EVERETT RUESS was a sensitive, artistic, adventurous young man who set out alone several times to experience the beauties, as well as the furies, of nature in the American West. During the 1930s, he met and discussed art with painter Maynard Dixon, and well-known photographers Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange. He was lured first by the splendors of Yosemite, the California coast, and later by portions of the lonely red rock lands of Utah and Arizona.           In November 1934, at the age of twenty, Everett disappeared from the canyon country near Escalante, Utah, and was never seen again. Although his burros were found near his camp, his fate remains a mystery. Everett left behind a remarkable collection of letters, essays, and poems in which he revealed himself to be artistically moved by the glorious, ever changing panoramas of the wilderness.           Everett’s artwork included drawings and watercolors, but his wood block prints have become the most well known. “The prints exhibit an advanced sense of balance and composition for such a young person” says Steven R. Jerman, a graphic artist who licensed reproduction rights to Everett’s block prints about ten years ago. “But like with any young artist, ” he continues, “it is not so much the work— as the spirit surrounding it—that defines its greatness. Everett had that in spades.”