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{{Short description|American historian and author (1897–1955)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2013}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Bernard DeVoto
| image            = Bernard DeVoto.jpg
| caption          = 
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1897|1|11}}
| birth_name       = Bernard Augustine DeVoto
| birth_place      = [[Ogden, Utah]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1955|11|13|1897|1|11}}
| death_place      = New York City, U.S.
| occupation       = Writer
| period           = 1932–1955
| genre            = History
| subject          = Western United States
| movement         = 
| net worth        = 
| website          = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Avis DeVoto]]|1923}}
| children         = 2
| signature        = 
| awards           = [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] (1948)<br>[[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] (1953)
| education        = [[Harvard University]]
}}
'''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 of [[Pulitzer Prize for History|Pulitzer-Prize]]-winning popular histories of the [[American West]] and for many years wrote ''The Easy Chair'', an influential column in ''[[Harper's Magazine]]''. DeVoto also wrote several well-regarded novels and during the 1950s served as a speech-writer for [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai 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."<ref>Wallace Stegner, The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto." (New York, Vintage Books,[1974] reprint 1988) pp. ix–x.</ref>

== Early life and education ==

DeVoto was born on January 11, 1897, in [[Ogden, Utah]] to Florian and Rhoda DeVoto.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=April 1956 |title=Obituaries: Bernard DeVoto |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44525014.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society |volume=66 |issue=1 |via=American Antiquarian Society}}</ref> 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.<ref>Stegner, W. (2015). ''The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto''. New York [New York] : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2015. ©1988</ref> DeVoto attended [[Ogden High School]] and worked briefly at the ''[[Ogden Standard]]'' after graduating.<ref name=":0" /> He attended the [[University of Utah]] for one year, then transferred to [[Harvard University]], entering as a member of the class of 1918. He interrupted his education to serve in the Army in [[World War I]], then returned to school and graduated in 1920.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Schweber |first=Nate |title=This American of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Struggle to Save the Wild |publisher=[[Mariner Books]] |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-06-326869-2 |location=New York |pages=28–31}}</ref>

==Career==
DeVoto began his career in 1922 as an English instructor at [[Northwestern 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 wife [[Avis DeVoto|Avis]] moved to [[Massachusetts]] in order to attempt to earn his living from writing along with part-time instructing at [[Harvard University]]. (His ambition of attaining a permanent position at Harvard was never realized.) He also edited the ''Harvard Graduates' Magazine'' from 1930 to 1932.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stegner |first=Wallace |date=1985 |title=Bernard DeVoto |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43019104 |journal=Western American Literature |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=151–164 |jstor=43019104 |issn=0043-3462}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cowley |first=Malcolm |date=1974-02-10 |title=The Uneasy Chair A Biography of Bernard DeVoto. By Wallace Stegner. Illustrated. 464 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $12.50. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/10/archives/the-uneasy-chair-a-biography-of-bernard-devoto-by-wallace-stegner.html |access-date=2023-11-30 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> A series of articles he published in ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' is credited with bringing the influential work of Italian economist [[Vilfredo Pareto]] to wide audiences.<ref>Joseph V. Femia & Alasdair J. Marshall, eds., ''Vilfredo Pareto: Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries'' (Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012). [[Lawrence Henderson]], [[George Homans]], and [[Henry Seidel Canby]] also played important roles in promoting interest in Pareto's work.</ref>  This led to a regular ''Harper's'' column, "The Easy Chair," which DeVoto wrote from 1935 until his death.

DeVoto was also an authority on [[Mark Twain]] and served as a curator and editor for Twain's papers; this work culminated in several publications, including the best-selling ''[[Letters from the Earth|Letters From the Earth]]'', which appeared only in 1962. From 1936 to 1938, he worked in New York City, where he was editor of the ''[[Saturday Review (US magazine)|Saturday Review of Literature]]'', after which he returned to Massachusetts.<ref name=":2" />

