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.
July 16, 2002 - Prior Lake, Minnesota is the inspiration for the fictional town of Acorn Lake, Minnesota in Jean Harfenist's new book "A Brief History of the Flood." The book is a collection of short stories set in the 1960's and centered around the Anderson family. The stories follow the developement of the Anderson's daughter, Lillian--from young child to young adult. Lillian is a small town girl dealing with an alcoholic father and a mother who views the world like a romance novel. Lillian is also trying to avoid her mother's mistakes and is focusing on becoming a self-sufficient working woman. Harfenist grew up in Prior Lake and says Minnesota is an essential element to "A Brief History of the Flood." Jean Harfenist is the author of "A Brief History of the Flood." The book is published by Knopf.
July 17, 2002 - A new book brings renewed attention to an historic civil rights case on the Minnesota iron range. In 1988, Lois Jenson sued Eveleth Mines for the sexual harassment she endured at work. Her case eventually altered the very nature of sexual harassment suits. Journalist Clara Bingham and attorney Laura Leedy-Gansler are the authors of "Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case the Changed Sexual Harassment Law." Both women came by the studio to discuss the case. Bingham says there is a macho culture on the range that contributed to the harassment in the mines.
July 19, 2002 - Minneapolis native Arthur Phillips novel is set in Budapest in 1990. It's called "Prague" though, because that's where the expatriate Americans in the story worry they really should be. The group includes entrepreneurs, writers and diplomats, caught in the excitement of the fall of Eastern European totalitarianism. Yet they can't shake the feeling they are missing the real action elsewhere. Arthur Phillips himself lived in the Hungarian capital in the early nineties. His novel had drawn critical acclaim for it's depiction of a unique period of recent history. "Prague" opens with some of the Americans sitting in a cafe playing "Sincerity", a game where each player makes a series of statements, only one of which is true. The players score by fooling the other players and guessing correctly when they are lying. Phillips told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the game reveals a great deal about the players.
July 24, 2002 - The tradition of Grain Belt beer will live on in Minnesota. August Schell (shell) Brewing Company in New Ulm has bought the brand from the bankrupt Minnesota Brewing Company. Minnesota Brewing closed last month, cutting more than 100 jobs and ending nearly 150 years of brewing tradition in St. Paul. Grain Belt was first introduced by the Minneapolis Brewing Company in 1893, and has since become one of the state's most popular homegrown beers. Jeff Lonto is the author of, "Legend of the Brewery: A Brief History of the Minneapolis Brewing Heritage."
July 29, 2002 - Former presidential candidate and longtime Minnesota U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy visits the MPR studios to talk about politics and literature. McCarthy also answers listener questions.
August 5, 2002 - Richard Florida says that Husker Du, Jimmy Jam and the Gay Men's Choir have a lot more with economic development in the Twin Cities than you may think. He is the author of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. He's a professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Florida spoke recently at the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce.
August 7, 2002 - Pasadena, California may conjure up an image of suburban smog and sprawl these days, but the unique physical and social landscape of the city has been a lure since the beginning of the 20th century. Citrus groves provided employment for thousands, and it was the perfect setting for resorts for the wealthy. Writer David Ebershoff told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann that it was also the perfect setting for his latest novel, named for his hometown, "Pasadena."
August 12, 2002 - Neil Gaiman became the toast of the comic book world with his "Sandman" series. He then became a best selling novelist with his books "Neverwhere" "Stardust" "and "American Gods". Now he has written "Coraline", a horror novel for children. "Coraline" is about a little girl who discovers a malevolent netherworld hidden behind a door in her house. It's ruled by a hideous being known as "the other mother" who kidnaps Coraline's real parents. She then tries to imprison the girls herself. Gaiman, an Englishman who now lives just outside the Twin Cities, says he began writing the novel for his daughter 10 years ago. He followed G.K. Chesterton's admonition that fairy tales are more than true, not because they say dragons exist, but because they say dragons can be beaten.
August 21, 2002 - Syndicated columnist and award-winning author Richard Reeves speaking about Richard Nixon's presidency.
August 27, 2002 - A new book explores how Minnesota-born artist Wanda Gag transformed children's literature and illustrating in the 1920's. Gag's books "Millions of Cats" and "The A-B-C Bunny" both won Newbury Awards. She's known as the first children's book author to draw an illustration that covers two pages of a book. Julie L'Enfant is a professor at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. Her book--entitled "The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America," looks at newly discovered works and documents. It explores how Wanda Gag's family and her life in New Ulm influenced her work. The patriarch of the family--Anton Gag--was a German-Bohemian immigrant who settled in New Ulm in 1879. He was an artist and one of the first photographers in the region. Julie L'Enfant says although Anton died of tuberculosis at a young age--he encouraged his seven children to live freely and to become artists...