Written from the perspective of the aging larry morgan,crossing to safety is a beautiful and deeply moving exploration of the struggle of four people to come to terms with the trials and tragedies of everyday life. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read crossing to safety. Crossing to safety modern library classics kindle edition by stegner, wallace, williams, terry tempest. Wallace stegner walked both sides of the line that separates fact from fiction. Crossing to safety wallace stegner introduction bccls. The main characters are morgan, his wife sally, and sid and charity lang. Crossing to safety is a 1987 semiautobiographical novel by the dean of western writers, wallace stegner. Wallace stegner writing styles in crossing to safety wallace stegner this study guide consists of approximately 44 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of crossing to safety. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner nichole bernier, author of the unfinished work of elizabeth d. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading crossing to safety modern library classics. Wallace stegners quiet novel crossing to safety stands as a refreshing retreat in my readers history. On the other, he wrote several semiautobiographical novels, including the big rock candy mountain, wolf willow and crossing to safety.
This 56page guide for crossing to safety by wallace stegner includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 22 chapters, as well as several more indepth sections of expertwritten literary analysis. Crossing to safety by stegner, wallace earle, 19091993. He was 62 when, in 1971, he won the pulitzer for angle of repose. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Introduction by terry tempest williams afterword by t. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner, paperback barnes. The big rock candy mountain isbn 97801492349 pdf epub. Not only a book of a lifetime, crossing to safety is a book that comes at the end of a long lifetime of writing. Stegners novel angle of repose won the pulitzer prize for fiction in 1972, and was directly based on the letters of mary hallock foote later published as the. An incandescent novel about love, marriage, aging and being painfully, exuberantly alive. On one hand he was a historian who wrote a biography of john wesley powell and two histories of mormon culture. What a wonderful plane trip i was on the next to last page as we landed and read the last two pages while waiting for my luggage. Using a series of flashbacks in the mind of a writer, larry morgan, throughout a single day, the novel is a reflection on youth, idealism, and the often unarticulated but lifelong process of compromise one must endure while seeking a stable place in the world. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides for challenging works of literature.
Crossing to safety modern library classics by wallace stegner, terry. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner, 97801494954, available at book depository. Floating upward through a confusion of dreams and memory, curving like a trout through the rings of previous risings, i surface. Wallace stegner a journey through literary america.
Whoopee, what a book, what a read, i hated for it to end. Crossing to safety modern library classics kindle edition by. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. Larry morgan and his wife sally are young westerners who, one day in depressionpoor 1937, arrive in madison, wisconsin, where larry is to take a oneyear teaching post at the university of wisconsin. Publication date 1988 topics married people, friendship, novelists. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner pagesofjulia. In 1972, wallace earle stegner won a pulitzer prize for angle of. Bo mason, his wife, elsa, and their two boys live a transient life of poverty and despair. Crossing to safety is a 1987 semiautobiographical novel by wallace stegner. Wallace stegner is one of our great national treasures, and crossing to safety is a very rich read, a surprising look at the friendship between two couples, four friends. The novel moves from the present through the past in a long series of remembrances.
He had lived to the respectable age of 85, after all, had lived to see the wideopen american landscape that he celebrated over a long career as a writer carved by bulldozers, devoured by cities, and filled with people. Crossing to safety is an oldfashioned novel about a traditional subject, friendship, and what it means in the lives of four people who experience it over several decades. Larry and sally meet sid and charity in 1938 when larry and sid are english professors in madison, wisconsin. Crossing to safety by wallace earle stegner librarything. Wallace stegner 19091993 may be better known for his 1972 pulitzer prizewinner, angle of repose, but its his last novel, crossing to safety, which quietly celebrated its. Since the final scenes of their story are in 1972 at sid and charitys vermont home. I was glad to find much of my book group felt the same way. Buy crossing to safety penguin modern classics by stegner, wallace, smiley, jane from amazons fiction books store. Wallace stegner 19031993 was the author of many books of fiction and nonfiction, including the national book awardwinning the spectator bird 1976 and crossing to safety. Wallace stegner gives us plenty of possible answers to that question in his novel crossing to safety. The history is that of the country around the cypress hills in saska, the story a fictional tale of cowboys and cattle in the terrible winter of 19067, the memory the authors nostalgic. Wallace stegner novelist, historian, environmentalist. The author of this delightful book, one of americas most distinguished writers, states that it is a history, a story, and a memory of the last plains frontier, and it follows this subtitle exactly. Crossing to safety ebook written by wallace stegner.
