William Kittredge (August 14, 1932 – December 4, 2020) was an American writer from

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, United States, who lived mostly in

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

Biography

He was born in 1932 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, and grew up on a ranch in

Southeastern Oregon Southeastern Oregon is a geographical term for the area along the borders of the U.S. state of Oregon with Idaho, California, and Nevada. It includes the populous areas of Burns, Klamath Falls and Lakeview. The region is also known by its nick ...

Warner Valley The Warner Valley is a valley in south-central Oregon in the United States. It is a remote valley at the northwestern corner of North America's Basin and Range Province. The valley is home to a chain of lakes and wetlands known as the Warner ...

in Lake County, where he attended school in Adel, Oregon. He later attended high school in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

.Kittredge, William. 1992. ''Hole in the sky a memoir''. New York: Knopf. He earned his undergraduate degree in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

from

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

. At age 35, he retired from ranching and enrolled at the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative W ...

of the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

, where he completed his M.F.A. Kittredge's father, Oscar, was friends with the leadership in the Republican Party in Oregon. Oscar was to be picked up by Oregon Governor

Earl Snell Earl Wilcox Snell (July 11, 1895 – October 28, 1947) was an American politician, businessman, and member of the Republican Party, serving in the Oregon House of Representatives, as the Oregon Secretary of State, and as the 23rd Governor of Or ...

for a hunting trip in October, 1947 when the

plane Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * ''Planes' ...

Snell and Oregon Secretary of State Robert Farrell, among others, were flying in crashed en route, killing all four on board. He became a major voice with his 1987 collection of essays, ''Owning It All'', about the modern West. He followed with '' Hole in the Sky: A Memoir''. His book '' The Nature of Generosity'' holds forth on the value of what he terms ''extreme long loop altruism'', elaborating with refreshing insights and wisdom on sustainability, civilization, and its relationship to culture, history, and human nature. He was also co-producer of the movie, '' A River Runs Through It''. He received numerous awards including a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford and Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. With

Annick Smith Annick Smith (born 1936) is a French-born American writer and filmmaker whose work often focuses on the natural world. Biography The daughter of Jewish-Hungarian émigrés, Smith was born in Paris(2 July 1995)STAKING A CLAIM: AUTHOR ANNICK SMIT ...

, he edited ''The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology''. William Kittredge also published essays and articles in many magazines including ''The Atlantic'', ''Harper's'', ''Esquire'', ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', and newspapers ''The Washington Post'' and ''The New York Times'', mostly about the West. He taught creative writing at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...

for 30 years and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Montana Book Festival in September 2017.

Works authored

*''The Van Gogh Field and Other Stories'' (1976) *''We Are Not in This Together'' (1984) *''Owning It All'' (1987) *''Phantom Silver'' (1987) *''The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology'' (1990), with Annick Smith, University of Washington Press *''Hole in the Sky: A Memoir'' (1992) *''Who Owns the West?'' (1995, Mercury House) *''Big Sky Country: The Best of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho'' (1996), with photographer Michael Melford, Rizzoli Ed. *''The Portable Western Reader'' (anthology, 1997), Penguin Classics - Portable Library *''Taking Care: Thoughts on Storytelling and Belief (1999) *''The Nature of Generosity'' (2001), Vintage - Random House Ed. *''Southwestern Homelands'' (2002) *''The Willow Field'' (2006) *''The Next Rodeo: New and Selected Essays'' (2006)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kittredge, William 1932 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American novelists Oregon State University alumni Writers from Missoula, Montana Writers from Portland, Oregon Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni People from Lake County, Oregon National Humanities Medal recipients University of Montana faculty 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Oregon

Biography

Works authored

References

Further reading

External links