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.
November 18, 1994 -
November 22, 1994 - MPR's Stephen Smith prepared this documentary, "Song Catcher, Frances Densmore of Red Wing" about Frances Densmore, a Minnesota music teacher who set out to capture disappearing Indian songs. She is said to be a pioneering anthropologist in preserving American Indian music.
November 23, 1994 -
November 24, 1994 - Minnesota author Susan Carol Hauser reads short essay on her family’s ritual Thanksgiving drive to see the Christmas lights in downtown Minneapolis.
November 25, 1994 - Essay later collected in "Cold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map" by Barton Sutter, published October 1998 by University of Minnesota Press.
December 2, 1994 -
December 7, 1994 -
December 8, 1994 -
December 9, 1994 -
December 9, 1994 - Recorded while a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Saint Olaf College and Endowed Chair in Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Saint Thomas.