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.
March 30, 1999 -
April 1, 1999 - The University of Minnesota library is 12,500 books larger than it was yesterday. Former governor and University Regent Elmer Andersen contributed four truckloads of books to the U. An article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune says Andersen has a history of donating rare and valuable books to his alma mater. Thomas Shaughnessy is University librarian.
April 2, 1999 - This is a significant week in the religious world: tonight is the third night of Passover, when Jews around the world celebrate the Israelites' escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt. And today is Good Friday, the day most western Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Holy Week leading up to Easter is a celebration of resurrection and new life. For Minneapolis author Margaret Wurtele, the occasion was a chance to reflect on the small gains she experienced from a devastating loss.
April 14, 1999 - A sampling of readings at Minneapolis Public Library in celebration of 1999 National Poetry Month. More than a dozen local luminaries read their favorite poems for a lunchtime audience.
April 23, 1999 - You might know Lynda Barry from her NPR commentaries, from her comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, or her novella -- what she called a "novelini" - The Good Times Are Killing Me. Barry has just finished her first novel. Cruddy is an illustrated novel, Barry says based in form on illustrated novels from the turn of the century, with paintings instead of the quirky line drawings of her comic books. Cruddy is definitely an adult book, and is at the same time charming and disturbing. You're charmed by the heroine's spirit given her cruddy life, but then disturbed when you find out "cruddy" doesn't begin to describe it.
April 26, 1999 - Broadcast of Czech President Vaclac Havel's speech at Macalester College Monday morning. He will receive honorary degrees from Macalester and from the University of St. Thomas at this event. His speech is titled, "Toward a Civil Society."
April 26, 1999 - Czech president Vaclav Havel, a poet and playwright, says freedoms taken away by totalitarian leaders can be restored overnight on paper. But he warned today in a speech in St. Paul keeping a democracy alive requires a civil society - one where people are free to associate with others and where the power of government is limited and decentralized. The former Communist government in Czechoslavakia banned Havel's writing, and put him prison three times. Ten years ago he helped create the political movement which negotiated the "velvet revolution" - the Czech Republic's peaceful handover of power from Communists to a democracy.
April 30, 1999 - It's twenty past six and we'll wind up this Friday's All Things Considered with the Word of Mouth arts roundup and Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts.
May 3, 1999 - On this segment of Mainstreet Radio’s Rural Diversity series, commentator George Rabasa wants to talk about the immigrant "home."
May 4, 1999 - MPR’s Jim Bickal talks with musician and anthropologist Maya Lopez-Santamaria about “Musica de la Raza: Mexican and Chicano Music in Minnesota” CD. Lopez-Santamaria collected the music and wrote the book which accompanies it.