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Book Title: Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2 Book Subtitle: Dimensions of the Midwestern Literary Imagination Book Editor(s): Philip A. Greasley Published by: Indiana University Press. (2016) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1zxz124.14

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NARRATIVES. tion of Native American lit­er­a­ture grew to See Captivity Narratives; Slave Narratives wide popularity. Momaday’s novel is both nonlinear and nonchronological, two char­ NATIVE A MERICAN LITERATURE acteristics that link it with the tradition of OVERVIEW: Stories have long served many oral storytelling. Midwestern Native Amer­ functions in Native American families, com­ ican writers have used nonlinear and non­ munities, and nations. Largely passed along chronological forms. Other connections also through the oral tradition, stories describe exist between oral and written forms in every­thing from the creation of the world to Native American lit­er­a­ture, especially in cultural norms, history, religion, relations poetry. The repetition and form of poetry with other tribes, and internal governance. easily relate to the oral tradition. However, ­These stories, which ­were ­shaped both by Native American writers in the Midwest the storytellers and by listeners, centered a have published in a wide variety of genres, ­people’s place in the world and the cosmos. both adapting ele­ments of oral tradition and In modern times, stories have been recorded incorporating new forms that allow them to and written and have taken on a variety of better express themselves. No single form or forms and functions. In addition, ­there are theme alone can characterize Native Ameri­ clear influences, such as repetition, derived can lit­er­a­tures of the Midwest. In fact, diver­ from oral tradition, that are pres­ent in many sity is one of the most useful descriptions of con­temporary written works. Furthermore, Native American lit­er­a­tures. The vast po­liti­ con­temporary lit­er­a­ture serves many of the cal, cultural, economic, and religious diver­ same functions as the oral tradition. sity of the more than five hundred nations Native Americans have been publishing that encompass the category “Native Ameri­ short stories, poetry, novels, autobiogra­ can / American Indian” is reflected in the phies, and nonfiction since at least the early litr ­e ­a­ture. nineteenth ­century. Yet it was not ­until Ki­ Native Americans historically have owa author N(avarre) Scott Momaday (b. maintained large populations in the Mid­ 1934) won the Pulitzer Prize for House Made west and continue to do so in the pres­ent. of Dawn (1968) that contemporary­ publica­ Native American nations in the Midwest in­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 549 N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE clude the Anishinaabe (also called Ojibwe, ­Native American lit­er­a­tures of the Midwest. Ojibwa, and Chippewa), Arikira, Brother­ As with any lit­er­a­ture, multiple, layered town Mohican (Stockbridge-­Munsee), Hi­ meanings wi­ ll come to light when they are datsa, Ho-­Chunk (formerly called Win­ placed within their proper context. Many nebago), Mandan, Menominee, Meskwaki readers ­will find it useful to know bio­ (Fox) and Sac (Sauk) Miami, Omaha, Oneida, graphical information about the authors Ottawa (or Odawa), Ponca, Potawatomi, ­because it ­will often give insight into the Shawnee, and Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, and themes and topics of their writing. Nakota). Several popu­lar and influential Na­ HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE: Native tive American writers live in the Midwest or Americans have been pres­ent in the Mid­ have tribal connections to the area. Most west since time immemorial. Many tribes litr ­e ­a­ture published by ­Native Americans believe that they originated in the region or in the Midwest is in En­glish, but current came to be th­ ere through divine directives. language-­revitalization efforts include pub­ The first encounter of many Native Ameri­ lication of works in Native languages. Wiig­ can nations with non-­Indians was with wassi Press in conjunction with Birchbark the French, the leaders in the GREAT LAKES Books, for example, is publishing texts in fur trade. The widespread introduction of the Anishinaabe language. Eu­ro­pean goods, including beads, metal The field of Native American lit­er­a­ture goods, and weapons, changed life for Native has grown in scope, and Midwestern au­ Americans; however, the fur trade also thors continue to make significant contri­ brought about exchanges of information butions to the field. An increasing number and worldviews. As Eu­ro­pean populations of writers are using lit­er­a­ture as a means to grew, Native American nations of the delineate Native concepts of sovereignty, Midwest signed many treaties to establish nationalism, and transnationalism. Many bound­aries, alliances, and peace, but by themes are found in Native American lit­er­ the nineteenth ­century the sale of land be­ a­ture of the Midwest; for example, both came a primary impetus for treaties. Native HUMOR and trickster themes are common in nations sold millions of acres of land to the Native American lit­er­a­ture of the Midwest. United States, generally reserving hunt­ ­These themes have their roots in Native ing, fishing, and gathering rights on ceded American cultures and serve to invert tragic territories, as well as possession of smaller images while encouraging fortitude and of­ portions of land, which would become fering hope for the ­future. Place is also cen­ reservations. tral to many Native Americans, and this The U.S. government began to see Native sense of place is reflected in the lit­er­a­ture. American nations as an impediment to Nature writing and other themes relating to the nation’s pro­gress and, consequently, place are frequently found in Native Ameri­ launched assimilation programs aimed at can lit­er­a­tures of the region. Challenging cultural and po­liti­cal genocide. Education the popu­lar portrayals of historical figures was a primary tool in this endeavor, and and events is another prominent theme. Fi­ many Native Americans learned the En­glish nally, identity is perhaps the most common language at government schools. As a result theme in Native American lit­er­a­tures of the of ­these policies, significant language loss Midwest. Authors delineate their identity in among Native Americans has occurred, and relation to their tribal nation, their ­family, most lit­er­a­ture published by them ­today is in and the outside world. En­glish. During the twentieth ­century Na­ This entry ­will discuss oral lit­er­a­ture, tive American populations also shifted including stories, songs, and oratory; from reservations to urban areas. The U.S. nineteenth-­century writers and memoir­ government’s policy of relocation during ists; twentieth-­ and twenty-­first-­century the 1950s accelerated this shift, but Natives memoirists; and twentieth-­ and twenty-­ have also been attracted to urban areas first-­century literary writers. In addition, ­because of education and employment the aforementioned categories wi­ ll be di­ opportunities. vided by tribal nation. Historical and cultural Oralr Lit­e ­a­ture: Native American oral contexts are essential for understanding lit­er­a­ture includes stories about creation and

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 550 origin; tribal tricksters and culture heroes; Many traditional Native American sacred songs and prayers, spoken and stories deal with a trickster or culture hero sung; and po­liti­cal, social, and ceremonial like Nanabozho, the trickster/culture-­hero oratory. Since the time Native Americans figure of the Anishinaabe, who is known by first encountered Euro-­Americans, ­these a variety of names, including Wenabozho spoken forms have been recorded, tran­ and Nanapush. Nanabozho stories instruct scribed, and published by both Indians and the Anishinaabe how they should and non -­Indians. ­Because oral lit­er­a­ture reflects should not behave, as well as on the origin the ­great diversity of Native American reli­ of many ­things. ­These stories carry many gious beliefs, social structures, cultural cus­ broad and deep meanings and are under­ toms, and languages, it is useful to study stood in a wide variety of ways. Nanabozho oral lit­er­a­ture within the social and histori­ is fallable, and the Anishinaabe learn from cal contexts of individual tribes. his misfortunes. Anthropologists ­were ­eager Motivated by the desire to rec­ord Native to rec­ord Nanabozho stories be­ cause of the American stories and songs before they cultural significance of the stories, as well as “dis ­appeared,” non-­Indian ethnographers ­because of their fear that th­ ere would come and anthropologists collected traditional a time when the stories would no longer be stories and songs from several tribes. Ethnol­ told. ogist and Indian agent HENRY ROWE SCHOOL­ The stories in Victor Barnouw’s Wiscon- CRAFT (1793–1864), published several collec­ sin Chippewa Myths and Tales (1977) ­were re­ tions, such as Algic Researches (1839), which corded by anthropologists and we­ re told includes such stories as “The Summer-­ ­primarily by five members of the Lac Court Maker” (Anishinaabe) and “The Celestial Oreilles and Lac du Flambeau bands of ­Sisters” (Shawnee). ­Because it is unknown Ojibwa: Julia Badger, Tom Badger, Prosper how much editing Schoolcraft did, it is use­ Guibord, John Mink, and Delia Oshogay; ful to compare ­these stories with other ren­ they contain several tales about Nanabozho ditions. Philip Mason and Mentor Williams and his adventures. Other collections that have edited Schoolcraft’s work and pub­ include stories about Nanabozho are Kath­ lished it as Schoolcraft’s Ojibwa Lodge Stories: arine B. Judson’s Native American Legends of Life on the Lake Superior Frontier (1997) and the Great­ Lakes and the Mississippi Valley (1914), Schoolcraft’s Indian Legends from “Algic Re- Dorothy M. Reid’s Tales of Nanabozho (1963), searches,” the Myth of Hiawatha, Oneota, the Red and Alethea K. Helbig’s Nanabozhoo, Giver Race in Amer­i­ca, and Historical and Statistical of Life (1987). Native Americans not work­ Information Respecting . . . ​the Indian Tribes of the ing with anthropologists have published United States (1991). Schoolcraft’s The Ameri- their own collections of stories that in­ can Indians: Their History, Condition and Pros- clude Nanabozho. For example, Anne M. pects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts (1851) Dunn (Anishinaabe, b. 1940) has published was reprinted in 2008. several collections of Anishinaabe stories Many tribes in the Midwest divide their that contain some of the adventures of stories into a variety of categories. Often Nanabozho, including When Beaver Was Very ­those that deal with spiritual aspects of ­Great (1995), Grand­mother’s Gift (1997), and tribal life can be told only at specific occa­ Winter Thunder (2000). sions, whereas th­ ose dealing with secular Native American songs carry cultural in­ affairs can be told at any time. For example, formation and have a significant place in Paul Radin (1883–1959) in The Trickster: A many Native American cultures. Songs play Study in American Indian My­thol­ogy (1956) a critical role in religious and social ceremo­ notes that the Ho-­Chunk classify their nar­ nies, as well as on an individual level. They ratives as waikan (what is sacred) and worak are often highly regulated and classed into (what is recounted). Waikan are told only a variety of types, which determine who can during the winter and af­ ter dark; they sing them and when. According to Brian frequently have a spirit as the central char­ Swann in Song of the Sky: Versions of Native acter. Worak, which can be told at any time, American Song-­Poems (1993), the first Native generally deal with recent events and American song to be transcribed was feature ­human or earthly protagonists. one from the Illinois, taken down by Fa­ ther

