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Midamerica XXXVI 2009 MidAmerica XXXVI The Yearbook of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature DAVID D. ANDERSON, FOUNDING EDITOR MARCIA NOE, EDITOR The Midwestern Press The Center for the Study of Midwestern Literature and Culture Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1033 2009 SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF MIDWESTERN LITERATURE hUp:llwww.ssml.org/home EDITORIAL COMMITTEE David D. Anderson. Founding Editor, MidAmerica Marcia Noe, Editor, MidAmerica Marilyn Judith Atlas Ohio University William Barillas University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse Robert Beasecker Grand Valley State University Roger Bresnahan Michigan State University Robert Dunne Central Connecticut State University Philip Greasley University of Kentucky Nancy McKinney Illinois State University Mary Dejong Obuchowski Central Michigan University Ronald Primeau Central Michigan University James Seaton Michigan State University Joseph J. Wydeven Bellevue University Jeffrey Swenson Hiram College EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Lauren Olivia Brown Jen Litton Blake Harris Gale Mauk Emily Hurst Heather Palmer Michael Jaynes Beth Ellen Roberts Paige Keown Copyright 2009 MidAmerica, a peer-reviewed journal of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, is published annually. We welcome scholarly contri­ by the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature butions from our members on any aspect of Midwestern literature and cul­ All rights reserved ture. Except for winners of our annual poetry and prose contests, we do not publish poems, short stories, or creative nonfiction. Ifyou would like to sub­ Printed in the United States of America mit a scholarly essay of not more than 15 pages or 3,750 words to be consid­ No part of this work may be ered for publication in MidAmerica, please send a hard copy of your essay to reproduced without pennission of Marcia Noe, 535 Elinor Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405. If your essay is the publisher selected for publication, you will then send your manuscript by electronic attachment to [email protected] after making any required andlor desired MidAmerica 2009 (ISSN: 0190-2911) is a peer-reviewed journal of the Society for the changes. Please follow the most recent edition of the MLAHandbook. In doc­ Study of Midwestern Literature. umenting sources, use parenthetical citations within your essay and a list of This journal is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals works cited. If you include discursive notes, they should be endnotes that use Arabic, not Roman, numerals. Use no headers, footers, or page numbers. Do not put your name on your essay. Include your contact infonnation in your cover letter to Marcia. Be sure to give your institutional affiliation. In Honor of Loren Logsdon PREFACE CONTENTS On May 7, 2009, members of the Society for the Study of Preface Midwestern Literature gathered in East Lansing for its thirty-ninth annual meeting. Highlights included three sessions celebrating the The Time I Took Patsy Higgins Up to Holy Redeemer The Gwendolyn Brooks Prize Poem Mary Minock 8 centennial of Gene Stratton-Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost and the Mark Twain Award Panel on the work of Scott Russell Sauders. At Fella with an Umbrella: Finding Joy on the Autism Spectrum the awards banquet ou Friday night, the Society preseuted two David The Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose Dawn Comer 11 Diamond Student Writing Prizes: to Stephanie Carpenter for "Doctor "Holy Moses!": The Pit, Curtis Jadwin and the aud Patient;' and to Matthew Low for "John Neihardt Writes: Textual Documentary Hypothesis Appropriations of Indigenous Storytelling:' The co-winners of the The David Diamond Student Writing Prize Richmond B. Adams 28 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize award were Ed Morin for "Yes" and Wright Morris's Chicago Roy Seeger for "Diminishing Returns:' The Paul Somers Prize for The Jill Barnum Midwestern Heritage Creative Prose went to Dawn Comer for "Raised in a Com Palace:' Prize Essay Joseph J. Wydeven 41 Loren Logsdon received the MidAmericaAward and the Mark Twain Cincinnatus, Kris Columbus, Dad Detroit, and Award went to Scott Russell Sanders. Other Cartoon Icons Guy Szuberla 52 SSML is currently operating at a loss due to increased expenses Metafiction on Main Street: Garrison Keillor's in publishing its journals and convening its annual symposium. A Lake Woebegon Days Rod Rice 70 major gift from the late Jane S. Bakerman has enabled us to continue our work while we seek to establish a more stable financial footing No Homecoming for Soldiers: Young Hemingway's Return to and Flight from the Midwest John J. McKenna 83 for the work ahead. SSML is also grateful to the following members and friends who have made contributions