From Deseret News archives:
'Discovery!' is a little jewel
Admirers of Wallace Stegner, a literary icon to numerous Utahns and other Westerners, will be happy to see "Discovery!" a hidden manuscript now published by Selwa Press. (There will be a hardcover, fully annotated edition in September.)
Stegner is easily one of America's great novelists and historians. I had the pleasure of attending a history workshop he taught one summer when I was a University of Utah graduate student. He was as compelling and charismatic in person as he continues to be in print a master of language but in a self-effacing, eloquent way.
He is well-known for "Big Rock Candy Mountain," "Joe Hill," "Remembering Laughter," "The Spectator Bird" and numerous other titles. Often he turned carefully researched history into beautiful, graceful novels.
As a college professor I assigned many of his essays to my history students to read and there was always at least one student in every class who connected with him to the point of excitement.
Although writing more important interpretive books and novels, he accepted a commission to write what would be a corporate history. He went to Arabia to collect documents and interview numerous men and women engaged in the oil industry. He was only there two weeks. Then he crafted the history of an oil company that was already changing the global economy.
Unfortunately, he finished the book just as the Suez crisis erupted in July 1956, when Jamal Abd al-Nasir, president of Egypt, announced that his government was nationalizing the Suez Canal. This resulted in panic in several nations and military action by Israeli and British forces, as Nasir became the hero of Arab opposition to the West.
It was not considered a good time for the book so Aramco shelved the project. "Discovery!" didn't get into print as a paperback until 1971, when it was published in Lebanon by an obscure press. By the following year, Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize for "Angle of Repose," another story of settlement in a desert the American West.
Today, "Discovery!" makes an interesting contrast with Stegner's literary works. He recognized the importance of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and found it comparable to the 19th-century American desert.
Dramatically, he wrote that "oil men began to tinker with the machines that made water and climate, and the smells that drove away the flies. And long before anyone knew the phrase, a revolution of rising expectations had begun. Saudi Arabia would never be the same."
As a corporate work, Stegner's interpretation was generally favorable to the oil company but he did not ignore any of the disputes that characterized the period.
This little book is a historical jewel.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com
Comments
- Tithes and offerings 12:13 a.m.
- Hugh Nibley's coded language 12:08 a.m.
- Time Out for Women in S.L. 12:08 a.m.
- Docents give of time to museum 12:08 a.m.
- Priesthood in action 12:07 a.m.
- Step on the gas, or hit the brake? 12:05 a.m.
- Falcons rip Rebels; Wyo rallies vs. SDSU 12:01 a.m.
- 2A: San Juan claims title 11:58 p.m.
- How the Top 25 fared 11:56 p.m.
- 2A championship: Defense sparkles 11:53 p.m.
- Apostle's wife felt comfort in attack
- Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
- Short-handed Jazz fly past Sixers
- D-Will home for daughter
- Utes excited for 'dream' game
- Bench proves fruitful for Y.
- Crash on snowy road kills woman
- Born of water and the spirit
- GameDay in Fort Worth
- BYU happy to escape with victory
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
358 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
200 - BYU happy to escape with victory
194 - Senators want food tax restored
166 - Will state consider gay rights law?
148 - TCU plows past Utes, 55-28
134 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
130 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
129 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
113
Singer Thurl "Big T" Bailey, formerly of the Utah Jazz, will perform a...
This is just a small glimpse of the future with Obamacare: corruption, waste...
I Bleed Blue | 9:44 p.m. Nov. 14, 2009 Wow! What a beat down. The second...
This is another reason soccer is a sad sport, a team that just makes the...
Make sure this is on the front page!! If you insist on mentioning that the U...
I am glad Utah got a lesson in humility today. You were getting obnoxious...
let me level with you..... Greg Miller does not really care what the majority...
The Last times I felt this proud of our Utah Sports Teams, was Beck to...
In case you haven't been watching, Florida State is far better than their...
Go Horned Frogs! Congrats! You guys definately deserve to play Florida in the...
The Realistic UteFan | 11:40 p.m. Nov. 14, 2009 What an embarrassing loss. ...




You can be the first to comment on this story.