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Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) in 1674 been blurred. Before the arrival of Eu­ro­pe­ (vii). Close study of songs awaited late ans, Native ­people told their personal stories nineteenth-­century scholars like anthro­ through a variety of means, including wam­ pologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838– pum belts­ and pictographs. It was not ­until 1923), who, with the collaboration of Fran­ the early 1800s that autobiographies in forms cis La Flesche (1857–1932) and other Omaha recognizable as such to Eu­ro­pe­ans ­were peoples,­ wrote A Study of Omaha Mu­ sic (1893). written. These­ early autobiographies ­were That book contains the musical scores for often written and translated by a second or ninety-­two songs, as well as the native-­ third party. Many whites thought that Na­ language words for the songs. Likewise, eth­ tive Americans ­were ­going to dis­appear and nomusicologist Frances Densmore (1867– ­were interested in learning about Natives 1957) published Chippewa ­Music (1913) and before they did so. In addition, romantic ste­ Poems from Sioux and Chippewa Songs (1917), reo­types about Native Americans and their which ­were based on her fieldwork with the relationship with nature created interest as Anishinaabe and the Sioux. Densmore also industrialization raised questions about wrote Teton Sioux ­Music (1918) and The Indi- American identity and culture. Native ans and Their Mu­ sic (1926). Americans ­were ­eager to have an opportu­ Oratory was a central part of Native nity to pass along the wisdom they acquired American po­liti­cal life before the twentieth from experiences with both Natives and ­century. Since Native Americans used a va­ non -­Indians. riety of forms of governance,, oratory and a In 1833 the famous Sauk leader BLACK leader’s ability to use oratory to persuade HAWK (Ma-­ka-­tai-­me-­she-­kia-­kiak; 1767– constituents ­were critical. ­After contact with 1838) dictated his life story to Antoine non-­Indians, Native American oratory was LeClaire (1797–1861), U.S. interpreter for the translated, transcribed, and, on some occa­ Sauk and Fox tribes. LeClaire translated it sions, published. The best-­known works of into En­glish, and then the text was edited by Native oratory are speeches given by Native ILLINOIS newspaperman John B. Patterson. leaders to officials of the U.S. government. Although both men swore that the result Questions about accuracy abound; however, was faithful to Black Hawk’s words, trans­ when the speeches are placed in historical lation is always challenging, and even with and cultural context, they are excellent the best intentions some concepts are not sources for understanding the views and de­ likely to be adequately explained. The mem­ sires of Native Americans, as well as seeing oir, published as LIFE OF MA-K­ A-T­ AI-­ME-S­ HE-­ the ways in which Natives employed words KIA-­KIAK, OR BLACK HAWK (1833), is still in as a po­liti­cal strategy. ­Great Speeches by Native print. Black Hawk begins by recalling his Americans (2000), edited by Bob Blaisdell, youth and early accomplishments; he then includes speeches by several Midwestern devotes much of the book to explaining his leaders, such as “Engl­ ishman! You Know motives and relating his experiences in the That the French King Is Our ­Father” by Black Hawk War of 1832. Although the text Minavavana (Ojibwa) and “The Master of is mediated by two non-­Indians, it is consid­ Life” by Pontiac (Ottawa), as well as several ered a Native American classic. speeches by Tecumseh (Shawnee), includ­ Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, or Bame-­wa-­ ing “Let the White Race Perish” and wase -­g -­zhik-­a-­quay (Anishinaabe, 1800– “­Father! Listen to Your ­Children!” Native 1842), who was raised in MICHIGAN and mar­ leaders used oratory to raise awareness ried Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, is the first about a variety of issues and to incite ch­ ange. known Native American literary writer. The Nineteenth-­Century Writers and Sound Stars Make Rushing through the Sky: The Memoirists: AUTOBIOGRAPHY arose as a Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (2007), form during the Enlightenment and is gen­ edited by Robert Dale Parker, features many erally thought to be the story of an individ­ previously unpublished texts along with cul­ ual’s life written by the person himself or tural history, biography, and a critical in­ herself. For Native Americans, the line be­ troduction to Schoolcraft’s work. Parker tween autobiography and anthropological notes that Schoolcraft is the first known forms such as ethnographic life story has Native American wo­ man writer, the first

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 552 known Native American poet, the first naabe languages. Blackbird also published known poet to write in a Native American Complete Both Early and Late History of Ottawa language, and the first known Native Amer­ and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: A Grammar ican to write out traditional Indian stories of Their Language, Personal and ­Family History herself—as opposed to transcribing and of the Author (1897) and The Indian Prob­lem, translating from someone ­else’s oral deliv­ from the Indian’s Standpoint (1900), in which ery, which she also did. he advocated that Native Americans be George Copway (Kah-­ge-­ga-­gah-­bowh; given U.S. citizenship. Anishinaabe, 1818–1869) was born in Canada SIMON POKAGON (Potawatomi, ca. 1830– but spent a significant period of his life in 1899) spent much of his life in Michigan and the United States in the upper Gr­ eat Lakes Illinois. He was a celebrated literary figure region. Copway wrote one of the first Native in his day, was an honored guest at the 1893 American autobiographies, The Life, His- World’s Columbian Exposition in CHICAGO, tory and Travels of Kah-­Ge-­Ga-­Gah-­Bowh and gave a speech ­there. At the exposition (George Copway), a Young Indian Chief of the he distributed The Red Man’s Rebuke, which Ojebwa Nation, a Convert to the Christian Faith, was printed on birch bark, discussed his and a Missionary to His ­People for Twelve Years criticisms of U.S. treatment of Native (1847), in which he describes his child­ Americans, and predicted that by the mid-­ hood, conversion to Chris­tian­ity, and work twentieth ce­ ntury ­there would be no more as a minister. Copway demonstrates the Indian reservations and that Natives would value of traditional Anishinaabe life and the amalgamate into the dominant society. He humanity of Indian pe­ ople, arguing that subsequently published it as The Red Man’s the Anishinaabe and, more broadly, Native Greeting (1893). Pokagon was a popu­lar lec­ Americans have the ability and intellectual turer and published a number of essays, capacity to adapt to Eu­ro­pean and Eu­ro­ ­including “An Indian on the Prob­lems of pean American society. Pop­u­lar and well His Race” (1895), “The ­Future of the Red received by non-­Indians, the book was ex­ Man” (1897), “An Indian’s Plea for Prohibi­ panded in 1850 to include speeches and let­ tion” (1898), “Massacre at Fort Dearborn at ters. Copway also wrote The Traditional His- Chicago” (1899), and “Algonquin Legends tory and Characteristic Sketches of the Ojibway of Paw Paw” (1900). He was also an early Nation (1851). A. Lavonne Brown Ruoff and advocate for treaty rights and played an Donald B. Smith published Life, Letters and impor­tant role in securing payment for the Speeches: George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh) sale of Potawatomi land that became Chi­ (1997). cago. His autobiographical novel Queen of ANDREW J. BLACKBIRD (Mack-­e-t­ e-­be-­ the Woods (1899) gives a romantic account nessy; Ottawa, ca. 1814–1908) was born in of the Potawatomi and warns both Indians the area now known as Harbor Springs, and non-­Indians of the dangers of alcohol; Michigan, a son of the Ottawa chief Macka-­ the volume was published posthumously. de-­pe-­nessy. Makade-­binesi, meaning “black In Indian Nation: Native American Lit­er­a­ture hawk,” was mistranslated as “black bird.” and Nineteenth-­Century Nationalisms (1997) Blackbird was well educated in Ottawa tra­ Cheryl Walker describes Pokagon’s Queen ditions and also received some formal of the Woods as “the first novel about Native schooling in Michigan and OHIO. In 1887 Americans by a Native American” (209). Blackbird published History of the Ottawa and Francis La Flesche (Omaha) wrote The Chippewa Indians of Michigan; A Grammar of ­Middle Five: Indian School Boys of the Omaha Their Language, and Personal Fam­ ily History, Tribe (1900), a touching memoir focused on one of the first authoritative accounts of the the author’s years at the Presbyterian mis­ Ottawa and Anishinaabe pe­ oples. The book sion school in NEBRASKA. He dedicates the not only imparts historical information but book to the “Universal Boy” and writes to also explains traditional beliefs held by the “reveal the true nature and character of the two tribes. In addition, it delineates partic­ Indian boy” (xv). La Flesche also wrote a ulars of how the Ottawa and Ojibwa hunted, number of short stories, few of which ­were fished, and trapped. The book includes a published in his lifetime, which have been basic grammar of the Ottawa and Anishi­ edited by Daniel F. Littlefield and published

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 553 N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE as Ke-­ma-­ha: The Omaha Stories of Francis La mond J. DeMallie, was released in 2008. Flesche (1998). The text also includes a bio­ Black Elk describes seven primary Sioux graphical sketch by James W. Parins. The spiritual practices in The Sacred Pipe (1953), stories were­ designed to show similarities drawn from interviews and edited by Jo­ between Native Americans and Eu­ro­pean seph E. Brown. Americans. LUTHER STANDING BEAR (Ota Kte/Mochu­ CHARLES ALEXANDER EASTMAN (Ohiyesa; nozhin; Lakota, 1868–1939) grew up on the Santee Dakota, 1858–1939) was born in MIN­ Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and NESOTA but spent several years in Canada. He attended Carlisle Indian School in Pennsyl­ returned to the United States at the age of vania. He worked a variety of jobs and wrote fifteen and went on to become a physician. My People,­ the Sioux (1928), the Land of the He penned several autobiographies, includ­ Spotted Ea­gle (1933), and Stories of the Sioux ing Indian Boyhood (1902), The Soul of the (1934). Like Standing Bear, ZITKALA-­ŠA (RED ­Indian: An Interpretation (1911), and From the BIRD / Gertrude Simmons Bonnin; Yankton Deep Woods to Civilization: Chapters in the Au- Dakota Sioux, 1876–1938) was raised on the tobiography of an Indian (1916). His works re­ Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. main popu­lar ­today and deal with ethical She attended and ­later taught at Carlisle In­ and cultural questions surrounding assimi­ dian School in Pennsylvania. An activist lation and religion. for Indian rights, she published essays in Ella Cara Deloria (Yankton-­Nakota, the Atlantic Monthly, including “Impressions 1889–1971) was born in SOUTH DAKOTA and of an Indian Childhood” (January 1900), attended Columbia University, where she “School Days of an Indian Girl” (February studied ­under the famed anthropologist 1900), “An Indian Teacher among Indians” Franz Boas (1858–1942). Deloria was an ex­ (March 1900), and “Why I Am a Pagan” cellent translator and interpreter of Lakota (1902). She also wrote two volumes of tradi­ narratives. She published Dakota Texts (1932), tional stories, Old Indian Legends (1901) and which focused on translations and analy­sis, American Indian Stories (1921). and Dakota Grammar (1941), which has a Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Cen- ­linguistic focus. Her best-­known work is tury Memoirists: Native American mem­ Waterlily, which was completed in 1944 but oirists from the twentieth ­century forward not published ­until 1988. Waterlily is a fic­ describe diverse experiences, illustrating tional work set primarily in the precontact the wide range of knowledge, understand­ era. The protagonists, Blue Bird and her ing, and feelings that exist among modern ­daughter, Waterlily, illustrate the complex Native Americans. Anthropologists and networks of Dakota kinship and thus reveal other scholars continue to play a role in the intricacies of communal identity. many autobiographies, working as collabo­ BLACK ELK (Oglala Sioux, 1863–1950) wit­ rators with Natives. Like nineteenth-­century nessed the ­Battle of the ­Little Bighorn in autobiographers, Native autobiographers of 1876, joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the twentieth and twenty-­first centuries and supported the Ghost Dance movement write to ­counter continuing ste­reo­types and before converting to Catholicism late in life. show that Native Americans have not van­ Black Elk told his story to JOHN G(NEISENAU) ished but, in fact, are thriving. NEIHARDT (1881–1973), but the pro­cess was Anishinaabe memoirists include John complicated by the fact that Ben Black Elk Rogers (Chief Snow Cloud / Way Quah translated and Neihardt’s da­ ughter tran­ Gishig, b. 1890), who wrote A Chippewa scribed the meetings. Neihardt is consid­ Speaks (1957), republished as Red World and ered the author, not just the editor, of BLACK White: Memories of a Chippewa Boyhood (1996). ELK SPEAKS (1932), and questions about the Rogers’s narrative begins when he returns accuracy of the text have persisted. The book home at age twelve to the White Earth Res­ describes Black Elk’s development as a spir­ ervation from boarding school in Flandreau, itual leader and gives a narrative of Lakota South Dakota. He critiques his educational history. In 1972 Black Elk Speaks was reissued experience and Chris­tian­ity. The narrative in paperback and gained significant popu­ continues ­until 1909, when he is re­united larity. A new edition, annotated by Ray­ with his ­father, a Midewiwin leader and

