De Voto, Bernard

▪ American writer

born Jan. 11, 1897, Ogden, Utah, U.S.

died Nov. 13, 1955, New York, N.Y.

      American novelist, journalist, historian, and critic, best known for his works on American literature and the history of the Western frontier.

      After attending the University of Utah and Harvard University (B.A., 1920), De Voto taught at Northwestern University (1922–27) and Harvard (1929–36) before becoming editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. After two years he resigned and returned to Cambridge, Mass., where he lived for the rest of his life. Although he wrote many novels, De Voto probably found his largest audience through his essays in the “Easy Chair” department for Harper's Magazine. His combination of sound scholarship and a vigorous, outspoken style made him one of the most widely read critics and historians of his day. His strong opinions and admitted prejudices for American life and materials put him at the centre of many critical controversies. Among the works he wrote or edited are Mark Twain's America (1932); (ed.) Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); Mark Twain at Work (1942); Across the Wide Missouri (Pulitzer Prize, 1948); The World of Fiction (1950); The Hour (1951); The Course of Empire (1952); and (ed.) The Journals of Lewis and Clark (1953). His novels include The Crooked Mile (1924) and Mountain Time (1947). A selection of Letters was published in 1975.

Additional Reading

Wallace Stegner, The Uneasy Chair (1974).

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