Bernard DeVoto | |
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| Born | Bernard Augustine DeVoto (1897-01-11)January 11, 1897 Ogden, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | November 13, 1955(1955-11-13) (aged 58) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Period | 1932–1955 |
| Genre | History |
| Subject | Western United States |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for History (1948) National Book Award for Nonfiction (1953) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Bernard Augustine DeVoto (January 11, 1897 – November 13, 1955) was an American historian, conservationist, essayist, columnist, teacher, editor, and reviewer. He was the author of a series ofPulitzer-Prize-winning popular histories of theAmerican West and for many years wroteThe Easy Chair, an influential column inHarper's Magazine. DeVoto also wrote several well-regarded novels and during the 1950s served as a speech-writer forAdlai Stevenson. His friend and biographer,Wallace Stegner described DeVoto as "flawed, brilliant, provocative, outrageous, ... often wrong, often spectacularly right, always stimulating, sometimes infuriating, and never, never dull."[1]
DeVoto was born on January 11, 1897, inOgden, Utah to Florian and Rhoda DeVoto.[2] DeVoto's father was a Catholic of Italian descent, an educated, impoverished man; his mother was the daughter of a Mormon farmer; and their son was not accepted by either community.[3] DeVoto attendedOgden High School and worked briefly at theOgden Standard after graduating.[2] He attended theUniversity of Utah for one year, then transferred toHarvard University, entering as a member of the class of 1918. He interrupted his education to serve in the Army inWorld War I, then returned to school and graduated in 1920.[4]
DeVoto began his career in 1922 as an English instructor atNorthwestern University. He also began publishing articles and novels (under the pseudonyms "John August" and "Cady Hewes"). In 1927 he resigned from Northwestern. He and his wifeAvis moved toMassachusetts in order to attempt to earn his living from writing along with part-time instructing atHarvard University. (His ambition of attaining a permanent position at Harvard was never realized.) He also edited theHarvard Graduates' Magazine from 1930 to 1932.[2][5][6] A series of articles he published inHarper's Magazine is credited with bringing the influential work of Italian economistVilfredo Pareto to wide audiences.[7] This led to a regularHarper's column, "The Easy Chair," which DeVoto wrote from 1935 until his death.
DeVoto was also an authority onMark Twain and served as a curator and editor for Twain's papers; this work culminated in several publications, including the best-sellingLetters From the Earth, which appeared only in 1962. From 1936 to 1938, he worked in New York City, where he was editor of theSaturday Review of Literature, after which he returned to Massachusetts.[4]
It was during his tenure as editor of theSaturday Review that DeVoto produced one of his most controversial pieces, "Genius is Not Enough," a scathing review ofThomas Wolfe'sThe Story of a Novel, in which the novelist recounted his method of writing his autobiographicalOf Time and the River, as essentially submitting undigested first drafts to be transformed into finished work by others.[8] According to DeVoto, Wolfe's writing was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something resembling a novel by [his editor]Mr. Perkins and the assembly-line atScribners."[9] Although in passing acknowledging Wolfe's genius, DeVoto excoriated his lack of artistry, "Mr. Wolfe ... has written some of the finest fiction in our day. But a great part of what he writes is not fiction at all: it is only material with which he has struggled but which has defeated him... Until Mr. Wolfe develops more craftsmanship, he will not be the important novelist he is now widely accepted as being." DeVoto's essay was a decisive factor in Wolfe's subsequent cutting ties with Scribners and editorMaxwell Perkins shortly before his death in 1938[10] and had a devastating effect on Wolfe's posthumous literary reputation.
The decade between 1943 and 1953 saw the completion of what John L. Thomas called DeVoto's "magnificent trilogy of the discovery, settling, and exploitation of the West":[11]The Year of Decision: 1846 (1943);Across the Wide Missouri (1947);The Course of Empire (1952).Across the Wide Missouri was the recipient of thePulitzer Prize for History and the inauguralBancroft Prize in 1948[12][13][14] andThe Course of Empire receivedNational Book Award for Nonfiction in 1953.[15] DeVoto was the first Utahn to win a Pulitzer.[12] He also edited a selection ofThe Journals ofLewis and Clark (1953). A book on the history, geography, and ecology of the American West remained unfinished at his death in 1955; in 2001, an edited version was published asWestern Paradox.
As early as 1938, when theDies Committee was investigating radical professors and a Soviet takeover of America, DeVoto "mocked the conspiracy nuts"[16] and yet was called "fascist" by the liberal critics.[17] In the 1950s, he felt "a Communist or two on any faculty constituted a far smaller danger than the procedures that would be necessary to keep them off." He also opposed the outlawing of theCommunist Party USA.[18][19] "Historian Bernard DeVoto spoke for many liberals"[20] in disdaining "the prominence ex-communists had gained in public life during the Cold War."[21] He argued that despite the new-found patriotism of conservative ex-Communists, their commitments to absolutism and authoritarianism remained the same and continued to threaten freedom.[22]
In April 1953, DeVoto'sEasy Chair column criticized "The Case of the Censorious Congressman" during Senate Internal Security Subcommittee andHouse Un-American Activities Committeehearings of teachers. U.S. RepresentativeCarroll D. Kearns called DeVoto "pro-Communist."[18]
DeVoto marriedAvis DeVoto (1904–1989), a book reviewer, editor, and avid cook. She became friends withJulia Child. Child had written a fan letter to Bernard DeVoto regarding an article of his inHarper's Magazine; he had stated just how much he detested stainless steel knives, and Child thought he was "100% right". Avis' response began a long correspondence and friendship between the two women during Child's work on her groundbreakingMastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). Child acknowledged Avis as "wet nurse" and "mentor" to the undertaking. The DeVotos' son Mark (b. 1940) is amusic theorist, composer, and retired professor atTufts University. Their older son Gordon, a writer, died in 2009.[23]
DeVoto died on November 13, 1955 at age 58.[24]
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