It was during his tenure as editor of the ''Saturday Review'' that DeVoto produced one of his most controversial pieces,  "Genius is Not Enough," a scathing review of [[Thomas Wolfe]]'s ''The Story of a Novel'', in which the novelist recounted his method of writing his autobiographical ''[[Of Time and the River]]'', as essentially submitting undigested first drafts to be transformed into finished work by others.<ref>"Genius is Not Enough", ''Saturday Review of Literature'' April 25, 1936</ref> According to DeVoto, Wolfe's writing was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something resembling a novel by [his editor] [[Maxwell Perkins|Mr. Perkins]] and the assembly-line at [[Scribners]]."<ref>{{cite book |first=David H. |last=Donald |title=Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe |location=New York |publisher=Fawcett Columbine |year=1987 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lookhomewardlife00donarich/page/376 376–377] |isbn=978-0449902868 |url=https://archive.org/details/lookhomewardlife00donarich/page/376 }}</ref> 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 editor [[Maxwell Perkins]] shortly before his death in 1938<ref>{{cite book|last=Berg|first=A. Scott|title=Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius|year=1978|publisher=Berkley}}</ref> 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":<ref>John L. Thomas, ''A Country of the Mind: Wallace Stegner, Bernard DeVoto, History, and the American Land'' (Routledge: 2013), p. 6.</ref> ''The Year of Decision: 1846'' (1943); ''[[Across the Wide Missouri (book)|Across the Wide Missouri]]'' (1947); ''The Course of Empire'' (1952). ''Across the Wide Missouri'' was the recipient of the [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] and the inaugural [[Bancroft Prize]] in 1948<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Meet Bernard Augustine DeVoto {{!}} Utah Historical Society |url=https://history.utah.gov/meet-bernard-augustine-devoto/ |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=history.utah.gov}}</ref><ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/History "History"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-17.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=AAS Members Who Have Won A Bancroft Prize {{!}} American Antiquarian Society |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/bancroft-prize |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=www.americanantiquarian.org}}</ref> and ''The Course of Empire'' received [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] in 1953.<ref name=nba1953>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1953 "National Book Awards – 1953"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-19. <br>(With acceptance speech by DeVoto.)</ref> DeVoto was the first Utahn to win a Pulitzer.<ref name=":1" /> He also edited a selection of ''The Journals of [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis 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 as ''Western Paradox''.

==Accusations of Communism==
As early as 1938, when the [[Dies Committee]] was investigating radical professors and a Soviet takeover of America, DeVoto "mocked the conspiracy nuts"<ref>{{cite book| first = Fred| last = Siegal| title = The Revolt Against the Masses| publisher = Encounter Books| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sPD2BwAAQBAJ| year=2015| access-date = 15 October 2018| isbn = 978-1594037962}}</ref> and yet was called "fascist" by the liberal critics.<ref name="Schweber148">Schweber, p. 148-152</ref> 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 the [[Communist Party USA]].<ref name=Stegner>{{cite book| first = Wallace Earle| last = Stegner| title = The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto| publisher = University of Nebraska Press| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PoTJFWavlyMC| pages = 52 (faculty), 359 (1953 article), 360 (outlawing)| year= 2001| access-date = 15 October 2018| isbn = 978-0803292840}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = A Literary History of the American West| publisher = TCU Press| url = https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo00west| url-access = registration| pages = [https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo00west/page/899 899]–901| date = 1987| access-date = 15 October 2018| isbn = 978-0875650210}}</ref> "Historian Bernard DeVoto spoke for many liberals"<ref>{{cite book| first = David M.| last = Oshinsky| title = A Conspiracy So Immense| publisher = Taylor & Francis| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=738dzm-R-5EC| page = 150| date = 2005| access-date = 14 October 2018| isbn = 978-0195154245}}</ref> in disdaining "the prominence ex-communists had gained in public life during the Cold War."<ref>{{cite book| first = Kevin| last = Mattison| title = Rebels All!| publisher = Rutgers University Press| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ICoPhgdqmHkC| pages = 29| year =  2008| access-date = 10 October 2018| isbn = 978-0813545103}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book| editor = Lori Lyn Bogle| title = The Cold War: Cold War Espionage and Spying| publisher = Taylor & Francis| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J6Cbjcvw354C| page = 335| date = 2001| access-date = 14 October 2018| isbn = 978-0815332411}}</ref>

In April 1953, DeVoto's ''Easy Chair'' column criticized "The Case of the Censorious Congressman" during Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]hearings of teachers. U.S. Representative [[Carroll D. Kearns]] called DeVoto "pro-Communist."<ref name=Stegner/>

==Personal life and death==
DeVoto married [[Avis DeVoto]] (1904–1989), a book reviewer, editor, and avid cook. She became friends with [[Julia Child]]. Child had written a fan letter to Bernard DeVoto regarding an article of his in ''[[Harper'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 groundbreaking ''[[Mastering the Art of French Cooking]]'' (1961). Child acknowledged Avis as "wet nurse" and "mentor" to the undertaking. The DeVotos' son Mark (b. 1940) is a [[music theory|music theorist]], composer, and retired professor at [[Tufts University]]. Their older son Gordon, a writer, died in 2009.<ref name="Schweber272">Schweber, p. 272-277</ref>

DeVoto died on November 13, 1955 at age 58.<ref name="Schweber239">Schweber, p. 239-240</ref>

