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Stegner (wallace) Angle of Repose collection
M0254
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose collection
Creator:
Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993
source:
Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993
Identifier/Call Number: M0254
Identifier/Call Number: 2021
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1875-1934
Abstract: Notes and research materials for Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize winning novel,
Angle of Repose, which was based on the life of American author and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Wallace Stegner, 1975.
Born in Milton-on-Hudson into loose-knit, Free-Soil Republican, Quaker family, which was keenly interested in literacy, temperance,
women's rights and anti-slavery issues of the day. Family friends: Horace Greely, Henry Ward Beecher, Susan B. Anthony.
Educated (1860-64) at Poughkeepsie Female Collegiate Institute (later Vassar) and School of Design for Women, Cooper Institute,
N.Y. Began 50-year friendship with Helena deKay and Richard Watson Gilder, young poet and editor, who were married in 1869.
N.Y. Illustrator (1864-75) Book engraving with W.J. Linton; "gift book" (Long-follow, Hawthorne, etc.) illustration for A.V.S.
Anthony of Fields, Osgood & Co. (Houghton Mifflin Co.) and also for Harper's Weekly.
Marriage (1875) to Arthur D. Foote, engineer and cousin of Beecher, whom she met in 1870, on his return from Sutro Tunnel
and S.P. Tehachapi projects in California.
Moved West (1876) to New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, where Foote became resident engineer through his brother-in-law, James
D. Hague. Lived among miners on The Hill, deplored their condition under "company town" tyranny while moving in important
mining and financial society of S.F. (the Hagues, Ashburners, etc.)
To Santa Cruz cement project (1877). Wrote first Scribner illustrated articles;" A California Mining Town," "The Cascarone
Ball," "A seaport on the Pacific."
Returned East (1879-81) while Foote engineered in Deadwood; on Hearst's Homestake Mine; in Denver, Co. and at St. Leadville,
Co. Wrote Quaker short story, "Friend Barton's Concern."
In Leadville (1879-81) Friendships with Clarence King, Emmons & Wiley of U.S. Geological Survey. Wrote "The Story of the Dry
Season", "In Exile," (latter for Atlantic) Helen Hunt Jackson visited her here and a correspondence followed.
Mexican Horseback Trip (1881) Wrote illustrated Century articles: "A Diligence Journey in Mexico" (1881). "A provincial Capital
of Mexico" and "From Morelia to Mexico City on Horseback" (1882)
Back East (1882-6) Sees much of Gilders in N.Y.; friendships with the Godkins of the Nation. Henry James and Mark Twain. Wrote
Led-Horse Claim (1883). "A Cloud on the Mountain," etc.
Boise, Idaho (1886-1895) Rejoins husband, pioneering Boise, Snake River and Twin Falls irrigation projects (later developed
by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation). Wrote: John Bodewin's Testimony (1886). St. Nicholas children's stories, The Last Assembly
Ball (1889). "The Rapture of Hetty," "The Fate of a voice" corresponded with Rudyard and Lockwood Kipling; The Chosen Valley
(1882), "The Watchman", Coeur D'Alene (1894), "Maverick", "The Trumpoter," "The Story of Aloazar" (1899). Served as art awards
judge at Chicago Exposition, 1893.
Grass Valley Calif. (1895-) Declines Principal ship of N.Y. School of Design; joins husband as Resident Manager of the North
Star Mines, where she resided until returning east to her daughter, shortly before her death. Wrote: "On A Side Track", "The
Cap of Trembling" (1895); "The Harshaw Bride." "Pilgrim's Station" (1896) "Pilgrims to Mecca," "The Borrowed Shift", "How
the Pump Stooped," The Little Fig Tree Stories (1889); "A touch of the Sun", The Prodigal, "Eleventh Hour", The Desert and
The Sown (1902), A Touch of the Sun and other Stories (1903), The Royal Americans (1910) A Picked Company (1912), The Valley
Road (1915), Edith Bonham (1917), The Grand Swell (1919).
Some Principle Themes- Harsh Stratifications of Western deep-mining camp societies (Last Assembly Ball). Exploitation of Western
resources & human values by impersonal Eastern corporate capital and remote legal redress (Led-Horse Claim, Chosen Valley,
J. Bodewin's Testimony). Exploitation of mine laborer's by outside agitators (Coeur d'Alene). Nostalgi sacrifice of Eastern
careers, culture, etc. ("The Fate of a Voice", etc.) Dreams of Water coming to make desert blossoms ("The Watchman," Desert
and Sown.)
[identification of item], Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose collection (M0254). Dept. of Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
For further Mary Hallock Foote material see:
M0115: original Mary Hallock Foote correspondence and Reminiscences manuscript.
M0305: McMurray/Foote papers, containing the best transcripts of the MHF correspondence as well as family photos and many
original illustrations.
Rodman W. Paul, ed.: A Victorian Woman in the Far West: The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote, San Marino, California, Huntington
Library, 1972.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993
Foote, Mary Hallock