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 554 lumberman, at Cass Lake, Minnesota. The (Anishinaabe, b. 1928), also tells a story of University of Oklahoma Press edition of 1996 strength and resilience, detailing the abuse includes a forward by Melissa Meyer that he suffered as a child at a Minnesota or­ provides useful historical context. phanage in the 1930s. Maude Kegg (Naawakamigookwe; An­ In ­Women of White Earth (1999) Vance ishinaabe, 1904–1996) was born in a birch Vannote compiles photo­graphs and inter­ bark wigwam near a wild rice harvesting views with forty-­three female citizens of the camp in Crow Wing County, Minnesota. In White Earth Anishinaabe nation. Illustrat­ 1969 she began working with linguist ing a wide range of diverse experiences, the John D. Nichols, relating stories of her child­ ­women discuss politics, education, religion hood. She published Portage Lake: Memories of and spirituality, identity, and their goals an Ojibwe Childhood (1993), as told to John D. and dreams. Memories of Lac du Flambeau El- Nichols, and Nookomis Gaa-­Inaajimotawid: ders (2004), edited by Elizabeth M. Tornes, What My Grand­mother Told Me (1990), a spe­ similarly compiles photo­graphs and inter­ cial edition of Oshkaabewis Native Journal. views with fifteen Anishinaabe elders from Kegg describes her life in ­relation to sea­ Lac du Flambeau, WISCONSIN. The elders dis­ sonal activities like maple sugaring, musk­ cuss their varied life experiences, including rat and beaver trapping, gardening, berry both the survival of tribal traditions and picking, swimming, wild rice harvesting, their adaption in the face of adversity. camping, hunting, and fishing. Her stories Sioux memoirs include Madonna Swan: focus on her childhood but also include ref­ A Lakota ­Woman’s Story (1991) by Madonna erences to significant historical events. The Swan (Lakota, 1928–1993) and Mark St. bilingual pre­sen­ta­tion of th­ ese texts provides Pierre and Standing in the Light: A Lakota Way an opportunity for language students to ex­ of Seeing (1996) by Severt Young Bear (La­ plore the intricacies of the Anishinaabe kota, 1934–1996) and R. D. Theisz. Richard language. In 1990 Kegg received a National Erdoes has collaborated on several Native Heritage Fellowship from the National En­ American memoirs, including Lakota dowment for the Arts in recognition of her ­Woman (1990) and Ohitika ­Woman (1993) by achievements as a folk artist and cultural Mary Crow Dog (Brave Bird, 1954–2013), interpreter. Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Keewaydinoquay Peschel (Anishinaabe, Men (1995) by Leonard Crow Dog (b. 1942), ca. 1919–1999) grew up in Michigan and went Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the Rise of on to work in anthropology and ethnobot­ the American Indian Movement (2005) by Den­ any. Published ­after her death, Keewaydino- nis Banks (b. 1937), and Lame Deer, Seeker of quay: Stories from My Youth (2006) was edited Visions (1972) by John (Fire) Lame Deer by Lee Boisvert. Keewaydinoquay describes (Tháhča Hušté; Lakota, ca. 1903–1976). her early childhood and education, includ­ Autobiographies by Native Americans of ing her experiences at public school and her other Midwestern tribes include two books apprenticeship to the highly regarded An­ by Sam Blowsnake (Hágaga; Ho-­Chunk, ishinaabe medicine ­woman Nodjimahkwe. 1875–1965), an impor­tant in­for­mant of eth­ Ron(ald J.) Paquin (Anishinaabe, b. nologist Paul Radin. Blowsnake’s The Auto- 1942) wrote Not First in Nobody’s Heart: The biography of a Winnebago Indian (1920) was Life Story of a Con­temporary Chippewa (1992) translated into En­glish by Radin and de­ with Robert Doherty. In this autobiography scribes his extraordinary life, including cul­ Paquin gives a candid account of his life in tural changes he experienced and observed, Michigan. He describes the abuse he suf­ his initiation into the Medicine Dance, his fered at the hands of his parents, his teen­ marriage, traveling with a circus, his alco­ age alcoholism, his prison experiences, his holism, and his murder of a Potawatomi attempted suicide, and, fi­nally, his marriage, man. Radin ­later edited the work and pub­ the birth of a son, his activism with regard lished it as Crashing Thunder: The Autobiogra- to Native fishing rights, and his efforts to phy of an American Indian (1926). (Crashing support his ­family. While the Locus Slept Thunder was Blowsnake’s br­ other, whose (2001), the power­ful Minnesota Book name Radin substituted in the volume be­ Award–­winning memoir by Peter Razor cause he preferred the sound of that name.)

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Anthropologist Nancy O. Lurie inter­ viewed Blowsnake’s si­ ster, Mountain Wolf ­Woman (Ho-­Chunk, 1884–1960), and wrote down Mountain Wolf ­Woman’s life story. It was published as Mountain Wolf ­Woman, ­Sister of Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian in 1961. In the book Mountain Wolf Wo­ man discussed her mar­ riages and religious practices, including her use of peyote. Oneida Lives: Long-­Lost Voices of the Wiscon- sin Oneidas (2005), edited by Gerald L. Hill, L. Gordon McLester III (Oneida), and Her­ bert S. Lewis (Oneida), contains sixty-­five chronicles told by fifty-­eight Oneidas; the stories were­ drawn from a large collection of handwritten accounts of the Works Pro­ gress Administration FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJ­ ECT undertaking called the Oneida Ethnolog­ ical Study (1940–1942). ­These accounts are grouped thematically and describe every­ thing from work and economic strug­gles to ­family dynamics and religious ­practices. Twentieth-­ and Twenty-First-Cen- tury Writers: Several themes character­ ize Native American writers in the mod­ ern era. Foremost is identity. Many Native American authors write to ­counter ste­reo­ types while delineating their own experi­ ences and perspectives. During the twen­ tieth ­century the population of Native American shifted from a majority living on reservations to a majority living in urban areas, often to attend school and find em­ ployment. Native American writers in the Midwest have depicted their experiences living in urban areas, as well as their con­ nections, or lack thereof, to their home res­ ervations. Native American resilience and ability to adapt to new living conditions are extraordinary. Many Native American writers use mul­ tiple characters to narrate a single text. This usage illustrates multiple perspectives shift­ ing the balance of authority and truth. An­ other theme is “survivance,” a term coined Sam Carley Blowsnake, ca. 1900. Photo by by GERALD (ROBERT) VIZENOR (Anishinaabe, b. Charles Van Schaick. 1934) that combines “survival” and “re­sis­ Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society tance.” Vizenor asserts in Manifest Manners (1994) that “the shadows and language of tribal poets and novelists could be the new ghost dance lit­er­a­ture, the shadow lit­er­a­ture of liberation, that enlivens tribal survivance” (106). Echoing many Native American

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 556 writers, Vizenor attests to the power of Abrasions with Jerome Downs (1966), Empty words and stories, arguing that lit­er­a­ture Swings (1967), Matsushima: Pine Islands (1984), can provide liberation and support cultural Cranes Arise (1999), and ­Favor of Crows (2014). endurance. Many of Vizenor’s haiku focus on nature Under­lying many of the aforemen­ and turn on an uncommon juxtaposition or tioned themes is sovereignty. Native au­ ironic twist, thereby avoiding romantic im­ thors deal directly and indirectly with the ages and gesturing beyond the poem to­ ward many definitions and manifestations of experience. sovereignty. As citizens of tribal nations, A primary theme of his work is the fight Native Americans have a distinct po­liti­cal against the victimization of Native Ameri­ status and often use lit­er­a­ture as a means cans and the static identities often assigned to support the po­liti­cal, cultural, and intel­ to Natives. Vizenor’s distinct style includes lectual sovereignty of their specific nations. the introduction of new terms, such as In a similar vein, Native authors consider “postindian,” “imagic,” and “survivance,” of nationhood and nationalism. In American which the last has gained currency among Indian Literary Nationalism (2005), Jace G. scholars. Vizenor’s novel Darkness in Saint Weaver (Cherokee, b. 1957), Robert A. War­ Louis: Bearheart (1978; republished as Bear- rior (Osage, b. 1963), and Craig S. Womack heart: The Heirship Chronicles in 1990) is told (Muscogee Creek–­Cherokee) argue that as a story within a story. Saint Louis Bear­ approaching Native American lit­er­a­ture heart, an Indian working at the Bureau of from a “nationalist” perspective, which is Indian Affairs, has just completed a novel one approach to the interpretation of lit­er­a­ titled Cedarfair Circus: Grave Reports from the tures centered on po­liti­cal implications, can Cultural Word Wars, at the time of the take­ provide meaningful insights, as well as sup­ over of the bureau. The manuscript describes port for sovereignty. Critics are now exam­ the journey of Proude Four, an Anishinaabe ining Native American lit­er­a­tures for the shaman, his wife, and a number of pilgrims ways in which they might define and ar­ from Wisconsin to New Mexico. Their jour­ ticulate native forms of nationalism. ney is spurred by oil shortages, and they Two of the best-­known, most prolific, encounter on their journey a number of and most influential Native American writ­ fantastic figures out of the trickster tradi­ ers are Anishinaabe. The works of Gerald tion. Vizenor won the American Book Vizenor and (KAREN) LOUISE ERDRICH (b. 1954) Award for Griever: An American Monkey King have transformed the field of Native Ameri­ in China (1990). His other novels include can lit­er­a­ture. Both have employed trickster The Heirs of Columbus (1991), Chancers: Novel themes in their work and subvert major ste­ (2001), ­Father Meme (2008), and Shrouds of reo­types, including the perception that Na­ White Earth (2010). Blue Ravens (2014) ex­ tives exist only in the past and on isolated plores the experiences of two br­ others from reservations. Vizenor is well known both for White Earth in World War I and their lives creative and scholarly work, while Erdrich’s ­after the war. Vizenor’s recurrent themes of books are extraordinarily popu­lar. chance, survivance, and irony underlie the Vizenor grew up in Minneapolis (see novel’s narrative. Vizenor’s theoretical MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL) and has taught at sev­ works include Manifest Manners: Narratives eral universities, including the University of on Postindian Survivance (1999) and Fugitive Minnesota, the University of California–­ Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Ab- Berkeley, and the University of New Mex­ sence and Presence (2000). Vizenor’s epic ico. He is currently retired in Naples, Florida. poem Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point Vizenor has published more than forty books (2006) tells of a ­little-­known ­battle in 1898 in a variety of genres, including fiction, po­ between the U.S. Army and the Anishi­ etry, autobiography, history, and critical naabe at Sugar Point on the Leech Lake studies. He had an interest in haiku and be­ Reservation in Minnesota, when the An­ gan publishing in that genre. He published ishinaabe defeated the U.S. Army despite his first collection, Two Wings the Butterfly, in being outnumbered three to one. 1962 and went on to publish Raising the Moon Louise Erdrich is one of the best-­known Vines (1964), Seventeen Chirps (1964), Slight and best-­selling con­temporary Native Amer­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 557 N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE ican authors. Erdrich grew up in Wahpe­ digenous Foods, Stories, and ­Recipes from the ton, NORTH DAKOTA, where her parents taught Upper Midwest appeared in 2013. She also at the Bureau of Indian Affairs School. She makes short films, directs Wiigwaas Press, currently resides in Minneapolis, where she an Ojibwe language publisher, and collabo­ continues to write and operate an in­de­pen­ rates with her si­ster Louise on writing dent bookstore, Birchbark Books. Her debut workshops and programs supporting indig­ novel, LOVE MEDICINE (1984), won the Na­ enous languages. tional Book Critics Circle Award. Her novels Kimberly M. Blaeser (Anishinaabe, b. Tracks (1988), The Beet Queen (1986), The Bingo 1955) grew up on the White Earth Reserva­ Palace (1994), Four Souls (2004), and The tion in Minnesota and currently resides near Plague of Doves (2008), which center on a fic­ Milwaukee, where she teaches at the Uni­ tional Anishinaabe community in North Da­ versity of Wisconsin–­Milwaukee. She has kota, are connected through the use of mul­ published three collections of poetry: Trail- tiple overlapping narrators. The novels ing You (1994), Absentee Indians, and Other Po- illustrate connections between generations, ems (2002), and Apprenticed to Justice (2007). impacts of government policies, and the re­ Blaeser’s poetry explores many themes, in­ silience of the Anishinaabe. In addition, they cluding identity, motherhood, place/nature, directly and indirectly address the powers of and justice. She has also written several crit­ words and stories. For example, in Tracks ical works, including “New Frontier of Na­ Nanapush attests to the healing power of tive American Lit­er­a­ture: Dis-­arming His­ story: “I saved myself by starting a story. . . . ​I tory with Tribal Humor,” in Native American got well by talking. Death could not get a Perspectives on Lit­er­a­ture and History (1994), word in edgewise, grew discouraged, and edited by Alan R. Velie, 37–50, in which she traveled on” (46). The Round House (2012) is explores the ways in which Native American also set on a fictional reservation in North Dakota, but this time a single narrator, Joe, grapples with the complexities of justice, in­ cluding jurisdictional issues that are very real in Native nations ­today, and the vio­lence in his community as he comes of age. Erdrich has also published several ­children’s books, including The Birchbark House (1999), The Game of Silence (2005), and The Porcupine Year (2008), a series that chronicles the life of an Anishinaabe girl. ­These books follow Anishinaabe history and include interactions with Anglo Americans. Erdrich has also published the poetry vol­ umes Jacklight (1984), Baptism of Desire (1989), and Original Fire: Selected and New Po- ems (2003). Her works of nonfiction include The Blue Jay’s Dance (1996), a memoir of early motherhood that eloquently describes the bond between mo­ ther and baby, and Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling through the Land of My Ancestors (2006), an account of her travels though southern Ontario, where she sees sacred rock paintings created centuries ago. Erdrich’s si­ ster Heid E. Er­ drich (b. 1963) writes about spirituality, her ­family’s Ojibwe and German heritage, and Wisconsin Poet Laureate (2015–2016) other subjects in several books of poetry in­ Kimberly Blaeser, 1999. Photo by Vance cluding Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems Vannate. (2012). Her nonfiction bookOriginal Local: In- © Kimberly Blaeser

