Editing Angle of Repose (section)

===Lyman Ward===
58-year-old retired history professor Lyman Ward is the narrator of the book. He is a divorced amputee with a debilitating disease that is slowly "petrifying"<ref>Stegner (1971), 188</ref> him. The text of ''Angle of Repose'' is transcribed tapes of Ward dictating what is to become the biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. The dictation begins on April 12, 1970, and continues through the summer. Fiercely independent, Ward lives alone at the Zodiac Cottage, the house where his grandmother spent the last decades of her life and in which he spent time as a child. "Because of his disease and because his wife has abandoned him, [Ward] has reached a major crisis point in his life...His crisis leads him to the need to find a direction for his shattered life. That direction is provided by finding out about and trying to understand his grandparents..."<ref>Benson (2000), xxiv</ref>

Aside from his scholarly work which consists of composing a biography from his grandmother's letters, published writings, and newspaper clippings, Ward spends his time on daily exercise, conversing with his summer secretary (Ada's daughter Shelly Rasmussen), and watching baseball with the Hawkes family. In addition, a major theme for Lyman Ward is fighting off intrusions into his life by his son, Rodman, and Rodman's wife who are skeptical of his self-reliance and, according to Ward, wish to send him to "...the retirement home in Menlo Park".<ref>Stegner (1971), 9</ref>

According to Jackson J. Benson, the character of Lyman Ward was modeled after Stegner's dissertation adviser at the [[University of Iowa]], Norman Foerster, who also lost the use of his legs late in life due to disease.<ref>Benson (2000), xix-xx</ref>