Fun puzzle, thanks! And a mention of one of the greatest authors ever, Wallace Stegner. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and did SO much for environmental causes in the western US. Here's his bio on Wikipedia, it's pretty incredible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Stegner
Indeed! I picked the cover photo with him in mind. (And I’d love to read Angle of Repose someday… it’s just very long and I have so many books already in the queue!