Stegner, for all his striving toward largeness, shared some of Abbey's bitterness. Of course he, characteristically, framed it in a larger way. He believed that western writing as a whole was ignored, and as he became known throughout his home region he chafed against being considered regional-when considered at all-by the East. I remembered watching a television interview with Stegner where he mentioned that something he had written had not been reviewed or recognized properly. "Because it's provincial?" the interviewer asked. Stegner just stared at the poor man, who shrunk as the silence swallowed him. "No," Stegner finally replied, "because the critics are provincial." Of course. It was the New York critics who were the regionalists and their region was a tiny, crowded island.
( David Gessner )
[ All The Wild That Remains: ]
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