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 558 writers defy binary constructions of lit­er­a­ ple, subject ­matter or writing style, and use ture and history. Blaeser was selected to ­those markers to define Native American serve as Wisconsin state Poet Laureate for litr ­e ­a­ture. 2015–2016. A number of Sioux writers have distin­ Gordon Henry Jr. (Anishinaabe, b. 1955) guished themselves. Elizabeth Cook-­Lynn was born in Philadelphia and grew up on (b. Elizabeth Bowed Head Irving; Dakota, vari­ous military bases ­because his ­father 1930) was raised on the Crow Creek Reser­ served in the U.S. Navy. He teaches at Mich­ vation in South Dakota. Her ­family has been igan State University. Henry’s first novel, active in tribal politics, and she has contin­ The Light People­ (1994), won the American ued this tradition of activism through lit­ Book Award in 1995. The novel is set on the er­a­ture. She has written in a variety of fictional Fineday Reservation and begins genres, including two novels, From the with Oskinaway’s quest to find his mo­ ther, River’s Edge (1991) and That Guy Wolf Dancing who “vanished on the powwow trail” (3). As (2014); a series of short stories, The Power of he seeks the advice of tribal elders, the story Horses, and Other Stories (1990); a book of continues through a large cast of characters, poetry, I Remember the Fallen Trees: New and each of whom narrates part of the story. The Selected Poems (1998); and a book of novellas, novel is humorous but deals with impor­tant Aurelia: A Crow Creek Trilogy (1999). Cook-­ themes of cultural identity and history. Hen­ Lynn’s multigenre work Then Badger Said ry’s poetry has been featured in a number This (1983) combines essays, traditional of ANTHOLOGIES, including Songs from This narratives, and poems. In 2007 Cook-­Lynn Earth on Turtle’s Back (1983), Returning the Gift received the Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), and Traces in Blood, Bone, and Stone from the Native Writers’ Circle of the (2006), and he has published a book of po­ Amer ­i­cas. etry, The Failure of Certain Charms (2008). Frances Washburn (Lakota/Anishi­ David Treuer (Anishinaabe, b. 1970) was naabe, b.1949) grew up on the Pine Ridge raised on the Leech Lake Reservation in Reservation in South Dakota. In her debut Minnesota. Before earning his doctorate in novel, Elsie’s Business (2006), a modern re­ anthropology at the University of Michigan, telling of the Lakota Deer ­Woman story, the he took degrees at Prince­ton University, narrator seeks to find out the truth about where his thesis adviser in the creative-­ the 1969 rape and murder of Elise Roberts, writing program was TONI MORRISON (CHLOE the ­daughter of an African American ­father ARDELIA WOFFORD, b. 1931). He currently and a Native American mo­ ther. She has also teaches at the University of Southern Cali­ published The Sacred White Turkey (2010) and fornia. Treuer is the author of four novels The Red Bird All-­Indian Traveling Band (2014). featuring Anishinaabe characters, set in a Joseph M. Marshall III (Sicunga Lakota variety of locations but predominantly in Sioux, b. 1945) grew up on the Rosebud Res­ Minnesota: ­Little (1996), The Hiawatha ervation in South Dakota, where he was (2000), The Translation of Dr. Apelles (2006), raised by his grandparents. He has been ac­ and Prudence (2015). In 2012 he published Rez tive in education and helped found Sinte Life, his first work of nonfiction. Treuer has Gleska University (1971) on the Rosebud Res­ also written a critical work, Native American ervation. Marshall is a prolific writer and Fiction: A User’s Manual (2006), in which he has published in a variety of genres. In Walk- examines a se­lection of novels by several ing with Grand­father: The Wisdom of Lakota prominent Native American authors. Treuer Elders (2005) Marshall shares stories and les­ questions the very term “Native American sons his grand­father taught him. Two of his fiction” and the validity of debates of au­ works deal specifically with resilience: Keep- thenticity that have surrounded Native ing ­Going: The Art of Perseverance (2009) and American lit­er­a­ture. This lit­er­a­ture is gener­ The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage: Les- ally defined as being written by a Native sons in Resilience from the Bow and Arrow American; however, questions about who is (2012). His novels Hundred in the Hand: A “­really” Native abound. In addition, some Novel (2007) and The Long Knives Are Crying would like to create other criteria, for exam­ (2008) are westerns that transcend the genre

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 559 N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE and depict Lakota experiences at the Fetter­ Claiming Breath (1996), a mixed-­genre, non­ man Fight of 1866 and at the ­Battle of the linear work in which she describes her life ­Little Bighorn. He has also published a col­ as a ­woman, ­mother, and Native American. lection of stories, The Dance House: Stories from Her novels include Pushing the Bear (1998), Rosebud (1998), and a children’s­ book, How The Only Piece of Furniture in the House (2001), Not to Catch Fish: And Other Adventures of Ik- The Mask Maker (2002), Designs of the Night tomi (2005). Sky (2002), Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea Susan Power (Dakota, b. 1961) grew up in (2004), Flutie (2007), and The Reason for Crows Chicago, Illinois, where her ­mother was (2009). Her poetry collections include The very active in the Native American commu­ Relief of Amer­i­ca (2000), The Stones for a Pil- nity. She now lives in St. Paul. See MINNE­ low (2001), The Shadow’s Horse (2003), and APOLIS/ST. PAUL. Power wrote The Grass Dancer Asylum in the Grasslands (2007). She received (1994), which won the 1995 Ernest Heming­ the Juniper Poetry Prize from the University way Award for best first work of fiction. Set ofa Mas­s ­chu­setts Press for Primer of the Obso- on a North Dakota reservation, Grass Dancer lete (2004). In-­Between Places (2005) is a col­ is a series of intricately interconnected sto­ lection of eleven essays that takes the reader ries that flow backward and forward in time along on a journey with Glancy through between 1864 and 1982. Power has published New Mexico and to China while discussing a book of fiction and nonfiction, Roofwalker the craft of writing. (2002), which won the Milkweed National Although Roberta J. Hill (formerly Ro­ Fiction Prize. In Sacred Wilderness (2014) four berta Hill Whiteman; Oneida, b. 1947) has ­women from dif­fer­ent backgrounds and eras spent the majority of her life in the Midwest, help heal and restore a mixed-­blood ­woman she grew up among the Oneida community who has found that the American Dream is in western Wisconsin, as well as in Green a life of emptiness. Bay. The movements of her fa­ mily between Gwen Nell Westerman (Santee Dakota, ­those two locations and the removal of her b. 1957) has published Follow the Blackbirds Oneida ancestors from New York State have (2013), a collection of poetry in Engl­ ish that informed her poetry. She earned her under­ often shifts to the Dakota language. Her po­ graduate degree at the University of Wis­ ems evoke the ­Great Plains landscape and consin and her doctorate at the University of express deep concern for ­family, commu­ Minnesota. Hill has published two collec­ nity, and cultural survival, based on the tions of poetry: Star Quilt (1984) and Phila- spiritual power of language. Professor of En­ delphia Flowers (1996). Her poems have also glish at Minnesota State University, appeared in numerous anthologies, includ­ Mankato, Westerman is also co-­author with ing Songs from This Earth on Turtle’s Back Bruce White of Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of (1983), That’s What She Said (1984), and Rein- the Dakota (2012), a study of Dakota history venting the ­Enemy’s Language (1998). Her po­ in Minnesota based on tribal narratives and ems cover a range of topics; many of them early historical documents. describe vivid nature scenes, while ot­ hers Con­temporary writers of other Native are personal, detailing her roles as ­daughter, American origins include Nas’Naga / Roger ­mother, and wife; still ­others engage with Russell (Shawnee, b. 1941), whose novel social and po­liti­cal issues. She has taught for Indians’ Summer (1975) involves U.S. and Ca­ many years at the University of Wisconsin. nadian Indians joining with India to over­ RAY (ANTHONY) YOUNG BEAR (Mesquakie; throw the American and Canadian colonial b. 1950) wrote Black Eagle­ Child (1996) and governments. He also has written two vol­ Remnants of the First Earth (1998); both are umes of poetry, The Darker Side of Glory (1979) narrated by Edgar Principal Bear. The and ­Faces beneath the Grass (1979). Diane mixed-­genre texts chronicle Edgar’s life at Glancy (Cherokee, b. 1941) was born in ST. the Black Ea­gle Child Settlement in IOWA. LOUIS, MISSOURI, but spent many years living Young Bear has received high acclaim for his in Minnesota as an En­glish professor at Ma­ ability to connect past, pres­ent, and ­future, calester College in St. Paul. She won the as well as tribal histories and personal expe­ North American Indian Prose Award for riences. Young Bear is also known for his

