"John L. Thomas details an intimate portrait of the intellectual friendship between two commanding figures of western letters and the early environmental movement - Wallace Stegner and Bernard DeVoto.". "Drawing on their writings, personal correspondence, and dozens of articles from the pages of Harper's, where DeVoto was a columnist for years, Thomas places the two men in a vibrant American tradition, supporters of a national commons owned and cared for by all its citizens. The popular works of Wallace Stegner and Bernard DeVoto remain in print decades after they were first published, and, as Thomas makes clear in this illuminating account, their concern for the western environment continues to resonate today."--BOOK JACKET.