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.
October 4, 2001 - One of the most eagerly anticipated and critically acclaimed books of the year is Jonathan Franzen's new novel "The Corrections." It's an insightful and funny story about a family breaking down in the modern age. The father is suffering from Parkinsons Disease; the mother wants nothing except a picture-perfect Christmas at home with the whole family. But their three adult kids aren't cooperating. He talked about how Gary, the eldest son in the novel illustrates what Franzen means by "the corrections."
October 12, 2001 - On Word of Mouth, MPR’s Chris Roberts provides a radio guide to the local arts. This episode includes "Hush, Hush", John O'Donohue, Bakken Ensemble, “The Rink,” Jazz and Italian modern art, Lea Thomas, and an arts round-up..
October 19, 2001 - Peter Razor's debut novel was a lifetime in the making. The 72-year-old Native American author spent the better part of his adulthood trying to forget his childhood as a ward of the state orphanage in Owatonna. But after his own children kept prodding him for details on their family history, he finally decided it might be worth dredging it all up. In his new memoir, "While the Locust Slept", Razor talks frankly about his life in the orphanage.
October 19, 2001 - Peter Razor's debut novel was a lifetime in the making. The 72-year-old Native American author spent the better part of his adulthood trying to forget his childhood as a ward of the state orphanage in Owatonna. But after his own children kept prodding him for details on their family history, he finally decided it might be worth dredging it all up. In his new memoir, "While the Locust Slept", Razor talks frankly about his life in the orphanage.
October 29, 2001 - It's John Adams' birthday and to celebrate, a speech and an interview with best-selling historian David McCullough. McCullough talks about his new book, "John Adams".
November 5, 2001 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh published 13 books, recording her thoughts and experiences in memoirs, essays and poems. But a series of strokes left her unable to write or speak fluently during the last few years of her life. Lindbergh spent those days with her youngest daughter, Reeve, who describes the experience in her new book, "No More Words." She told Minnesota Public Radio's Greta Cunningham she got the title from one of her mother's poems.
November 6, 2001 - F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the great American novel. We know him as the author of "The Great Gatzby," and Minnesotans take pride in his Minnesota roots. But the inspiration for many of his stories comes from a largely uncredited source. His wife Zelda. In a new book titled "Sometimes Madness is Wisdom," author Kendall Taylor examines Zelda's talents and her marriage to one of America's great literary giants of the 1920's. Taylor says the marriage between Zelda and Scott was complicated.
November 21, 2001 - A Westminster Town Hall Forum speech by Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center in Washington DC. He's the author of "Making a killing: the business of guns in America".
November 22, 2001 - Henry Bosse was hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to photograph the Upper Mississippi River at the turn of the century. His photographs of the Mississippi from St. Anthony Falls to Grafton, Ilinois show the transformation of the river from an untamed wilderness to the busy commercial corridor of the industrial era. Bosse printed his river photos using iron salts to produce a misty blue image. The photos were first displayed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Because they were government property the army sold copies for a mere 40 cents. Today the prints are worth twenty-five thousand dollars. University of St. Thomas Journalism professor Mark Neuzil has compiled Bosse's photos in "Views on the Mississippi: The Photographs of Henry Peter Bosse."
November 23, 2001 - New book "Portraits of America" is discussed by author Bill Allard.