in addition to their dues. Ray Bradbury's Tale of Two Cities: An Essential Message As more such contributions are received, and earlier ones are dis­ for a Technologically Dominated Society Loren Logsdon 93 covered in searching the archives, we will add more names to this "We Represent the End of Race": Uncovering Langston Honor Roll: Walter Adams, David D. Anderson, Robert Beasecker, Hughes's Jeremiadic Discourse Willie J. Harrell, Jr. 107 Gwendolyn Brooks, Ray B. Browne, Mary Ellen Caldwell, Louis J. Macabre and Modern Sourcery: "The Cat that Lived Cantoni, G.B. Crump, David Diamond, Bernard F. Engel, Kenneth at the Ritz" and "The Apothecary" as Antecedents B. Grant, Philip A. Greasley, Theodore Haddin, Donald Hassler, of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" David FitzSimmons 128 Janet Ruth Heller, Ted Kennedy, Jean Laming, Barbara Lindquist, Annual Bibliography of Midwestern Larry Lockridge, Loren Logsdon, Bud Narveson, Marcia Noe, Mary Literature 2007 Robert Beasecker 142 Obuchowski, Tom Page, E. Elizabeth Raymond, Herbert K. Russell, James Seaton, Guy Szuberla, Doug Wixson, Melody Zajdel, and the Recipients of the Mark Twain Award 200 family and friends of Paul Somers. Recipients of the MidAmerica Award Back Cover The Time I Took Patsy Higgins Up to Holy Redeemer 9 and taught her the sign of the cross and she so game, devout, aping me and even the ladies there to light candles THE TIME I TOOK PATSY WALKER UP TO dipping their hands into the holy water HOLY REDEEMER on a Saturday afternoon with the weather warming , and it being the third or fourth Saturday in lent MARYMINOCK I don't remember which and all of us knowing the dark time would be coming to an end to pray for sinners and to sit in Alleluia He has risen in awe in that big romanesque amber candle light and then Mrs. Reid would be pulling out of a gray March afternoon in a all the stops one true and only holy apostolic church with her and her little hillbilly hiccup was the day I knew I was making progress, and clearing of her throat would be storing up some grace in heaven, and with her protestant residual returning one, the first of many I'd return, from her grandmother to do my part to amend like an our father called a lord's prayer the mess that Martin Luther made with extra unnecessary words by not being patient and only one other now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep not to mention prayer besides he later married a nun like Kool-Aid at that baptist wedding and it would have to be Mama took me to on Fort Street in a protestant ceremony with little stingy sandwiches with God-knows-what refreshments and bride in a white suit instead although in those days they didn'thave Kool-Aid, of a long-trained gown and didn't she even have a hat and Patsy had a conversion before my eyes let alone a veil like coming home to m~gic and sure it was and it sure didn't last long with all the side altars and the infant not much to it of Prague in the comer along with a pair of crutches on the side and saw Patsy's big blue protestant child eyes of Saint Joseph's altar that I'd never seen before open wider than my eyes and didn't see again and wondered about it because of course I was used to it but I could explain it, for it must have been and to hear Mrs. Reid a miracle, the lame walking, practicing an agnus dei on the organ trying to get at some measure and I knew that I could do it myself something on the organ something in the stops if need be, I didn't need to be a priest to do it: I baptize thee in the name of the father, son and holy ghost 8 if only I had water not grape juice 10 MIDAMERICAXXXVI or beer or the high-balls that filled so many glasses at a catholic wedding or protestant could-you-believe-it Kool-Aid at a wedding FELLA WITH AN UMBRELLA: FINDING JOy cheap and Mama saying, ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM Well you know those baptists don't drink, but I thought at a wedding at least .... DAWN COMER but then the wedding was over I'm just afella, afella with an umbrella, and Mama and I were leaving, Glad to see the skies of blue have turned into skies of gray. walking home, and Mama calculating -Irving Berlin, "Fella with an Umbrella" the cost of the pillow cases and sheets and saying cheap, and the cake was a mix, and LolliLolliPopPopPop, LolliLolliPopPopPop. Well, I'm still hungry Words tumble from my mouth, my arms and legs swing and twitch. so we stopped at the greasy spoon Stand, sit. Stand, sit. Spit spatters green plastic, making shiny bub­ on Junction and Fort for a nice hamburger, bles on the Christtnas plate. Mommy's hands hold my wrists, her mouth makes words, but I understand only the tightness of her grip; and I was so glad I was part of the one true and only holy, the pulling ofme to her as words keep tumbling from somewhere deep and poor Patsy never even went to church at all inside and far beyond.
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