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.
September 4, 2003 - Humorist Jim Hightower is in the MPR studios to talk with guest-host Mike Edgerly. Hightower speaks Thursday night at a Ruminator Books event at Macalester College. Texas humorist and author Jim Hightower, author of "Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen our Country and It's Time to Take it Back".
September 12, 2003 - September brings with a number of transitions, the passing of the season, the end of summer, the start of the school year. Those transitions remind commentator Hans Eisenbeis of the passage of time.
September 24, 2003 - Author Tracy Kidder has made his name by writing about ordinary people's lives and finding drama where few others would think to look. He established himself with "The Soul of a New Machine," a book detailing the human interactions behind the rush to create a new computer. It won Kidder both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and has since become the definitive book about the technology industry. He's also written about building a home, school children, a nursing home and the town of Northhampton, Massachusetts. Kidder's latest work, however, details the extraordinary. "Mountains Beyond Mountains" tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, an infectious-disease specialist and anthropologist who's made caring for the world's poorest and sickest his life's work. Kidder followed him to Peru, Cuba, Siberia and Haiti, chronicling his tireless efforts to bring medicine to those most in need.
September 26, 2003 - On this Word of Mouth program, MPR’s Marianne Combs presents a conversation with musician Tim Eriksen & vocalist Mirjana Lausevic; poetry reading by Minnesota poet Kate Green; a profile of St. Paul hip hop group Los Nativos; followed by a Word of Mouth segment on local arts and culture events.
September 26, 2003 - Word of Mouth
October 9, 2003 - David Halberstam is one of America's finest journalists and one of America's most widely read authors. He has written 19 books, 14 of which have been New York Times' best sellers. In the 1960s, when he was just 30 years old, he won a Pulitizer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War, and his subsequent book about the men who took us into that war, "The Best and Brightest," has been widely hailed as one of the best books of its kind. His most recent book is "The Teammates." We hear him during both hours of Midday today in discussion at a recent Pen Pals Lecture Series, sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County.
October 13, 2003 - Best-selling author and internationally known Rabbi Harold Kushner talks with Gary Eichten about his new book The Lord is my Shepherd. He recently wrote Living a Life that Matters and is best known for his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
October 14, 2003 - It's a tale that's become familiar. A small independent business -- faced with online and big box competition -- struggles to stay afloat. But that's not the whole story of St. Paul's Ruminator Books. The independent bookseller has shrunk its inventory and laid off half its staff in the past couple of years, and authors from across the country are rallying to the store's aid by contributing items for an upcoming online auction. David Unowsky has owned the bookstore for 33 years. He says competition from the national chains has been a factor, but not the only reason the Ruminator is in dire straits.
October 16, 2003 - On this Midday, author and former columnist Jim Klobuchar talks with MPR’s Gary Eichten about his adventures, life in Minnesota, and his recent books.
October 20, 2003 - A Twin Cities speech by Al Franken, author of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". He spoke at an event sponsored by Ruminator Books in St. Paul.