Frank Bergon
Encyclopedia
Frank Bergon is an American writer whose novels, essays, anthologies, and literary criticism focus primarily on the American West.
, and grew up on a ranch in Madera County in California’s San Joaquin Valley. After attending elementary school at St. Joachim in Madera and high school at Bellarmine in San Jose, he received a B.A. in English at Boston College, attended Stanford University
as a Wallace Stegner Fellow
, and completed a Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Harvard University
.
, and five edited collections and anthologies. A major concern of his work is with the lives of Basque Americans in the West. His writing about Native Americans ranges from the Shoshone of Nevada to the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico.
His Nevada trilogy consists of three novels spanning a century from the Shoshone massacre of 1911 (Shoshone Mike), to the shooting of Fish and Game officers by the self-styled mountain man Claude Dallas
(Wild Game), to the current battle over nuclear waste in the Nevada desert (The Temptations of St. Ed & Brother S).
Bergon’s new California trilogy, beginning with the novel, Jesse’s Ghost, focuses on his Basque-Béarnais heritage in the Central Valley of California.
He also writes about the natural history and environment of the American West in both fiction and non-fiction, such as in The Journals of Lewis and Clark.
With his wife, Holly St. John Bergon, he has published translations of the Spanish poets Antonio Gamaneda, José Ovejero, Xavier Queipo, and Violeta C. Rangel in New European Poets and The European Constitution in Verse.
Bergon has taught at the University of Washington and for many years at Vassar College, where he is Professor Emeritus of English. In 1998, Bergon was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
Biography
Frank Bergon was born in Ely, NevadaEly, Nevada
Ely is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906...
, and grew up on a ranch in Madera County in California’s San Joaquin Valley. After attending elementary school at St. Joachim in Madera and high school at Bellarmine in San Jose, he received a B.A. in English at Boston College, attended Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
as a Wallace Stegner Fellow
Stegner Fellowship
The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner , an historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty member who founded the university's creative writing program. Ten...
, and completed a Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Writing career
Bergon has published ten books—four novels, a critical study of Stephen CraneStephen Crane
Stephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism...
, and five edited collections and anthologies. A major concern of his work is with the lives of Basque Americans in the West. His writing about Native Americans ranges from the Shoshone of Nevada to the Maya of Chiapas, Mexico.
His Nevada trilogy consists of three novels spanning a century from the Shoshone massacre of 1911 (Shoshone Mike), to the shooting of Fish and Game officers by the self-styled mountain man Claude Dallas
Claude Dallas
Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr. was a self-styled mountain man. The son of a dairy farmer, he spent his early years in Luce County, Michigan, later moving to rural Morrow County, Ohio where he liked to trap and hunt game. Dallas graduated from Mount Gilead High School, Mount Gilead, Ohio in 1967...
(Wild Game), to the current battle over nuclear waste in the Nevada desert (The Temptations of St. Ed & Brother S).
Bergon’s new California trilogy, beginning with the novel, Jesse’s Ghost, focuses on his Basque-Béarnais heritage in the Central Valley of California.
He also writes about the natural history and environment of the American West in both fiction and non-fiction, such as in The Journals of Lewis and Clark.
With his wife, Holly St. John Bergon, he has published translations of the Spanish poets Antonio Gamaneda, José Ovejero, Xavier Queipo, and Violeta C. Rangel in New European Poets and The European Constitution in Verse.
Bergon has taught at the University of Washington and for many years at Vassar College, where he is Professor Emeritus of English. In 1998, Bergon was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
Books
- Jesse’s Ghost (2011)
- Wild Game (1995)
- The Temptations of St. Ed & Brother S (1993)
- The Journals of Lewis and Clark, editor (1989)
- Shoshone Mike (1987)
- A Sharp Lookout: Selected Nature Essays of John Burroughs, editor (1987)
- The Wilderness Reader, editor (1980)
- The Western Writings of Stephen Crane, editor (1979)
- Looking Far West: The Search for the American West in History, Myth, and Literature, coeditor with Zeese Papanikolas (1978)
- Stephen Crane’s Artistry (1975)
Awards
- Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, 1998
- Finalist, Best Novel of the West, Western Writers of America, 1993.
- Mellon Grant for Spanish Translation
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1985–86
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1979-80.
External links
- Frank Bergon's website
- Frank Bergon in Online Nevada Encyclopedia
- Frank Bergon in Basque News
- David Rio on Frank Bergon's Shoshone Mike
- Shoshone Mike 100th Anniversary
- Shoshone Mike in the Basque Country
- Frank Bergon, The New Western Writer
- Frank Bergon's books on Amazon
- Reviews in the New Yorker
- Frank Bergon at Washington College
- Frank Bergon interview in the Basque Country