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.
March 10, 1976 - Audio excerpt of Minnesota poet Robert Bly performing a reading.
March 22, 1976 - A reading of poem from quarterly poetry magazine Moons and Lions Tailes.
March 26, 1976 - Reflections of the North documentary presents two Minnesota naturalists and artists, writer Sigurd Olson and photographer Les Blacklock, who offer readings and personal commentary on life in the “North.”
April 4, 1976 - Claudia Hampston talks with artist Bela Petheo about his paintings in and on Duluth.
August 5, 1976 - An address by educator-farmer-writer Hiram Drache on the family farm and the future of American farming before a conference on rural America, held in Crookston, Minnesota. The speech is titled "Agriculture in the Year 2000."
September 1, 1976 - Independent presidential hopeful Eugene McCarthy speaking at National Press Club. Topic of address is presidential race, the debates, and two-party system.
November 25, 1976 - A special Midday program presents a selection of readings for Thanksgiving Day.
December 9, 1976 - Spencer LoneTree proposes new Native American training program with a strong emphasis on teaching character development building confidence self-esteem and assertiveness.
January 1, 1977 - A Home for the Weekend program of poetry and music with Nancy and Joe Paddock, writers and poets from Minnesota.
February 8, 1977 - Dr. Hiram Drache, an agricultural historian, author, and professor of history at Concordia College in Moorhead, talks with Bill Siemering and John Ydstie about transitions in farming and his book “Beyond the Furrow: Some Keys to Successful Farming in the Twentieth Century.”