"In late-1940s America, few writers commanded attention like Bernard DeVoto. Alongside his brilliant wife and editor, Avis, DeVoto was a firebrand of American liberty, free speech, and perhaps our greatest national treasure: public lands. But when a corrupt band of lawmakers, led by Senator Pat McCarran, sought to quietly cede millions of acres of national parks and other western lands to logging, mining, and private industry, the DeVotos entered the fight of their lives. Bernard and Avis built a broad grassroots coalition to sound the alarm--from Julia and Paul Child to Ansel Adams, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Alfred Knopf, Adlai Stevenson, and Wallace Stegner--while the very pillars of American democracy, embodied in free and public access to Western lands, hung in the balance. Their dramatic crusade would earn them censorship and blacklisting by Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Roy Cohn, and it even cost Bernard his life"--Dust jacket flap.

Prologue: March 3-July 8, 1948 --Part I. "Deep as the roots of the earth" -- The sagebrush Caesar -- "The blueprint plans of creation" -- A world on fire -- Years of decision -- Part II. The landgrab -- A new word for "rustler" -- "Due notice to the FBI" -- "Shall we let them ruin our national parks?" -- New friends -- Potent mixtures -- Richard DeVoto's ordeal -- "TO AVIS AND BERNARD" -- Black Macs and banned books -- Green River Canyons National Park -- His true name is Legion -- The western paradox -- "On any grounds whatever" -- "The West has done it once" -- Part III. Descent to earth -- Master Avis -- Epilogue: Remembering.