Wallace Stegner was my neighbor and when I graduated with a BA in English from Dartmouth another elder on our little corner of the universe suggested I go meet him. I had just read crossing to safety. When I started to speak too definitively about it being autobiographical he stopped me and said it was not. He pointed out that the main character in the book was a woman in a wheelchair whereas his wife Mary was able bodied. He is or was such a big man that he would probably not be terribly angry at you or Roxanna he would probably chuckle and give a very gentle counter argument.
when I say “parry” above —-and I will check back to make sure I’ve spelled it correctly —I can also picture an old man who still moves gracefully despite being a fairly large man on a tennis court approaching the net and making a very solid backhand volley to win the point .
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 
Wallace Stegner is being maligned unfairly in the press lately.