalia Field

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2010-04-23

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0811229211

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Thalia Field’s third book with New Directions is a tour de force of blending literary genres (poetry, prose, essay, and drama) and examining our control of the natural world. Bird Lovers, Backyard continues Thalia Field’s interrogation of the act of storytelling and her experimentation with literary genre. Field’s illuminating essays, or stories, in poetic form, place scientists, philosophers, animals, even the military, in real and imagined events. Her open questioning brings in subjects as diverse as pigeons, chat rooms, nuclear testing, the building of the Kennedy Space Center, the development of seaside beaches, Konrad Lorenz, the American author and animal trainer Vicki Hearne, and the Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger. Throughout, she intermingles fact and fiction, probing the porous boundaries between human and animal, calling into question “what we are willing to do with words,” and spinning a world where life is haunted by echoes. Story and event survive through daring language, and the elegies of history.


Book Synopsis Bird Lovers, Backyard by : Thalia Field

Download or read book Bird Lovers, Backyard written by Thalia Field and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2010-04-23 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thalia Field’s third book with New Directions is a tour de force of blending literary genres (poetry, prose, essay, and drama) and examining our control of the natural world. Bird Lovers, Backyard continues Thalia Field’s interrogation of the act of storytelling and her experimentation with literary genre. Field’s illuminating essays, or stories, in poetic form, place scientists, philosophers, animals, even the military, in real and imagined events. Her open questioning brings in subjects as diverse as pigeons, chat rooms, nuclear testing, the building of the Kennedy Space Center, the development of seaside beaches, Konrad Lorenz, the American author and animal trainer Vicki Hearne, and the Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger. Throughout, she intermingles fact and fiction, probing the porous boundaries between human and animal, calling into question “what we are willing to do with words,” and spinning a world where life is haunted by echoes. Story and event survive through daring language, and the elegies of history.


Cat and Bird Stories from the "Spectator"

Cat and Bird Stories from the

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1896

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis Cat and Bird Stories from the "Spectator" by :

Download or read book Cat and Bird Stories from the "Spectator" written by and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner

Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner

Author: Wallace Stegner

Publisher: Penguin Group

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 9780140147742

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These 31 stories span a literary career of more than 50 years and serve as a true testament to "one of America's most distinguished men of letters".--The Boston Globe. Here are tales of young love and older wisdom; of the order and consistency of the natural world; and of the chaos, contradictions and continuities of the human being.


Book Synopsis Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner by : Wallace Stegner

Download or read book Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner written by Wallace Stegner and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1991 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These 31 stories span a literary career of more than 50 years and serve as a true testament to "one of America's most distinguished men of letters".--The Boston Globe. Here are tales of young love and older wisdom; of the order and consistency of the natural world; and of the chaos, contradictions and continuities of the human being.


The Gathering of Zion

The Gathering of Zion

Author: Wallace Earle Stegner

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1964-01-01

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780803292130

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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner tells about a thousand-mile migration marked by hardship and sudden death—but unique in American history for its purpose, discipline, and solidarity. Other Bison Books by Wallace Stegner include Mormon Country, Recapitulation, Second Growth, and Women on the Wall.


Book Synopsis The Gathering of Zion by : Wallace Earle Stegner

Download or read book The Gathering of Zion written by Wallace Earle Stegner and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1964-01-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner tells about a thousand-mile migration marked by hardship and sudden death—but unique in American history for its purpose, discipline, and solidarity. Other Bison Books by Wallace Stegner include Mormon Country, Recapitulation, Second Growth, and Women on the Wall.