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.
May 11, 1998 - MPR’s Art Hughes reports on a highway dedication of James Wright’s poem “The Blessing.” It was written after a ride with his friend Robert Bly as they pulled their car off the road and encountered a pair of horses.
May 15, 1998 - The history center will be celebrating the life of one of Minnesota's most famous living artists this weekend--George Morrison. The Grand Portage native was born in a small Ojibwe community in 1919, and spent years living in New York, where he made a reputation for himself as an abstract expressionist and hung out with artists like Jackson Pollack and Willim DeKooning. Morrison moved back to Minnesota in the seventies and still lives and paints up on the North Shore of lake superior. His wood mosiacs and abstract totem poles are in galleries around the world and even in the White House sculpture garden. It was in Grand Marais that Morrison met St. Paul writer Margot Fortunato Galt. The two collaborated on a book just published by the Historical Society called "Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art." Galt says other books have been written ABOUT Morrison, but this one is in his own words.
May 25, 1998 - MPR’s Amy Radil reports on the history of musicians coming out of the Iron Range, which had a vibrant music scene, with scores of bands that never made the bigtime but played to packed dance halls every weekend.
May 25, 1998 - Traffic on many Minnesota roads is bumper-to-bumper this evening as Memorial Day travelers return home. If you got a long drive ahead and are looking for a little diversion, entertainment might be just a cow pasture away. Author John Pukite (Poo-Kee-Tee) says everyone loves to look at cows. In his new book "A Field Guide to Cows", Pukite describes in detail the 52 cattle breeds found in the United States. John Pukite (Poo-Kee-Tee) is author of "A Field Guide to Cows." He will sign copies of his book July 9th at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Maple Grove at 7pm.
June 1, 1998 - It's a free book--so it'll never become a best-SELLER, but gubernatorial candidate Ted Mondale hopes a lot of people read it. Mondale released his 130-page book called "A New Commitment to Minnesota's Families" today, in which he outlines his plans for the first four years of a Mondale administration: DFL gubernatorial candidate Ted Mondale. The DFL state convention starts this Friday, tune in to Minnesota public radio for live updates on what promises to be a lively endorsement process.
June 1, 1998 - The American Association of Retired Persons' national conference gets underway in Minneapolis tomorrow. The three-day convention is expected to draw some twenty thousand seniors and there's a special focus on baby-boomers this year.
June 3, 1998 - Thirty years ago, in 1968, Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy was running for the U.S. presidency. Former Senator McCarthy looks back at that time and talks about the politics of today. McCarthy also answers listener questions.
June 8, 1998 - The Mille Lacs 1837 Treaty case will get its day in the US Supreme Court. Minnesota Public Radio's Leif Enger reports. The 1837 Treaty preserving the hunting and fishing rights of 8 Chippewa bands was upheld through seven years of lower court decisions and appeals; it was described as an epic losing streak for the state. But with the Supreme Court's decision to review, one of the landowners' attorneys challenging the treaty says the momentum has turned. Randy Thompson is encouraged by what he calls a string of recent court setbacks for Indian tribes, including one announced today making it harder for tribes to avoid taxation on re-purchased reservation land. Randy: "I think it's a trend in which the courts are saying, We're gonna take a very hard look at these Indian law cases and decide them on the issues we think are presented."
June 11, 1998 - The Juneteenth Film Festival, celebrating the Emancipation and African-American history, opens tonight in the Twin Cities with the first of six films. "Melvin Van Pebbles: Classified X", about the portrayal of blacks in film, will show at the Minnesota History Center at 7 o'clock. A lesser-known bit of African-American history, the rise of black newspapers is the subject of Director Stanley Nelson's film "Soldiers Without Swords: The Black Press." Nelson will present his documentary next Tuesday evening at the Weisman Art Museum. Nelson says even he was surprised at the power of the black press which grew out of a bitter relationship with the mainstream media.
June 24, 1998 - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt's recent Twin Cities address...given as part of the "Pen Pals" Author Lecture Series sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County. Frank McCourt is the author of the best seller Angela's Ashes.