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE 560 power­ful poetry, which explores every­thing (Sauk), and other Midwestern figures. See from TV dinners to the natu­ral world. His also Native American Speakers of the Eastern volumes of poetry include Winter of the Sala- Woodlands: Selected Speeches and Critical Anal- mander (1980), The Invisible Musician (1996), yses (2001), edited by Barbara Alice Mann. and The Rock Island Hiking Club (2001). Victoria Brehm’s Star Songs and ­Water Spirits: SELECTED WORKS: Major texts by A ­Great Lakes Native Reader (2011) is a sub­ nineteenth-­century Native Americans in the stantial volume that contains a range of his­ Midwest include Life of Ma-­ka-­tai-­me-­she-­kia-­ toric and con­temporary narratives, includ­ kiak, or Black Hawk (1833), George Copway’s ing traditional/sacred stories, songs, poetry, The Life, History and Travels of Kah-­Ge-­Ga-­Gah-­ speeches, and fiction. Bowh (George Copway) (1847), Andrew J. Se­lections by Black Hawk, Black Elk, Blackbird’s History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Charles A. Eastman, Sam Blowsnake, and Indians of Michigan (1887), and Charles Alex­ Gerald Vizenor appear in Native American ander Eastman’s Indian Boyhood (1902). Al­ Autobiography: An Anthology (1994), edited by though it has been the subject of much Arnold Krupat. Gerald Vizenor and Diane scholarly debate, John G. Neihardt’s Black Glancy contributed to I Tell You Now: Autobi- Elk Speaks (1932) remains a classic. ographical Essays by Native American Writers Im ­por­tant twentieth-­century autobiog­ (2005), edited by Brian Swann and Arnold raphies include Sam Blowsnake’s The Auto- Krupat. biography of a Winnebago Indian (1920), Maude Literary anthologies featuring con­ Kegg’s Portage Lake: Memories of an Ojibwe temporary Midwestern Native American Childhood (1993), and John Rogers’s A Chip- writers include Duane Niatum’s The Harper’s pewa Speaks (1957). Major works of fiction in­ Anthology of 20th ­Century Native American Po- clude Gerald Vizenor’s Darkness in Saint etry (1988), Clifford Trafzer’s Earth Song, Sky Louis: Bearheart (1978), Louise Erdrich’s Love Spirit: Short Stories of the Con­temporary Native Medicine (1984), Elizabeth Cook-­Lynn’s From American Experience (1997), and John L. the River’s Edge (1991), Gordon Henry Jr.’s The Purdy and James Ruppert’s Nothing but Light ­People (1994), and Diane Glancy’s Push- the Truth: An Anthology of Native American ing the Bear (1998). Books of poetry include Lit­er­a­ture (2000). Kimberly Blaeser has ed­ Winter of the Salamander (1980) by Ray A. ited Stories Migrating Home: A Collection of Young Bear, Star Quilt (1984) by Roberta Hill, Anishinaabe Prose (1999) and Traces in Blood, Trailing You (1994) by Kimberly Blaeser, Cell Bone, and Stone: Con­temporary Ojibwe Poetry Traffic (2012) by Heid E. Erdrich (b. 1963), and (2006). Kathleen Tigerman’s Wisconsin In- Follow the Blackbirds (2013) by Gwen Nell dian Lit­er­a­ture: Anthology of Native Voices Westerman. (2006) emphasizes oral traditions as shared Several anthologies compile Midwestern by elders and educators from Wisconsin’s texts from Native American oral traditions. twelve Native tribes and bands. Jane Katz’s Anton Treuer’s Living Our Language: Ojibwe Messengers of the Wind: Native American ­Women Tales and Oral Histories (2001) is a bilingual Tell Their Life Stories (1995) includes the life anthology of stories told by Ojibwa-­language stories of several Wisconsin writers. ­Sister speakers and transcribed by Treuer. Bio­ Nations: Native American Wo­ men Writers on graphical information for each speaker is Community (2002), an anthology of fiction, given. The stories provide an opportunity for prose, and poetry, was edited by Heid E. Er­ Ojibwa-­language learners to engage with drich (Anishinaabe) and Laura Tohe (Na­ con­temporary texts in the language. Songs vajo/Dine), with a forward by Winona by Midwestern tribes may be found in Brian LaDuke (Anishinaabe). This anthology con­ Swann’s Song of the Sky: Versions of Native tains the writings of many con­temporary American Song-­Poems (1993) and Victoria Midwestern Native Americans, including Lindsay Levine’s Writing American Indian Roberta J. Hill (Oneida), Elizabeth Cook-­ ­Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, and Ar- Lynn (Dakota), Marcie R. Rendon (Anishi­ rangements (2002). ­Great Speeches by Native naabe, b. 1952), and Kimberly M. Blaeser. Americans (2000), edited by Robert Blais­ FURTHER READING: Many readers ­will dell, includes oratory by Pontiac (Ot­ find it useful to familiarize themselves with tawa), Tecumsah (Shawnee), Black Hawk Native American history to provide po­liti­cal,

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 561 N ATIVE A MERICAN L ITERATURE social, and cultural context for literary titude in the face of forced removal. Guy works. Enduring Nations: Native Americans in Gibbon’s The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Na- the Midwest (2008), edited by R. David Ed­ tions (2002) covers history and culture from munds, shows how the region’s Native prehistory to 2000 in a single volume. Jef­ ­peoples have influenced Midwestern culture frey Ostler’s The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colo- even while adapting to changing circum­ nialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee stances. Tribes in the region’s western (2004) has received scholarly acclaim for reaches are covered in Loretta Fowler’s The its exemplary analy­sis of primary texts. Columbia Guide to American Indians of the ­Great Donovin Arleigh Sprague (Cheyenne River Plains (2003). Helen Hornbeck Tanner’s At- Sioux) drew on photo­graphs, personal in­ las of Great­ Lakes Indian History (1987) provides terviews, and ­family stories to write Chey- invaluable information and includes many enne River Sioux (2003) and Standing Rock beautiful maps and illustrations. Patty Sioux (2004). Loew’s (Anishinaabe) Indian Nations of Wis- For a broad introduction to Native Amer­ consin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal ican lit­er­a­tures, see Suzanne Lundquist’s (2001) devotes a single chapter to each Na­ Native American Lit­er­a­tures (2004) and The Co- tive nation now located in Wisconsin. Nancy lumbia Guide to American Indian Lit­er­a­tures of Oestreich Lurie’s Wisconsin Indians (revised the United States since 1945 (2006), edited by edition, 2002) is an excellent and concise ac­ Eric Cheyfitz. Literary scholarship focused count of Wisconsin’s Native pe­ oples. on the Midwest includes Blair Whitney’s For background on the Anishinaabe, “American Indian Lit­er­a­ture of the ­Great consult Bruce White’s We Are at Home: Pic- Lakes,” ­Great Lakes Review: A Journal of Mid- tures of the Ojibwe ­People (2007), a collection west Culture 2.2 (Winter 1976): 43–53; P. Jane of photo­graphs of Anishinaabe ­people in Hafen’s “Native American Writers of the Minnesota up to 1950, accompanied by Midwest,” in Updating the Literary West (1997), White’s conscientious introduction and con­ edited by the Western Lit­er­a­ture Associa­ textual information. Thomas Vennum Jr.’s tion, 711–19; and “ ‘Hey! Get Up! You Got No Wild Rice and the Ojibway Pe­ ople (1988) delin­ Relations ­Here!’ Native American Humorous eates the cultural and economic importance Narratives of Cultural Renewal in Michi­ of wild rice to the Anishinaabe and includes gan” by Mary Magoulick, Midwestern Folk- historical and ethnological accounts com­ lore 27.1 (Spring 2001): 18–36. bined with the author’s fieldwork, in For commentary on impor­tant speeches, which he privileges the words of his in­ consult Oratory in Native North Amer­i­ca (2002) for ­mants. Ojibwe Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look by William M. Clements. Frederick W. in All Directions (2001) by Thomas Peacock Turner’s The Portable North American Indian (Anishinaabe) and Marlene Wisuri gives a Reader (1977) contains speeches by Tecum­ wide range of historical and cultural infor­ seh (Shawnee), Senachwine (Potawatomi), mation about the Anishinaabe. Canadian and Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Lakota). In The Anishinaabe author Basil Johnston’s Ojib- Native American Oral Tradition: Voices of the way Ceremonies (1990) and Manitous: The Spirit and Soul (2000) Lois J. Einhorn gives a Spiritual World of the Ojibway (2001) are use­ thorough account of Native American oral ful for understanding Anishinaabe spiritual tradition and includes some Midwestern ex­ practices. In ­Those Who Belong: Identity, amples. A valuable source on the functions ­Family, Blood, and Citizenship among the White of Ojibwa songs is Michael D. McNally’s Earth Anishinaabeg (2015), Jill Doerfler Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Cul- ­describes how the Anishinaabe have al­ ture in Motion (2000). ternately resisted and acceded to the U.S. In “The Anishinaabe Point of View: The government’s use of blood quantum to de­ History of the Gr­ eat Lakes Region to 1800 in termine Native identity. Nineteenth-­Century Mississauga, Odawa, On the Sioux, consult Mni Sota Makoce: and Ojibwa Historiography,” Canadian His- The Land of the Dakota (2013) by Gwen Wes­ torical Review 73.2 (June 1992): 194–210, Peter terman and Bruce White, which is an ­MacLeod discusses the work of Andrew J. impor­tant contribution to the history of the Blackbird, George Copway, and other Native Dakotas in Minnesota, including their for­ American writers in relation to Eu­ro­pean

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American sources. An excellent article on tives, and Critical Traditions,” American In- Black Hawk’s Life of Ma-­Ka-­Tai-­Me-­She-­Kia-­ dian Quarterly 29.1–2 (Spring 2005): 84–123. Kiak, or Black Hawk (1833) is Mark Rifkin’s On Ella Deloria, see Susan Gardner’s “Documenting Tradition: Territoriality and “Speaking of Ella Deloria,” American Indian Textuality in Black Hawk’s Narrative,” Amer- Quarterly 24.3 (Summer 2000): 456–82; and ican Lit­er­a­ture 80.4 (December 2008): 677– Maria Eugenia Cotera’s “ ‘All My Relatives 705. On Francis LaFlesche, see Sherry Are Noble’: Recovering the Feminine in Smith’s “Francis LaFlesche and the World of Ella Cara Deloria’s ‘Waterlily,’ ” American In- Letters,” American Indian Quarterly 25.4 (Fall dian Quarterly 28.1/2 (Winter/Spring 2004): 2001): 579–604. On Jane Johnston School­ 52–72. On Keewaydinoquay Peschel, see craft, see Robert Dale Parker’s The Sound Nan J. Giblin’s “Keewaydinoquay, Woman-­ the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky: The of-­the-­Northwest-­Wind: The Life and Phi­ Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (2007). losophy of a Native American Teacher,” Chapter 3, “Between the ­People and the Counseling and Values 42.3 (April 1998): Land: Luther Standing Bear, Mo­ ther 226–33. Earth, and Assimilation,” in Listening to the The Cambridge Companion to Native Ameri- Land: Native American Literary Responses to can Lit­er­a­ture (2005), edited by Joy Porter and the Landscape (2008) by Lee Schweninger, Kenneth M. Roemer, includes “Gerald 57–74, examines the works of Luther Stand­ ­Vizenor’s Post-­Indian Liberation” by Kim­ ing Bear for the ways in which the earth is berly M. Blaeser (257–70) and “Louise described. In Interpreting the Legacy: John ­Erdrich’s Storied Universe” by Catherine Neihardt and “Black Elk Speaks” (2003), Brian Rainwater (271–82). For more on Vizenor, Holloway explores some of the issues relat­ consult Deborah L. Madsen’s Understanding ing to the collaborative nature of the text Gerald Vizenor (2009), Kimberly Blaeser’s and argues that Neihardt attempted to Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition maintain as much of Black Elk’s views as (1996), A. Robert Lee’s Loosing the Seams: In- posi ­s ­ble. terpretations of Gerald Vizenor (2000), and Hertha Dawn Wong discusses Charles A. Alan R. Velie’s Four American Indian Literary Eastman, Sam Blowsnake, Black Elk, and Masters: N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie Mountain Wolf ­Woman in Sending my Heart Marmon Silko, and Gerald Vizenor (1982). Ar­ Back across the Years: Tradition and Innovation nold Krupat’s edited collection New Voices in in Native American Autobiography (1992). H. Native American Literary Criticism (1993) con­ David Brumble III includes chapters on tains two essays on Gerald Vizenor’s work. Eastman and Blowsnake in American Indian Studies in American Indian Lit­er­a­ture devoted Autobiography (2008). Two other impor­tant a special issue to Gerald Vizenor (Spring studies with Midwestern coverage are Ar­ 1997), as did American Indian Quarterly (Win­ nold Krupat’s For ­Those Who Come Aft­ er: A ter 1985). Study of Native American Autobiography (1985) On Louise Erdrich, consult P. Jane and Stephanie A. Sellers’s Native American Hafen’s Critical Insights: Louise Erdrich (2013), Autobiography Redefined (2007). Lorena L. Stookey’s Louise Erdrich: A Critical On Eastman, see Drew Lopenzina’s Companion (1999), and Peter G. Beidler and “ ‘Good Indian’: Charles Eastman and the Gay Barton’s A Reader’s Guide to the Novels of Warrior as Civil Servant,” American Indian Louise Erdrich (2006). Collections include The Quarterly 27.3–4 (Summer/Fall 2003): 727– Chippewa Landscape of Louise Erdrich (1999), 57; and Dakota Phi­los­o­pher (2009) by David edited by Allan Chavkin, and Approaches to Martinez (Pima). For analy­sis of Zitkala-­Ša, Teaching the Works of Louise Erdrich (2004), ed­ see P. Jane Hafen’s “Zitkala-­Ša: Sentimental­ ited by Greg Sarris, Connie A. Jacobs, and ity and Sovereignty,” Wíčazo Ša Review 12.2 James R. Giles. On Kimberly Blaeser, see (Fall 1997): 31–41; Ruth Spack’s “Re-­visioning Molly McGlennen’s “Seasonal Reverbera­ Sioux ­Women: Zitkala-­Ša’s Revolutionary tions: Kimberly Blaeser’s Poetry of Place,” American Indian Stories,” Legacy 14.1 (1997): Midwestern Miscellany 32 (Spring–­Fall 2004): 25–42; and Gary Totten’s “Zitkala-­Ša and the 7–20. On David Treuer, see Padraig Kirwan’s Prob­lem of Regionalism: Nations, Narra­ “Remapping Place and Narrative in Native

