Frédéric Louis Sauser left school at seventeen for a life of adventure in Russia. He began writing in St. Petersburg while working for a Swiss watchmaker.

Wallace Stegner spent a lifetime writing about the West; yet he chose to have his ashes scattered on Baker Hill, above Greensboro, Vermont. The town, where Stegner spent more than fifty summers, serves as the setting for his final novel, Crossing to Safety, a story that offers clues to the significance Baker Hill held for the author.