This collection encompasses 50-plus years of interviews, readings, speeches, and reports on the vibrant literary scene in Minnesota. Not only home to giants F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, our state has an array of incredible contemporary poets, novelists, and playwrights. Their words make up majority of this collection.
Repeatedly being named the “Most Literate City in the United States,” the Twin Cities has played host to numerous visiting national writers via book tours, festivals, and lectures. Many recordings of these are also included.
This project was funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
November 1, 1999 - Three-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Edward Albee is in the Twin Cities tonight to discuss the state of American theater. Albee's "A Delicate Balance", "Seascape", and "Three Tall Women" all won Pulitzer prizes. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed and equally criticized "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Despite his own success and many honors, Albee has had a difficult time getting his plays on Broadway, something that hasn't stopped the playwright from staging his work elsewhere in the county and abroad.
November 3, 1999 - Frequently at this time, we bring you an interview with an author, many of whom are giving readings at the Hungry Mind bookstore in St. Paul. Soon you won't be hearing that name anymore. The bookstore, which also publishes a literary review and runs a small press, is selling its name to a new cyber-university based in San Francisco for an undisclosed amount.
November 4, 1999 - As thousands of Minnesotans lock up their lake cabins for winter, many wonder whether everything will be intact when they return. Seasonal homes are favorite targets for burglars, and protection against property crime has been a high-profile subject since a Minnesota man set a booby trap in his cabin and wounded an intruder. In the Brainerd lakes area, summer homes provide a challenge for law enforcement; and big returns for home-security companies.
November 4, 1999 - Twin Cities Theatergoers were joined by a distinguished guest at the Guthrie Theater lab last night. Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller attended the opening of his latest play "Mr Peter's Connections", in its first performance outside New York.
November 4, 1999 - Over 200 mandolin players from North America and Europe are in Minneapolis to attend annual convention of the Classical Mandolin Society of America. Jack El-Hai formed the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra in 1991, and talks with MPR’s Bob Potter about mandolins.
November 8, 1999 - Since the discovery of British mountaineer George Mallory on the icy north face of Mount Everest in May, the world has learned a bit more about what happened on his fateful climb back in 1924. But still, the biggest question remains unanswered. Did Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine make it to the summit? If they did, they would have accomplished the feat decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Everest climber Eric Simonson organized the team that set out to find Mallory this spring. He's just released a book about the expedition called "Ghosts of Everest." Simonson says the sketchy information he and other climbers have had over the years fueled their imagination and hope that Mallory made it.
November 9, 1999 - The past decade has seen the rise of enormous chain bookstores in the malls and on the web, and the resulting demise of many small independent book-sellers. But the big shadows of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble haven't blotted out small, independent publishers, and in some cases the large operations have been an asset. In Duluth's tightly knit publishing community, small presses are using technology and marketing savvy to carve out their own niches. They say it's a good time to be in the business.... or at least as good as it ever gets doing business on a shoestring.
November 10, 1999 - MPR’s Katherine Lanpher talks with Minnesota writer Bill Holm and editor Michael Dregni of the book, "Minnesota Days: Our Heritage in Stories, Art and Photos." This Midmorning program includes call-in from listeners.
November 11, 1999 - Legendary radio broadcaster Norman Corwin's radio play On a Note of Triumph, which aired on V-E Day on May 8, 1945.
November 11, 1999 - Today, in a special Veterans Day program at Fort Snelling, University of Michigan History Professor Gerald Linderman will speak about combat and moral responsibility. A new book about a Minnesota man deals with that subject as well. "Reflections of Courage on D-Day and the Days that Followed" is the story of Charles "Ace" Parker of the elite infantry unit known as the Rangers. The book was put together by Parker's nieces, Marcia Moen and Margo Heinen. Moen says she knew virtually nothing about her uncle's war experiences until she started working on the book. Charles Parker lives in Anoka now. As part of the Rangers Fifth Battalion he fought in many battles in World War II. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on D-Day and the days that followed. He spoke with Minnesota Public Radio's Jim Bickal about what it was like the night before the D-Day invasion.