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American Lit­er­a­ture: David Treuer’s The Hi- the University of New Mexico and is pub­ awatha,” American Indian Culture and Re- lished with the University of Nebraska Press, search Journal 31.2 (2007): 1–24; and David publishes a significant number of articles re­ Stirrup’s “Life af­ ter Death in Poverty: David lating to Native American lit­er­a­tures. Like­ Treuer’s ‘­Little,’ ” American Indian Quarterly wise, Wíčazo Ša Review, which was founded 29.3/4 (Summer/Fall 2005): 651–72. On Eliz­ by Elizabeth Cook-­Lynn, is published at abeth Cook-­Lynn, see Thomas Matchie’s the University of Minnesota and contains “Spiritual Geography in Four Midwestern articles on Native American lit­er­a­tures. Novels,” Midwest Quarterly 39.4 (Summer JILL DOERFLER (WHITE EARTH ANISHINAABE) 1998): 373–89; and James Stripes’s “ ‘We UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA–­DULUTH Think in Terms of What Is Fair’: Justice versus ‘Just Compensation’ in Elizabeth Cook -­Lynn’s From the River’s Edge,” Wíčazo NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED Ša Review 12.1 (Spring 1997): 165–87. IN M IDWESTERN LITERATURE On Susan Power, see Lee Schweninger’s OVERVIEW: The portrayal of Native Amer­ “Myth Launchings and Moon Landings: icans in Midwestern lit­er­a­ture reflects past Parallel Realities in Susan Power’s The trends in American lit­er­a­ture. The first Grass Dancer,” Studies in American Indian Lit­ images of Native Americans came from er­a­tures 16.3 (2004): 47–69. For scholarship Christopher Columbus in the fifteenth on Diane Glancy, see Jennifer Andrews’s “A ­century. He provided both positive and Conversation with Diane Glancy,” American negative images of natives with whom he Indian Quarterly 26.4 (Fall 2002): 645–58; and came in contact, and although th­ ese im­ Amy J. Elias’s “Fragments That Rune up the ages combined direct descriptions with the Shores: Pushing the Bear, Coyote Aesthet­ preconceptions and prejudices of fifteenth-­ ics, and Recovered History,” Modern Fiction century Italy, they ­were quickly replaced Studies 45.1 (Spring 1999): 185–211. with more inaccurate, racist, and ste­reo­ For scholarship on Ray A. Young Bear, typed images. Familiar descriptors of the na­ see Robert F. Gish’s “Memory and Dream in tives as barbarians, heathens, and noble the Poetry of Ray A. Young Bear,” Minority savages ­were also popu­lar­ized. As Native Voices: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Lit­er­a­ture Americans ­were pushed farther west, killed, and the Arts 2.1 (1978): 21–29; Robert Dale or placed on reservations, their portrayal Parker’s “To Be Th­ ere, No Authority to Any­ was re­imagined by each generation of au­ thing: Ontological Desire and Cultural and thors as a reflection of then-­current white Poetic Authority in the Poetry of Ray A. fears, suspicions, and government agendas. Young Bear,” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of See also NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE. American Lit­er­a­ture, Culture, and Theory 50.4 Although it is impossible to place depic­ (Winter 1994): 89–115; and Elias Ellefson’s tions of Native Americans in all genres of “An Interview with Ray A. Young Bear,” in Midwestern lit­er­a­ture in easily definable Speaking of the Short Story: Interviews with chronological categories, the general trend Con­temporary Writers (1997), edited by Far­ of literary repre­sen­ta­tion from the mid-­ hat Iftekharuddin, Mary Rohrberger, and sixteenth ce­ ntury to the pres­ent has been Maurice Lee, 35–44. an evolution of often sensationalistic and Studies in American Indian Lit­er­a­tures, pub­ shocking depictions fi­nally giving way to lished by the Association for the Study of more historically accurate portrayals. Early American Indian Lit­er­a­tures with the Uni­ Midwestern travel narratives in the six­ versity of Nebraska Press, is the preeminent teenth and seventeenth centuries often journal in the field. Yellow Medicine Review, gave relatively accurate repre­sen­ta­tions of founded in 2007 and based at Southwest Native Americans, who we­ re not yet seen as Minnesota State University, publishes writ­ threats requiring extermination. Many ing by indigenous ­peoples around the world. CAPTIVITY NARRATIVES of the seventeenth, Although it is not exclusively devoted to eigh­teenth, and nineteenth centuries ­were Native American lit­er­a­tures, American In- embellished and sensationalistic, aimed at dian Quarterly, which is currently based at shocking readers and promoting anti-­Indian

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED IN M IDWESTERN L ITERATURE 564 sentiment. ­Later, novels, DIME NOVELS, and their hospitality and the kindness they ex­ westerns of the nineteenth and twentieth tended to him and his fellow travelers. centuries tended to justify the destruction Travels through the Interior Parts of North-­ of Indians or portray them as romantic Amer­i­ca, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (1778) American relics doomed to die out in the by Jonathan Carver (1710–1780) was also face of white expansion. Unfortunately, the widely popu­lar. It went through at least images bore ­little to no resemblance to his­ twenty-­three editions and was translated torical Native Americans. Be­ cause Native into German, French, and Dutch. Carver, Americans continue to be a topic of interest thought to be the first English-­speaking to non-­Native writers ­today, ­there is a need traveler to explore the trans-­Mississippi for more in-­depth analy­sis of American In­ area, visited many Native American tribes dians as depicted in Midwestern lit­er­a­ture. living in the Midwest. His narrative provides HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE: Travel readers with a largely objective description narratives of the sixteenth and seventeenth of the manners, religions, customs, and lan­ centuries ­were the first American literary guages of ­these Native Americans and con­ genre to depict Native Americans. ­Because tains the first published descriptions of some travel narratives we­ re often written by ex­ of the Sioux and Ojibwas. plorers and early settlers rather than by pro­ One of the best-­known travel narratives, fessional writers, they tended to portray life albeit not entirely Midwestern, is History of more realistically than other forms of lit­er­ the Expedition ­under the Command of Captains a­ture, and the authors we­ re generally more Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, sympathetic ­toward indigenous ­people. Je­ Thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the suit priests penned the first significant travel River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean: Performed narratives describing the native pe­ oples. during the Years 1804–­5–­6 by Order of the Gov- Their early Midwestern accounts include ernment of the United States (1814), compiled meticulous descriptions of Native Americans from the journals of Meriwether Lewis and their ways. Although many Jesuit nar­ (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838) ratives labeled the natives savages or barbar­ and edited by Paul Allen. Lewis and Clark’s ians, they also showed re­spect and awe at expedition came into contact with nearly their abilities to survive in the wilderness. fifty tribes, many of which we­ re Midwest­ Midwestern travel narratives ­were published ern. The narrative contains meticulous de­ as early as 1542. One of the most successful scriptions of th­ ese vari­ous tribes, including was Description de la Louisiane . . . ​(1683) by the Osage of KANSAS and MISSOURI, the Otoe the Recollect friar ­Father Louis Hennepin and Missouri who inhabited the land on the (1626–ca. 1705). Although he was accused of border of Missouri and NEBRASKA, the Teton exaggeration and plagiarism, Hennepin and Yankton Sioux of SOUTH DAKOTA, and the demonstrated admiration for Native ­people Arikari of northern South Dakota. as he described their community customs Captivity narratives ­were the second ma­ and natu­ral abilities—­men as warriors and jor literary genre focusing significantly on ­women as workers. Native Americans in the Midwest, and the ­Because of the expansion of exploration bulk of these­ narratives we­ re published dur­ and settlement of the West, the number of ing the seventeenth and eigh­teenth centu­ travel narratives coming out of the trans-­ ries. Most Midwestern captivity narratives Mississippi area increased during the eigh­ encouraged anti-­Indian sentiment with teenth and nineteenth centuries. One of the shocking tales of massacres, torture, and un­ most valuable and popu­lar narratives writ­ fettered brutality or portrayed Native ten at this time was Three Years among the In- Americans sympathetically as remnants of dians and Mexicans (1846) by General Thomas history and symbols of Amer­i­ca’s heritage. James (1782–1847). This adventure tale pres­ Narrative of the Capture and Providential Escape ents an accurate repre­sen­ta­tion of several of Misses Frances and Almira Hall . . . (​1832) is Midwestern tribes and customs, as well as a good example of an embellished captivity James’s observations of and interaction with narrative meant to encourage hatred of them. Although he does include some im­ Indians. On the other hand, A Narrative of ages of their brutality, he also emphasizes the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, Who Was Taken

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 565 NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED IN M IDWESTERN L ITERATURE by the Indians in the Year 1755 . . . ​(1824) by beliefs are evident in The California and Ore- James E. Seaver (1787–1827) was one of the gon Trail: Being Sketches of Prairie and Moun- first captivity narratives to exhibit a new at­ tain Life (1849), a best seller of the nine­ titude of sympathy to­ ward and ac­cep­tance of teenth ­century. Native Americans. Jemison assimilated to SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS (1835–1910), her captors’ culture, lived with them for over writing as Mark Twain, is another Midwest­ seventy years, and showed li­ ttle regard for or ern author who portrayed Native Americans trust in white men. negatively. In 1870 he published “The Noble As captivity narratives became more fic­ Red Man,” a satirical essay mocking James tionalized ­toward the end of the eigh­teenth Fenimore Cooper’s overly romanticized ­century, they heavi­ly influenced many other Indian characters. Clemens ridicules and rising literary forms in the Midwest, espe­ criticizes their appearance, manners, and cially novels, dime novels, and westerns. lifestyle, but the essay’s ambivalent tone During this period Native Americans be­ makes it nearly impossible for readers to dis­ gan finding their way into plays, poems, cern whether­ they should take him seriously autobiographies, and even ­children’s lit­er­ or dismiss his rhe­toric as si­ mple contempt for a ­ture. See also CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT unrealistic and highly romanticized narra­ LITERATURE. Many Midwestern works of the tives. His portrayal of Injun Joe, the villain early nineteenth ­century presented the In­ in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), one dian as a brutal savage bent on torturing of his most popu­lar novels, has also been and murdering white settlers. ­These literary problematic for readers. Injun Joe is pre­ works, in turn, we­ re used for the extraliter­ sented as a malevolent character motivated ary purpose of justifying any and all actions by the desire for revenge on th­ ose who have whites took against Native Americans. Many even only slightly offended or wronged him authors portrayed Indians as fated for de­ in any way. Injun Joe not only murders the struction and even extermination and there­ town doctor but also fantasizes about tor­ fore encouraged their removal from Mid­ turing a ­woman. He is the embodiment of western lands, ­either peaceably or by force, evil for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to make way for white settlement and civi­ and several times throughout the novel is lization. The belief that Native Americans said to be evil ­because of his Indian blood. ­were fated to die out in the face of white pro­ “The Noble Red Man,” The Adventures of Tom gress helped ease guilty consciences over their Sawyer, and Roughing It (1872), a narrative of removal and destruction. The play ­Logan, the Clemens’s adventures in the West, all depict Last of the Race of Shikellemus, Chief of the Ca- images of Native Americans that unequiv­ yuga Nation (1823) by Joseph Doddridge ocally defy the theme of the noble savage. (1769–1826), set along the Ohio River, en­ Dime novels, or penny dreadfuls, which courages the extermination of the Indian originated in the 1840s and remained popu­ and promotes white settlement of the land lar until­ the turn of the twentieth ce­ ntury, many asserted the Indians had no claim to took negative images of Native Americans and did not deserve. to the extreme. The more exciting the epi­ In similar fashion, Francis Parkman sodes, the more embellished the language, (1823–1893) believed that what he consid­ the bloodier the ­battles, the more gruesome ered civilized pro­gress controlled history the torture, and the more horrific the de­ and that the supposedly primitive, inferior, scriptions, the better. Although the dime-­ and static Indians deserved their doom. In novel Indian is often seen torturing his 1846 Parkman lived with a Midwestern victims, scalping them, or burning them at Sioux tribe for several weeks while on a the stake, he is also predictable and, at best, hunting expedition, and although he lived a flat character whose sole purpose is to an­ with them at a time when he could witness tagonize the main character and make a their strug­gles with the effects of white en­ hero of him. One dime novel that takes place croachment, his visit only reinforced his in the Midwest and pres­ents ­these themes is views that civilization must conquer sav­ Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to agery and that displacement of the Indian Manhood . . . ​(1881) by Col­o­nel Prentiss In­ was a natu­ral effect of pro­gress. Parkman’s graham (1843–1904), one of the most prolific

