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.
June 12, 2003 - MPR’s Gary Eichten talks with former Minnesota U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy on past and current presidential campaigns, candidates, and the Presidency of George W. Bush. McCarthy also answers listener questions.
June 16, 2003 - St. Paul gym teacher and hockey coach Jon Westby spent yesterday's Father's Day holiday with two rambunctious 7 year-olds -- his twin sons, Henry and James. It was a remarkable day for Westby because there was a time when he wasn't sure his sons would overcome the difficult odds they faced. Westby writes about that experience in his new book, "They Will Know They are Loved: A Family's Life with Premature Twins." He says when he first found out his wife Catherine was having twins, he was elated. But that excitement soon turned to fear.
June 16, 2003 - Actor, screenwriter, and theater director Hume Cronyn died yesterday in his home in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was 91. Cronyn and his late wife, Jessica Tandy, were the first notable actors hired by the Guthrie Theater for its opening season. Joe Dowling is the Guthrie's artistic director. He says it was an honor to know Cronyn.
June 17, 2003 - Hume Cronyn, the versatile stage and screen actor who charmed audiences with his portrayals of irascible old men and frequently paired up with his wife, Jessica Tandy, died of cancer Sunday. He was 91. His last public appearance was at the Guthrie Theater last month, when he talked with the theater's Artistic Director, Joe Dowling.
June 23, 2003 - At age 17, Eustace Conway left home to live in a teepee he had designed. He lived off the land, hunting for meat, and gathering other things to eat from the forest. But Eustace wasn't living on the western frontier, set up his camp in North Carolina. And he did it in 1977, the year the first Star Wars movie was released. In time he created his own environmental training school, walked the Appalachian trail, and set a new world record for travelling from coast to coast on horseback. He drew followers like a magnet, but many of the people who grew close to him couldn't keep up with his hard-driving ethic, and extremely high standards. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert profiles Conway in her book "The Last American Man"
June 26, 2003 - Minnesota is often praised for its unusually vibrant arts and culture scene and during this hour. We hear a Voices of Minnesota interview with writer and publisher Emilie Buchwald, the winner of last year's McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist award. Buchwald was a founder of Milkweed Editions, the influential literary press based in Minneapolis. But now, after decades in the business, Emilie Buchwald is retiring as publisher of Milkweed Editions and she is being honored at a reception Thursday at Open Book in Minneapolis, the literary arts building that she helped bring into being.
July 4, 2003 - From water towers to movie theatres to service stations--Minnesota is home to more than 15-hundred properties on the National Register of Historic Places. As you're driving along Minnesota's highways this Fourth of July weekend, you may want to keep an eye out for some of these places--and a new book can help you on your quest. Minneapolis writer Mary Ann Nord complied the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota. She says to book illuminates the variety of properties that have found their way on to the historic registry.
July 11, 2003 - In this edition of Word of Mouth - Mainstreet Radio’s Tom Roberston profiles the writers of the Northwoods, including novelist Will Weaver; writer Kevin McColley; poet Susan Carol Hauser; and non-fiction writer Kent Nerburn / MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Nathan Keeper’s “Fully Commited” comedy / St. Paul poet Paul Dickson reads a poem on highschool / Arts-round-up
July 18, 2003 - Acclaimed writer and Minnesota native, Patricia Hampl, is perhaps best known for her memoirs. She focused on reading and writing memoirs and the importance of auto-biographies to help us understand the past in a recent speech at the Minnesota Historical Society. Her books include "The Summer House", "2 for 5", and "Virgin Time." Hampl has a new book coming out next year called "The Silken Chamber." She's also working on two new books--a collection of short stories and a new memoir, about her mother and father. It's called "My Mother's Daughter."
July 24, 2003 - The prosecutor in a high-profile Duluth murder case 26 years ago says tests of DNA on an old envelope confirm the prosecution's case. From the beginning, authorities suspected Roger and Marjorie Caldwell of entering Glensheen mansion and killing Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon and her night nurse Velma Pietila. As Elisabeth's adopted daughter, Marjorie Caldwell, stood to inherit a substantial sum from Congdon's 8 million dollar estate. Roger Caldwell was convicted of the murder and Marjorie was aquitted. She was later convicted of arson in an Arizona case and is still serving time. Caldwell committed suicide in 1988, but maintained innocence in his suicide note. John de Santo, one of the prosecutors in the murder case, has just co-authored a book called "Will to Murder." He says new evidence proves the couple's guilt.