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.
December 15, 2004 - The Guthrie Theater Company has revealed new details for the look of its three-stage complex on the riverfront. Eight scenes from the company's past will light up the exterior of the new building once its completed. The images feature some of the Guthrie's early work with actors Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, as well as more recent productions. Artistic Director Joe Dowling says it's a remarkable visual statement.
December 15, 2004 - The Guthrie Theater Company has revealed new details for the look of its three stage complex on the riverfront.
December 16, 2004 - The Guthrie Theater Company has revealed new details for the look of its three-stage complex on the riverfront. Eight scenes from the company's past will light up the exterior of the new building once its completed. The images feature some of the Guthrie's early work with actors Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, as well as more recent productions. Artistic Director Joe Dowling says it's a remarkable visual statement.
December 23, 2004 - Earlier in the program we talked with a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson about the Christmas travel weekend. We'll end the program tonight with a holiday travel story of a different sort. Earlier this month, Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson and Tom Keith teamed up for a dramatic reading of the classic christmas story "The Polar Express". Tom Keith provided sound effects and Dan Olson read the book in front of a live audience at the Fitzgerald Theater.
January 18, 2005 - On this Literary Friendships event, host Garrison Keillor shares the stage with Robert Bly and Donald Hall, leading figures in American letters. The two met as undergraduates at Harvard in the late 1940s, where Bly first published Hall's poetry in the school literary journal. Through letters and visits, they've corresponded for over 50 years.
January 19, 2005 - Author Tobias Wolff will open the second-half of the Talking Volumes season later this month. You may remember his memoir, This Boy's Life, which was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Now Wolff is out with his first novel, "Old School." He says the story gave him the "ideal lens" through which to write about themes like class and ambition and ethics.
January 27, 2005 - Talking Volumes with author Tobias Wolf. Kerri Miller, host of Midmorning, for a conversation with author Tobias Wolff. They will discuss Wolff's new novel, "Old School." It tells the story a boy at an elite prep school in 1960, exploring deceptions and betrayals with an unblinking eye and a bottomless store of empathy. A teacher at Stanford University, Wolff has received the Rea Award for excellence in the short story, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
February 2, 2005 - Midday broadcasts A Writer's View program event at the Fitzgerald Theater for a discussion on true crime with Minnesota author Judith Guest. The writer is accompanied by pianist Dan Chouinard.
February 7, 2005 - Say the word 'lobotomy' nowadays, and the reaction will likely be either revulsion or gallows humor. For decades the operation was widely used to in the U.S. Between 40 and 50 thousand people are believed to have had the operation. A psychiatrist, Dr Walter Freeman developed the technique. A lobotomy involves severing parts of a patient's brain to treat mental illness. Freeman performed the operation on almost 3500 people, many of them during an out-patient procedure. Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai just completed a biography of Freeman called "The Lobotomist." El-Hai told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the lobotomy seems brutal now, but in the first half of the 20th century doctors treating mental illness had few viable options. We should note, this conversation deals with some detailed descriptions of brain surgery.
February 11, 2005 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on a VocalEssence tribute to artist Gordon Parks. Report includes numerous commentaries.