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED IN M IDWESTERN L ITERATURE 566 dime-­novel authors. In this narrative ized descriptions of the Indians and their young Billy kills his first Indian, gains the relationships with white ­women. nickname “Boy Indian Killer,” and is made A ­later exemplar of the evolving western a hero for his actions. genre is Dances with Wolves (1988) by Michael The western novel, or the western, an (Lennox) Blake (b. 1945). This novel, set in offshoot of the dime novel that maintained 1863 on the far western edge of the Midwest, the traditional white ste­reo­types of Native reverses the bad-­Indians/good-­whites theme Americans, gained popularity during the and pres­ents many whites as cruel, deceit­ nineteenth ce­ ntury. Many authors of west­ ful, and greedy. The Native Americans, with erns felt no need to attempt accurate por­ the exception of the Pawnees, are shown to trayals of Native Americans and often gave be noble, helpful, and trustworthy. In 1990 them one of two roles to fill: the good Indian Dances with Wolves hit the big screen and be­ or the bad Indian. The good Indian was the came one of the top-­five-­grossing western white hero’s faithful sidekick, the noble sav­ movies of all time, perhaps signifying con­ age standing side by side with good whites temporary audiences’ desire for more real­ to fight the white outlaws and bad Indians. istic and respectful portrayals of Native The bad Indian was the ste­reo­typical blood­ Americans. thirsty savage bent on revenge, torture, and Prevalent ste­reo­types of Native Ameri­ murder of innocent whites. However, the In­ cans have evolved markedly over time. James dian usually served as the background Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) maintained a rather than the focus of the novel. This tech­ romanticized view of Native Americans. The nique allowed the author to simplify the third novel written in his Leatherstocking Native American character and to use him Tales, although chronologically the last in as a prop or tool. the series, The Prairie (1827) is set in Nebraska; At the turn of the twentieth ­century, however, Cooper had no extensive experi­ westerns ­were more popu­lar than ever, but ence with Native Americans, and he wrote the twentieth-­century emergence of pro-­ this novel while he was living in Paris. Nev­ Indian westerns marked the continuing ertheless, Cooper is able to tell the story of evolution of that genre. Native Iowan FRED­ the American frontier through the adven­ ERICK MANFRED (b. Feike Feikema, 1912–1994) tures and interactions of his characters, both is often considered an author of westerns. white and Indian, and through the theme of However, his novels are unique in that they nature versus civilization. In each of his do not follow the typical western formulas novels Cooper includes both the savage In­ popu­lar in the early part of the twentieth dian and the noble Indian, and he clearly ­century. His novel Manly-­Hearted ­Woman differentiates between the two. However, in (1975) takes place before the arrival of the the constant pro­gress of civilization, both whites in the Midwest. Manfred avoids are seen as fated to die out. the good-­Indian/bad-­Indian dichotomy and A ste­reo­type of Native Americans that the trivial romance of many early westerns; developed in opposition to the brutal savage instead, he focuses on realistic themes and is the noble Indian brave. The noble Indian provides a more truthful picture of Native in American lit­er­a­ture was a nineteenth-­ Americans. Beneath the ­simple story line of century invention; Indians could be viewed two young Indians who meet but are not as noble only ­after the Indian threat was destined to be together are many complex eliminated or far removed from white civi­ themes, such as native community life, reli­ lization. Authors of novels, plays, and poems gion, and homo­sexuality. Manfred’s novel usually portrayed the Indian as noble only Scarlet Plume (1964), the third novel in his before contact with the corrupting influence Buckskin Man Tales, also stands apart from of the white man or in the very early stages other westerns. The setting is the Minnesota of contact. One work that follows this tradi­ Uprising of 1862. Although he does employ tion is the popu­lar narrative poem The Song the good-­Indian/bad-­Indian theme, and of Hiawatha (1855) by Henry Wadsworth although the novel is in some ways remi­ Longfellow (1807–1882), set in the forests niscent of nineteenth-­century captivity of upper MICHIGAN before the arrival of the narratives, it also contains highly sexual­ white man. Longfellow, influenced by Indian

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CATHER (1873–1947) did approach the subject of Native Americans in some of her works, such as Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), she essentially ignored their presence on the Nebraska frontier in O PIONEERS! (1913) and glossed over the brutality of the extinction of the Pawnees, the Poncas, and other tribes of the plains. She disregarded both centuries of Native American habitation in the Mid­ west and the recent history of Native Amer­ ican extinction and removal. As William Barillas points out in The Midwestern Pastoral: Place and Landscape in Lit­er­a­ture of the Ameri- can Heartland (2006), the Plains War took place from 1862 to 1890, and the narrative timeline of O Pioneers! covers the period from 1883 to 1900. Cather, Barillas notes, makes no mention of the war or its effect on Native Americans (68–69). The mid-­ to late nineteenth ce­ ntury and the twentieth ce­ ntury saw attempts at real­ ism in fiction, biographies, and other writ­ ings. Many Midwestern authors moved away from the ste­reo­typed Indian of the earlier centuries and began portraying Native Americans in new ways. One such Frederic Remington’s illustration of Long- work that appeared before its time was His- fellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, edition. 1891 tory of the Indian Tribes of North Amer­i­ca, with © Houghton, Mifflin & Co, . Image courtesy of 1891 Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Prin- the Library of Congress cipal Chiefs (1836–1844) by Thomas McKen­ ney (1785–1859) and James Hall (1793–1868). legends collected by HENRY ROWE SCHOOL­ McKenney, who was superintendent of CRAFT (1793–1864), sentimentalized the In­ Indian trade for six years and then the first dian by combining the ballad form with a director of the Office of Indian Affairs, be­ legend that would take readers back to a came closely acquainted with vari­ous tribes time long ago when the Indian could be of the Midwest and West and deeply con­ viewed with sympathy and tenderness. cerned for their welfare and survival. McK­ Longfellow pres­ents a humanized, civi­ enney partnered with la­ wyer and author lized, and Christianized Indian with whom James Hall, and together over a span of six his readers could be comfortable. Although years they created a portfolio of portraits Longfellow met with criticism for confus­ and biographical sketches to preserve Mid­ ing and intermixing Iroquois and Ojibwa western and western Native American customs and legends, the poem sold 38,000 culture. copies the first year, testifying to readers’ Explorer, travel writer, ethnographer, needs to simplify and sentimentalize Amer­ and Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft ican history, which was in real­ity fraught also did much to rec­ord and preserve an ac­ with vio­lence, bloodshed, and broken curate portrayal of Native American life and treaties. customs. Schoolcraft was married to the Although the savage-­Indian and noble-­ granddaughter­ of an Ojibwa chief and was Indian ste­reo­types of Native Americans did thus able to observe Native American cul­ nothing to positively portray the real­ity of ture firsthand. Despite having come from a Native life and tradition, perhaps what is not ­family that had fought against Native Ameri­ said about Native Americans in white lit­er­ cans on the Revolutionary War frontier, and a­ture is just as damaging. Although WILLA despite the fact that his early works reflect

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED IN M IDWESTERN L ITERATURE 568 his ­family’s bias against Native Americans, of the Oglalas (1942). The ­daughter of a fron­ Schoolcraft developed sensitivity ­toward tiersman who was respectful ­toward his In­ Native Americans, and his la­ ter works ­were dian visitors—as frequently depicted in her mainly ethnographic. Schoolcraft wrote Old Jules (1935)—­Sandoz grew up in close many volumes containing realistic portrayals proximity to the lands where Crazy Horse of Native American life, culture, tradition, lived, fought, and died, and she held a deep and religion. Two of them are Algic Re- re­spect and sympathy for the war chief. This searches: Comprising Inquiries Respecting the re­spect is evident in Crazy Horse through the ­Mental Characteristics of the North American In- language and point of view, which make dian (1839), which was Longfellow’s inspira­ readers feel as though they are one with tion for Hiawatha, and Historical and Statistical the characters. Sandoz’s profound consider­ Information Respecting the History, Condition, ation for Native Americans continued in and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United Cheyenne Autumn (1953), as well as in many States, published in six volumes from 1851 other biographical and fictional works. to 1857. An impor­tant novel that portrays Native JOHN G(NEISENAU) NEIHARDT (1881–1973), Americans with realism and sympathy is Nebraska author and employee of the Bu­ Dalva (1988) by JIM (JAMES THOMAS) HARRISON reau of Indian Affairs, truthfully revealed (1937–2016). Set in Nebraska, Dalva is a com­ the brutal treatment Native Americans re­ plex novel interweaving several plotlines ceived at the hands of white conquerors with complicated characters while at the and emphasized the spiritual heroism of same time raising ethical questions about ­Native Americans. Many of Neihardt’s works, Indian policy of the late nineteenth ce­ ntury. including A Cycle of the West (1949), a collec­ Although the novel is set in 1986, passages tion of five poems, and When the Tree Flow- from the journals of a nineteenth-­century ered (1951), his last novel, demonstrate the ancestor of the novel’s main character allow results of white settlement from the Native the reader to experience life on the Nebraska American point of view. BLACK ELK SPEAKS frontier during the Plains War, to sympa­ (1932), Neihardt’s collaborative biography of thize with Native Americans, and to ques­ Oglala Sioux medicine man BLACK ELK tion the government’s treatment of them. (1863–1950), paints a positive, albeit difficult, From the ­simple and straightforward de­ picture of Native American life. Black Elk scriptions of Native Americans in the travel agreed to share his life’s narrative and vi­ narratives of early explorers to the po­liti­cally sions with Neihardt, expressing his desire motivated racist repre­sen­ta­tions of captivity to reveal the real­ity of Oglala life, customs, narratives, dime novels, and westerns and to and religious ceremonies. Although it did the multifaceted characters found in the not initially receive the attention it gained in novels of the twentieth ­century, Native the de­cades ­after it was published, its popu­ Americans continue to be a subject of fasci­ larity now shows a growing interest in so­ nation for many writers. However, the long cial, ethical, and religious analy­sis of Native history of often inaccurate, insensitive, and Americans. However, con­temporary debates brutal white lit­er­a­ture dealing with Native surrounding the biography focus on the ex­ Americans has provided an impor­tant tent of Neihardt’s literary license with Black motivation for Native Americans to portray Elk’s dictation. Some critics and scholars themselves in their own words. It has paved have gone so far as to claim that the biogra­ the way for Midwestern Native American phy displays more of Neihardt’s beliefs than authors such as GERALD (ROBERT) VIZENOR (b. of Black Elk’s. 1934), (KAREN) LOUISE ERDRICH (b. 1954), and Along with this attempt at realism, the many ­others to fi­nally portray Native Amer­ twentieth ce­ ntury witnessed a back-­to-­ ican culture and life honestly and candidly. nature movement that involved a surge of SELECTED WORKS: One of the earliest interest in all th­ ings Native American. published accounts of white contact with the MARI(E SUSETTE) SANDOZ (1896–1966) is one indigenous ­people of the Midwest is ­Father Midwestern author who fed this interest Louis Hennepin’s Description de la Loui- with her biography of Oglala Sioux war chief siane . . . ​(1683). In this account Hennepin Crazy Horse in Crazy Horse, the Strange Man admires Native Americans for their skills