Stegner opens with charity, a wealthy new englander in the last stages of cancer, bringing the foursome back together for one last hurrah. Nearly two decades ago, i read wallace stegners angle of repose. Wallace stegner writing styles in crossing to safety. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner as an english major, no one ever made me read any wallace stegner, which is a shame, writes listener sylvia about the novelist. Wallace stegner, who also wrote short stories, essays, biographies and histories, published his first novel in 1937. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner in the space of one day, narrator larry morgan tells a story of the history of friendship and marriage. Wallace stegner books list of books by author wallace. Online read crossing to safety and download crossing to safety for free. Gregory thompson talks about the wallace stegner collection at the university of utahs j. Wallace stegner, who also wrote short stories, essays, biographies and histories. In crossing to safety, stegner explores the mysteries of friendship, and it extends stegners distinguished body of work that had already earned him a pulitzer prize for 1971s angle of repose and the national book award for.
Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. Publication date 2002 topics married people, friendship, novelists. Civilisations grow by agreements and accommodations and accretions, not by repudiations. Crossing to safety wallace stegner fiction 368 pages. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. See all books authored by wallace stegner, including crossing to safety, and angle of repose, and more on. Click to read more about crossing to safety by wallace earle stegner. Indeed, for many years i had the following quote from it on my work whiteboard. Drifting from town to town and from state to state, the violent, ruthless bo seeks out his fortune in the hotel business, in new farmland and eventually, in illegal rumrunning through. The collection features multiple items, including stegners manuscripts and. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between vermont. It made a deep impression that has lingered over the years. It gained broad literary acclaim and commercial popularity.
Crossing to safety wallace stegner introduction by molly lundquist like other famous authors who claimed to write small jane austens miniatures on a little bit of ivory and william faulkners postage stamp of native soil, wallace stegner says of crossing to safety that he was trying to make very small noises and to make them thoughtful. With an overdrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for ataglance information about availability. Crossing to safety tells an american tale of two couples who form a lifelong bond extending from the great. The language was beautiful and there was not a single sentence i would have taken out. Like some others ive loved, its hard to put my finger on a reason, but i loved it.
Crossing to safety by wallace stegner reading guidebook. I had read it before about seven years ago a library copy recommended to me by a trustworthy colleague who. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner penguin books. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner 2002, paperback at the best. I first read crossing to safety, my first book by wallace stegner, in august 20. Since then ive read many more books by him, and this is still my favorite stegner. Crossing to safety by wallace stegner overdrive rakuten. Which would have been a shame, because it was a wonderful book just not my usual sort, and it took me a bit to get into it and adjust to its style and pacing. Crossing to safety crossing to safety modern library classics. Crossing to safety by wallace stenger is the kind of. A novel of the friendships and woes of two couples, which tells the story of their lives in lyrical, evocative prose by one of the finest american writers of the late 20th century. The first time i read wallace stegners crossing to safety, i was in my late twenties and hungry for insight into what made for a solid relationship, and what. In crossing to safety, stegner explores the mysteries of friendship, and it extends stegners distinguished body of work that had already earned him. Crossing to safety penguin modern classics by wallace stegner author jane smiley author of introduction, etc.
Crossing to safety by wallace earle stegner book resume. Crossing to safety modern library classics paperback april 9, 2002. Pdf crossing to safety download full pdf book download. Wallace stegner 19091993 was the author of, among other novels, remembering laughter, 1937. Stegner takes a long look backat four decades of a foursomes lifein a novel that at moments is beguiling, though at others it labors for its theme. Two young couples, sid and charity and larry and sally, from different backgroundseast and west, rich and poorbefriend each other in 1937 madison, wisconsin, in an evocative and insightful portrait of family and friendship.
Crossing to safety by wallace stegner posted on april 7, 2014 by pagesofjulia in the fine tradition of for whom the bell tolls and of mice and men, crossing to safety borrows its title from poetry in this case, robert frost. Librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers. We will explore the breadth of stegners remarkable career as not only a prizewinning author, but also as a historian of the west and an early activist for environmental causes. Book clubs pick for june, and i would never have read it otherwise.