Remembering Laughter

Margaret Stuart, the proud wife of a prosperous Iowa farmer, sets high standards for herself and others. Happy in her marriage, she tries to look the other way when her genial husband, Alec, takes to the bottle. When Elspeth, Margaret's sister, comes to live with them, the young woman is immediately captivated by the beauty and vitality of the farm, and by the affection she receives from those around her. But as summer turns into fall, and the friendship between Alec and Elspeth deepens, Margaret finds her spirit tested by a series of events that seem as cruel and inevitable as the endless prairie winters.

Long out of print, Remebering Laughter (1937) marked Wallace Stegner's brilliant literary debut.

"Adroit and moving . . . has the quality of a rueful, ironic legend"
—The New York Times

"There is no use to mention the assurance and calm that Mr. Stegner brings to his first book—it has to be read to be believed."
—Saturday Review

"I thought Remembering Laughter a perfect little novel, clean, swift and assured, and I can still feel the weight of the disaster in it."
—Wendell Berry

Wallace Stegner (1909–1993) was the author of, among other novels, All the Little Live Things (winner of a Commonwealth Club Gold Medal), Angle of Repose (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and The Spectator Bird (winner of the National Book Award). His nonfiction includes The Sound of Mountain Water, The Uneasy Chair: A Biography of Bernard DeVoto, and Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West. Three of his short stories won O. Henry Prizes, and in 1980 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievements.