"A native Nevadan of Basque descent, Robert Laxalt, also
came to prominence in the 1950s. His Sweet Promised Land
(1957) is a touching reminiscence of his father, who after a
long life of herding sheep on the Nevada slope of the
Sierras returns for a visit to his native Pyrenees. Laxalt
vividly describes both the Sierras and the Pyrenees and
effectively evokes his father’s intense personality. The old
man yearns to stay in the Pyrenees among the people of his
childhood; but finally he departs again because Nevada, the
new land long lived in, has claimed him. Laxalt thus
exploits a venerable western theme: even in the twentieth
century, the West transforms immigrants into Americans.
Laxalt also authored The Violent Land: Tales the Old
Timers Tell (1953), a collection of anecdotes from
Nevada’s history; In a Hundred Graves: A Basque Portrait
(1972), a collection of stories and sketches about Basque
peasants in the Pyrenees; and Nevada (1976), the
bicentennial history of that state."
From 

University of Nevada, Reno