What was the title of Wallace Stegner’s 1972 Pulitzer-winning novel?

Angle of Repose was Wallace Stegner’s 1972 Pulitzer-winning novel.

The story follows historian Lyman Ward, who investigates the life of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. Her letters and experiences connect the novel’s present-day frame with the American West of the late nineteenth century.

Stegner uses the family archive to explore marriage, artistic ambition, migration, aging, and the ways people construct personal histories. The title refers to a stable position in geology and serves as a metaphor for seeking emotional and historical balance.

The novel is often grouped with Stegner’s other major works, including The Spectator Bird and Crossing to Safety, but only Angle of Repose won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Stegner was also an influential teacher and environmental advocate associated with Stanford University.