De Voto, Bernard Augustine (1897-1955), an American novelist, journalist, and conservationist, promoted the American West in his works. He celebrated the West’s scenery, lore, and culture in “The Easy Chair,” a column he wrote for Harper’s magazine from 1935 to 1955. De Voto also wrote such important social histories as Mark Twain’s America (1932); The Year of Decision: 1846 (1943); and Across the Wide Missouri (1947), for which he won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize in history. De Voto financed his more serious works by writing novels under the pen name John August. He served as editor of The Saturday Review of Literature from 1936 to 1938.
De Voto was born in Ogden, Utah, on Jan. 11, 1897. He died in New York City on Nov. 11, 1955.
