Like the main characters of his latest book, author and journalist Nate Schweber is shaped by his upbringing in the Western United States.
"I'm from the West," Schweber says. "I love the West. I miss the West. I try to get back to the West as much as possible."
His nonfiction book This America of Ours details the lives of American historian and conservationist Bernard DeVoto and his wife, editor, and strongest collaborator, Avis DeVoto. The two fought to save America's public lands from destruction throughout their lives.
It all began when, on a cross-country road trip in the late 1940s, the DeVotos discovered a plot to sell nearly 230 million acres of public lands — including national parks and monuments — to a small cohort of powerful ranchers. When the couple exposed the plot, it raised the ire of the men behind the conspiracy, including infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who unsurprisingly accused them of being Communists and sent the FBI to investigate.
"Their story was too big to be an article," Schweber says. "So it became a book."
This America of Ours is the selected title for the 2024 edition of Everybody Reads, a community reading program hosted at libraries across the Palouse. As part of the program, Schweber is participating in multiple book discussions at libraries across the region. This includes stops on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at the Moscow Public Library at 11 am, and another at 4 pm at Washington State University's Holland and Terrell libraries. With a visual presentation featuring "photos, bits of art, and film" uncovered in his research, Schweber says the presentation is a sort-of "live documentary" along with a book club-style discussion.
Bernard DeVoto's prolific writings are what first inspired Schweber to begin research for This America of Ours.
"It set my brain on fire," he says. "So many things that I had felt but never been able to put into words growing up in the West, I understood once I read Bernard DeVoto. He was a free thinker. He was such a maverick. An iconoclast."
In his essays and columns, DeVoto took many powerful American figures head-on. Accused of fascism during the New Deal era and communism during the Cold War, DeVoto wrote ferociously to fight censorship and book banning, xenophobia and internment camps, political McCarthyism and corporate mischief, and, above all, fought to protect his beloved Western public lands.
While he was one of the most prominent writers of his time, DeVoto has since fallen into relative obscurity. His impact on the protection of American public lands, however, is not lost on Schweber, who's working to revitalize popular appreciation for DeVoto's contributions to our country.
It's vital to note that none of Bernard DeVoto's Pulitzer Prize-winning Across the Wide Missouri nor his National Book Award-winning The Course of Empire nor any of his bombshell articles would exist without Avis DeVoto. She wasn't just Bernard's wife, she was also his professional partner.
Schweber describes Avis as "one of the incredible people in American history." With a great mind for literature and writing, Avis often worked around the clock to edit, proofread and refine Bernard's writings. No matter the attacks or setbacks Bernard faced, Avis was consistently responsible for ensuring his work was impactful.
In an unexpected turn of events involving Bernard's FBI investigation and an article critiquing kitchen knives, Avis DeVoto was introduced to Julia Child. Later, after Bernard died, Avis "realized that she could never have another romantic partner, but that she could have another professional partner," Schweber says.
So, Avis "transferred to Julia Child all the professional skills that she had lent to Bernard DeVoto," becoming Child's professional partner, agent and "soul sister." Avis even moved across the country to live near the chef. After her tireless work to protect America's public lands, Avis DeVoto also contributed tremendously to bringing French cuisine to the American table.
Schweber sees Avis DeVoto as "responsible for two of the most prominent writers — two of the most prominent people of the 20th century: Bernard DeVoto and Julia Child. Neither one would have a professional career without Avis DeVoto," he says.
In This America of Ours, Schweber braids Western history, Cold War-era politics and conservation into a charming, romantic narrative following two very impressive individuals. To tell the DeVotos' story, Schweber poured over thousands of "incredible" letters written between Avis and Bernard, as well as FBI documents.
Rife with political extremism, overreaching of corporations and threats to the natural environment, the story Schweber tells echoes the societal issues America is still facing.
"Especially in the politically divided times, I found [Bernard] to be an inspiration in sticking to a code of thinking for oneself and speaking one's mind, no matter social or political consequences," he says. ♦
"Their story was too big to be an article. So it became a book."