In late-1940s America, few writers commanded attention like Bernard DeVoto. Alongside his brilliant wife and editor, Avis, DeVoto fought corrupt lawmakers who sought to quietly cede millions of acres of national parks and other western lands to private industry. Building a grassroots coalition, Bernard and Avis enlisted the support of Julia Child, Ansel Adams, Adlai Stevenson, and Wallace Stegner. As Nate Schweber recounts, their crusade would earn them censorship and blacklisting by Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, and it even cost Bernard his life.