Bernard DeVoto photograph collection, 1900-1978

Bernard Augustine DeVoto was a historian, writer, critic, and conservationist known for his Pulitzer-Prize winning histories of the American West. DeVoto was born on January 11, 1897, in Ogden Utah to parents Florian Bernard and Rhoda Ann Dye DeVoto. DeVoto attended Ogden High School; after graduation, he worked for short periods at The Ogden Standard-Examiner and as a junior high teacher. DeVoto attended the University of Utah for one year before transferring to Harvard University. Though he interrupted his education to serve in World War I, he graduated in 1920. In 1922, he began working as an English literature instructor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois., where he taught until 1927, when he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work as a part-time teacher at Harvard and pursue a career in writing. While DeVoto was never offered a full-time position at Harvard, he found success in his writing and editorial work. He was also politically active in several areas. DeVoto died on November 13, 1955, at age 58.

Bernard DeVoto initiated his writing career by publishing under pseudonyms "John August" and "Cady Hughes." He also published articles in various publications under his own name. In the early 1930s, he published a series of articles on Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in Harper's Magazine, which lead the magazine to give DeVoto a regular column, "The Easy Chair," which DeVoto wrote from 1935 until his death in 1955. From 1936 until 1938, DeVoto served as editor of New York City's Saturday Review of Literature, were he published "Genius is Not Enough," a scathing review of Thomas Wolfe's work which impacted Wolfe's career and posthumous reputation.

In addition to his cultural and literary criticism, Bernard DeVoto wrote and edited monographs in his areas of expertise and interest: American literature, particularly Mark Twain, and the history of the American West. In 1932, DeVoto published Mark Twain's America, literary criticism focusing on the cultural context of Twain's work; he subsequently edited several volumes of Twain's papers. DeVoto wrote three books on the history, exploration, conquest, and settlement of the American West: The Year of Decision: 1946 (1943), Across the Wide Missouri (1947), and The Course of Empire (1952). won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1952, and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1953. At the time of his death in 1955, DeVoto was working on a series of television programs about the history of the American West for the Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBC). He also published numerous novels under his pseudonym John August. DeVoto's letters were collected into multiple volumes posthumously by Wallacer Stegner in 1975 and his son Mark DeVoto in 2012.

Through his writing, DeVoto was an influential voice in political thought in America. DeVoto was an advocate for civil liberties and free speech: defended professors who were targeted by the Dies Committee in 1938; he opposed outlawing the Community Party of the United States of America; and, in 1953, wrote in criticism of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. At the same time, DeVoto was skeptical of Communism and its relationship to absolutism and authoritarianism. DeVoto was also active in early environmentalism. In 1940, he became involved in the American conservation movement as an advocate for public lands and protection of natural resources.

Bernard DeVoto married Helen Avis MacVicar in 1923. Avis MacVicar was born in Houghton, Michigan, on May 22, 1904 and died on March 7, 1989. At the time, Avis was attending Northwestern University; she met Bernard when he was her English instructor. After moving to Cambridge, the couple were active in New England's literary circles, building close friendships with people like Robert Frost and publisher Lowell Thompson. Avis DeVoto assisted Bernard as his secretary and editor and managed his correspondence. In 1952, she responded to a letter sent to Bernard by Julia Child, who was living in Paris. Avis replied to the letter, and the two women established a friendship and collaboration. Avis DeVoto edited early drafts of Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and helped Child find and secure a publisher. After Bernard's death, Avis DeVoto worked for Alfred A. Knopf and Houghton Mifflin publishing houses as a cookbook editor and scout. To supplement this work, she also worked as House Secretary for Harvard's Lowell House from 1958 until 1963 and in the Dean's Office of Radcliffe College until retiring in 1969.

Bernard and Avis had two sons together. Their eldest son, Gordon King DeVoto (1930-2009) served in the Korean War. He was an avid traveler and amateur writer. Their second son, Mark Bernard DeVoto (1940-), studied music at Harvard and Princeton before going to work as a composer, music critic, and professor; he taught at TUfts University from 1981 until his retirement in 2000.