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 12, 2005 - Former presidential candidate and Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who died over the weekend, appeared on Midday many times over the years. He reflected on politics, read poetry and talked baseball. A tour of the Midday archive showcases McCarthy's brilliance, wit and wisdom.
December 12, 2005 - One of Minnesota's most famous sons slipped away Saturday morning. Eugene McCarthy, the Minnesota senator whose 1968 presidential campaign energized the anti-Vietnam War movement, is no longer with us, but his friends and admirers will never forget him.
December 15, 2005 - The play-writing world lost two of its titans in 2005 -- Arthur Miller in February, in August Wilson in October. The lives and works of both men were discussed at length at the times of their respective deaths, but now that we have a little distance, maybe we can talk without all the flowery language and rose-colored glasses about their legacy.
December 27, 2005 - James Lileks is a columnist for the Star Tribune Newspaper and the author of "Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice."
December 27, 2005 - The theater world lost one of its great voices this year, and Minnesotans remembered the twelve years he made St. Paul his home. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson died in October of liver cancer at the age of 60. Wilson left the state in 1990, but he made a short homecoming in 1991 to address the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
January 16, 2006 - Author Nicole Kelby says she wanted to work out why she was so peculiar. During the 20 years she lived in Minnesota she worked with Dudley Riggs, Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, Kevin Kling, and Channel 9 News. Then a few years ago, she moved back to her native Florida, in part to explore her own personality quirks. She describes the state as so undeniably beautiful that it warps people. Be that as it may, one of the results of Kelby's return is her new book, "Whale Season" which details strange going's on at a rural Florida strip bar.
January 16, 2006 - Author Nicole Kelby says she wanted to work out why she was so peculiar. During the 20 years she lived in Minnesota she worked with Dudley Riggs, Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, Kevin Kling, and Channel 9 News. Then a few years ago, she moved back to her native Florida, in part to explore her own personality quirks. She describes the state as so undeniably beautiful that it warps people. Be that as it may, one of the results of Kelby's return is her new book, "Whale Season" which details strange going's on at a rural Florida strip bar.
January 24, 2006 - Family and friends of the late Senator Eugene McCarthy gathered at St. John's University in Collegeville for a memorial yesterday. This is an excerpt of Walter Mondale speaking at memorial service.
January 24, 2006 - There was a memorial held in Collegeville for the late Senator Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy, who died in December, graduated from St. John's University in 1935 and taught there in the 1940s, before moving on to a career in politics.
January 25, 2006 - That's Minneapolis author Robert Alexander, his new novel is "Rasputin's Daughter." He embarks on a national book tour tomorrow, but will be back in Minnesota later this spring. He'll appear with Minnesota Public Radio's Kerri Miller on March 10th at Saint Scholastica college in Duluth, for a Mid-morning book club event.