Was the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Angle of Repose based on letters?

Answer 1

Yes. Wallace Stegner's 1972 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Angle of Repose, incorporated actual correspondence written by Mary Hallock Foote, a little-known author and illustrator who lived from 1847-1938. The Foote family gave Stegner permission to use the letters, provided he disguise their true source; thus, the writing was attributed to wholly fictional characters. This caused controversy within the family after the novel was published.

Mary Hallock Foote's correspondence was later published as a memoir under the title, A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West.