Robert Laxalt: The Story of a Storyteller

“Robert Laxalt was as understated as he was brilliant as a novelist and Basque-American citizen. Warren Lerude’s superb new study illuminates the life and artistry of Laxalt. Anyone who wants to understand the pastoral tradition of the American West needs to read the works of Robert Laxalt.” —National Humanities Scholar Clay Jenkinson “There’s no one better suited to tell the story of a great storyteller than someone who fits that description himself. Warren Lerude has given us a remarkable chronicle of the life of Nevada legend Robert Laxalt. It is a book that is thoroughly researched, crisply written and honest to a fault. This is a biography about a man, Bob Laxalt, who richly deserves one. It will surely stand the test of time.” —Joe Crowley, President Emeritus, University of Nevada, Reno Robert Laxalt’s “evocative writing, full of the rush of memory and polished to simplicity . . . set a solid example for the rest of us.” —Lou Cannon, Th e Washington Post “Robert Laxalt was a western author who nurtured the Western literary and journalistic community. . . . He was a consummate story teller, and his work remains universal in its themes and enduring in its subtle power.”—Alan Deutschman, biographer of Steve Jobs “As a first generation American and trained journalist, [in Sweet Promised Land] Robert Laxalt has captured . . . the development of our country with such high literary merit that his book deserves universal regard as a classic of Americana.” —Guy Shipler Jr., The New York Times