==Works==
{{incomplete list|date=November 2012}}
* ''The Crooked Mile'' (1924) novel
* ''The Chariot of Fire'' (1926) novel
* {{cite book |last=devoto |first=Bernard |display-authors=0 | title=The House of Sun-Goes-Down | publisher=Macmillan | location=New York  | oclc = 613154969}} (1928) novel
* ''Mark Twain's America'' (1932)
* ''We Accept With Pleasure'' (1934) novel
* ''Genius is not Enough'' (1936) criticism
* ''Forays and Rebuttals'' (1936) essays
* ''Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth'' (1938), editor
* ''Troubled Star'', by John August (1939) novel
* ''Rain Before Seven'', by John August (1940) novel
* ''Mark Twain in Eruption'' (1940), editor
* ''Minority Report'' (1940) essays
* ''Mark Twain at Work'' (1942), editor
* ''Advance Agent'', by John August (1942) novel
* {{cite book |last=devoto |first=Bernard |display-authors=0 | title=The Year of Decision, 1846 | publisher=Houghton Mifflin | location=Boston|isbn=978-1787200357| oclc = 490177177|year=2016 }} (1942)
* ''The Literary Fallacy'' (1944), criticism
* ''The Portable Mark Twain'' (1946, editor)
* ''[[Across the Wide Missouri (book)|Across the Wide Missouri]], With an Account of the Discovery of the Miller Collection'' (1947) [Pulitzer Prize winner] {{isbn|0395924979}}
* ''Mountain Time'' (1946) novel
* ''The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto '' (1951)<ref>Republished in 2010 by Tin House Books</ref>
* ''The World of Fiction'' (1950)
* ''The Course of Empire'' (1952) [National Book Award]
* ''The Journals of Lewis and Clark'' (1953, editor)
* ''The Easy Chair'' (1955) essays
* ''Women and Children First'' by Cady Hewes (1956) essays
* ''The Letters of Bernard DeVoto'' (1975, edited by Wallace Stegner)
* ''The Western Paradox'' (2001, edited by Douglas Brinkley and Patricia Nelson Limerick)
* ''DeVoto's West: History, Conservation, and the Public Good'' (2002, edited by Edward K. Muller)
* ''The Selected Letters of Bernard DeVoto and Katharine Sterne'' (2012, edited by Mark DeVoto)

==See also==
* [[Avis DeVoto]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[Wallace Stegner|Stegner, Wallace E.]], ''The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto'' (1974){{ISBN?}}
* [[Wallace Stegner|Stegner, Wallace E.]], ed., ''The Letters of Bernard DeVoto'' (1975){{ISBN?}}
* Topping, Gary. ''Utah Historians and the Reconstruction of Western History'' (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), {{ISBN|0806135611}}
* ''Saveur Magazine'', #134, December 2010, p.&nbsp;41.
* {{cite book |last1=Wild |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Wild |title=Pioneer Conservationists of Western America |date=1978 |publisher=Mountain Press Publishing |location=Missoula |isbn=0878421076 |pages=104–111 |chapter=9: Bernard DeVoto: On the Barricades |others=[[Edward Abbey]] (Introduction)}}

==Further reading==
*{{Citation | last = Engar | first = Ann | title = Utah History Encyclopedia | publisher = University of Utah Press | year = 1994 | chapter = DeVoto, Bernard | chapter-url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DE_VOTO_BERNARD.shtml | url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240321232405/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DE_VOTO_BERNARD.shtml | archive-date = March 21, 2024 | isbn =9780874804256 | access-date = April 16, 2024}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{LCAuth|n50040421|Bernard DeVoto|58}} (with linked entries as John August and Cady Hewes)
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/DEVYOD/home.html ''The Year of Decision 1846''] (online in full)
* {{cite web |title=Utah History: Bernard DeVoto |url=http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/d/DEVOTO%2CBERNARD.html |archive-date=December 13, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041213041951/http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/d/DEVOTO%2CBERNARD.html |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}
* [https://www.hcn.org/issues/issue-13/fbi-was-out-to-get-freethinking-devoto/ "FBI was out to get freethinking DeVoto", from ''High Country News'']
* [http://bernarddevoto.org Bernard DeVoto]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/dining/09hour.html ‘The Hour,’ Famous Cocktail Guide, Is Reissued] William Grimes for the New York Times June 8, 2010
* {{cite web|title=Bernard DeVoto|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Bernard+DeVoto%22|publisher=JSTOR}}

{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1926–1950}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:DeVoto, Bernard}}
[[Category:American book editors]]
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners]]
[[Category:Bancroft Prize winners]]
[[Category:Historians of the American West]]
[[Category:Historians of the United States]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:American writers of Italian descent]]
[[Category:University of Utah alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Northwestern University faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from Ogden, Utah]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]