Repeatedly 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. This curation presents broadcasts over the decades of writer’s voices in form of speech, interview, and discussion.
July 11, 1979 - Richard Buckminster Fuller, American architect, speaks to the Women's National Democratic Club. Topics include architecture, economy, and inflation. Following his speech, Fuller answers audience questions. Fuller was also a systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist.
August 23, 1979 - A Midday broadcast of comedian Dick Gregory speaking before a youth session of the NAACP. [Content Warning: some content, language, and statements used in this story may be triggering to listeners]
August 29, 1979 - Michael Novak, author and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute gives speech, titled “Ethnicity and The Democratic Process.”
September 1, 1979 - Excerpts of an interview with local bookseller James (Jim) Cummings, who has a collection of over 7,600 diaries in his home in Stillwater, Minnesota. Cummings has kept a personal diary since he was 13.
September 1, 1979 - On this regional public affairs program, Rich Dietman talks with bookseller James (Jim) Cummings, who has a collection of over 7,600 diaries in his home in Stillwater, Minnesota. Cummings has kept a personal diary since he was 13.
October 24, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan talks with writer William Burroughs, whose credited by some as the father of the beat generation. Segment also includes Burroughs reading his work.
November 3, 1979 - A Midday broadcast of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and widow of Charles Lindbergh, speaking at the Minnesota Historical Society's 130th annual meeting on fitting memorials for great persons. Lindbergh talked about fitting memorials for great persons and discusses heroism, what it meant when her husband flew across the Atlantic and what it means today.
November 21, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews writer Meridel Le Sueur and choreographer Margaret Fargnoli about dance interpretation of Le Sueur’s poetry.
December 12, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews Grace Paley, writer and activist, who reads from her short stories and talks about her life, writing, and political involvement. Segment also includes her speaking to an audience.
March 7, 1980 - As part of the Walker Arts Center series on Modernism, literary critic Hugh Kenner discusses the meanings of modernism. The speech presents challenges faced by the writer, the reader, and the critic.