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 569 NATIVE A MERICANS AS DEPICTED IN M IDWESTERN L ITERATURE and way of life. For readers interested in cap­ Mind (1967) by Roy Harvey Pearce contrib­ tivity narratives, A Narrative of the Life of utes much to the study of white attitudes Mrs. Mary Jemison, Who Was Taken by Indians ­toward Native Americans and dedicates in the Year 1775 (1824) by James Seaver por­ many pages to discussion of the noble-­savage trays a ­woman who assimilated to the In­ ste­reo­type. Another text on the same theme dian way of life and chose to live with her is The White Man’s Indian: Images of the Ameri- captors rather than return to white civiliza­ can Indian from Columbus to the Pres­ent (1978) tion. Narrative of the Capture and Providential by Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. Valuable but lim­ Escape of Misses Frances and Almira Hall . . . ​ ited information on Midwestern literary (1832), however, pres­ents a skewed picture of repre­sen­ta­tions of Native Americans appears captivity designed to promote hatred of in The Ignoble Savage: American Literary Racism, Indians. 1790–1890 (1975) by Louise K. Barnett; The Marking the movement from captivity Indian in American Lit­er­a­ture (1933) by Albert narratives to works of fiction, the dime-­ Keiser; White on Red: Images of the American novel Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood Indian (1976), edited by Nancy B. Black and to Manhood (1881) by Col­o­nel Prentiss Ingra­ Bette S. Weidman; and Born for the Shade: ham concerns a protagonist who is made a Ste­reo­types of the Native American in United hero for killing Indians. Similarly, Joseph States Lit­er­a­ture and the Visual Arts, 1776–1894 Doddridge’s play Logan, the Last of the Race of (1994) by Klaus Lubbers. A similar text is Shikellemus (1823) encourages hatred and ex­ The Demon of the Continent: Indians and the termination of Indians. On the other hand, Shaping of American Lit­er­a­ture (2001) by the novel Manly-­Hearted ­Woman (1975) by Joshua David Bellin, an examination of how Frederick Manfred more accurately portrays contact between Eu­ro­pe­ans and Native Indian life before white settlement of the Americans sh­ aped and influenced American Midwest. The novel Dances with Wolves (1988) litr ­e ­a­ture. by Michael Blake also pres­ents a positive A thorough analy­sis of the image of view of Midwestern Indians. Mari San­ Native American females in American lit­ doz’s biography Crazy Horse (1942) and Jim er ­a­ture from 1799 to 1911 is provided in Poca- Harrison’s novel Dalva (1988) show re­spect hontas and Co.: The Fictional American Indian ­toward Native Americans and allow readers ­Woman in Nineteenth-­Century Lit­er­a­ture; A to question their treatment at the hands of Study of Method (1984) by Asebrit Sund­quist. whites. Although it is limited in examining Mid­ Authors of biographies and other works western Native American females, this is an of nonfiction have also attempted more gen­ area largely ignored by scholars and critics uine and credible pictures of Native Ameri­ to date. Another valuable text is The Return cans. Thomas McKenney and James Hall’s of the Vanishing American (1968) by Leslie History of the Indian Tribes of North Amer­i­ca, (Aaron) Fiedler which focuses primarily on with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the the western genre in American lit­er­a­ture. It Principal Chiefs (1836–1844) falls into this cat­ also discusses four myths depicting the pos­ egory. Two of the many works by Henry sibilities of encounters between red men and Rowe Schoolcraft carefully portray Native white men in the wilderness and how ­these Americans: Algic Researches: Comprising Inqui- myths are presented in lit­er­a­ture, including ries Respecting the ­Mental Characteristics of the Midwestern lit­er­a­ture. Facing West: The Meta- North American Indian and Historical and Sta- physics of Indian-­Hating and Empire-­Building tistical Information Respecting the History, Con- (1980) by Richard T. Drinnon explores dition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the the U.S. government’s racial attitudes and United States (1839). John Neihardt’s Black Elk actions against minorities, particularly Na­ Speaks (1932) offers a candid picture of Na­ tive Americans; the writings of Thomas tive American life. McKenney are evaluated un­ der this theme. FURTHER READING: Analy­sis of Native ­Going Native: Indians in the American Cultural Americans in Midwestern lit­er­a­ture has Imagination (2001) by Shari M. Huhndorf ex­ been neglected and thus provides significant amines how, in films and texts, whites have opportunity for research. Savagism and Civi- exploited Native Americans for their own lization: A Study of the Indian and the American gain. A valuable text for readers interested

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ATIVE S ON 570 in the image of the Native American on the silver screen is Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies (2005) by Angela Aleiss. It not only addresses some movies set in the Midwest but also draws parallels between images of Native Ameri­ cans in lit­er­a­ture and FILM. Readers inter­ ested in a bibliographic approach to the study of Native Americans in lit­er­a­ture ­will find the following texts useful: Early Midwestern Travel Narratives: An Annotated Bibliography, 1634–1850 (1961) by Robert R. Hubach; Lit­er­a­ture by and about the American Indian: An Annotated Bibliography (1979) by Anna Lee Stensland; A Bibliographical Guide to Midwestern Lit­er­a­ture (1981), edited by Ger­ ald Nemanic; and The Native American in American Lit­er­a­ture: A Selectively Annotated Bib- liography (1985) by Roger O. Rock. CRYSTAL STALLMAN HAWKEYE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NATIVE SON HISTORY: With the March 1940 publication of Native Son, RICHARD WRIGHT (1908–1960) became one of Amer­i­ca’s most impor­tant Richard Wright’s Native Son. chroniclers of the social experience of Afri­ © HarperCollins Publishers, 1940 can Americans in the urban Midwest. Native Son stood apart from earlier articulations of African American identity be­ cause it iden­ of the John Reed Club, writing for the FED­ tified an emerging racial type in the figure ERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT, becoming active in the of Bigger Thomas, who openly rebelled South Side Writers Group, and participating against the social norms of the dominant in the ­Middle West Writers’ Congress. culture and of the African American com­ In 1938 Wright published ­Uncle Tom’s munity. Native Son also pres­ents the first re­ ­Children to much critical praise. In 1939 he alistic fictional portrayal of the conditions won a Guggenheim Fellowship and used it ­under which many blacks lived in the urban to complete Native Son, which he had begun Midwest. drafting in 1937. In late 1939 Wright was no­ Wright’s ­family experienced racism tified that the Book-­of-­the-­Month Club was and difficult lives in the South, and the interested in Native Son on condition that ­family was uprooted several times. In 1927 substantial changes be made to the manu­ Wright and his aunt Maggie left Memphis for script. Wright’s changes focused on an early ­CHICAGO. This move marked the first phase scene in which Bigger Thomas and his friend of Wright’s literary development, during masturbate in a theater. Wright also toned which he read widely, notably the work of down the novel’s use of sexually explicit Midwestern writers, including (HERMAN) language and revised plot details elsewhere THEODORE DREISER (1871–1945) and (HARRY) in the novel. SINCLAIR LEWIS (1885–1951), as well as Eu­ro­ Even with ­these changes and the Book-­ pean writers, including Joseph Conrad of-­the-­Month Club’s choice of the book as a (1857–1924), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821– dual se­lection, Native Son was met with crit­ 1881), and Émile Zola (1840–1902). In the ical controversy. However, the consensus mid-1930s Wright began publishing short was positive, with critics hailing the novel as stories and poetry. He also increased his in­ a landmark for its treatment of American volvement in the literary community, af­ racial issues. Native Son sold over 200,000 filiating himself with the Chicago chapter copies in its first month of publication and

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 571 N ATIVE S ON became the number one best seller by Canby praised the book as one so true to Af­ April 1940. In 1941 the National Association rican American experience that “only a Ne­ for the Advancement of Colored ­People gro could have written it” (xxvii). Butler awarded Wright the Spingarn Medal for also rec­ords that Sterling Brown (1901–1989) greatest achievement by an African Ameri­ felt that Native Son was the first novel about can during the preceding year. blacks that conducted a “psychological prob­ Native Son affected perceptions of race ing of the consciousness of the outcast, the then and continues to do so now. The novel disinherited, the generation lost in the slum depicts the effects of racial discrimination jungles of American civilization” (xxvii). and social oppression on a character living Native Son also provoked negative reactions, in the heart of Chicago. Wright’s innovative most notably what John M. Reilly in Richard approach, his attention to narration and Wright: The Critical Reception (1978) identifies voice, and his misogyny and general refusal as an ad hominem attack by Burton Rascoe to be po­liti­cally correct ensured that the crit­ that “recount[s] a literary luncheon at which ical debate surrounding Native Son ­will al­ Wright appeared to have been consumed by ways be lively, securing for Wright a posi­ hatred for the whites pres­ent” (xvii). The tion among the Midwest’s most impor­tant widespread differences in initial reactions to writers. Native Son are well summarized in the SIGNIFICANCE: Discussions of Native Son’s March 4, 1940, issue of Time, as quoted on­ literary merit cannot easily be separated line, which carried a review titled “Bad Nig­ from analy­sis of its social impact, especially ger.” The writer of that review asserts that since the novel’s main character was con­ “only a Negro could have written it; but ceived by Wright as a product of the social ­until now no Negro has possessed ­either the conditions prevalent in 1930s Midwestern talent or the daring to write it.” This review Amer­i­ca. In his March 12, 1940, Columbia concludes: “Bigger’s murders only pull the University lecture “How ‘Bigger’ Was Born,” trigger of Author Wright’s bigger story—­the published with ­later editions of the novel, murderous potentialities of the wh­ ole U.S. Wright emphasized the importance of his Negro prob­lem” (72). Chicago setting, calling it “an indescribable As Time’s review signals and as Wright city, huge, roaring, dirty, noisy, raw, stark, had signaled in “How ‘Bigger’ Was Born,” brutal; a city of extremes: torrid summers Native Son suggests that in the industrial and sub-­zero winters, white ­people and heart of the Midwest, social oppression, po­ black ­people, the En­glish language and liti­cal disenfranchisement, and economic strange tongues, foreign born and native deprivation crystallize the murderous pro­ born, scabby poverty and gaudy luxury, test of African Americans (439–43). Per­ high idealism and hard cynicism!” (1993 edi­ sonal experience directly informs Native tion, 453). Son’s depiction of Chicago’s Black Be­ lt. ­After Native Son pres­ents an unflinching por­ the stock-­market crash of 1929, Wright, his trait of Bigger Thomas, whose violent be­hav­ ­mother, and br­ other lived in slums much ior and racial anomie set him apart from like those­ portrayed in the novel. In Black previous characterizations of blacks in Boy, as quoted in ­Later Works (1991), Wright American fiction. The significance of this shares the difficulty of his life in Chicago portrait is its relation to previous portrayals during that period: “The depression deep­ of African American identity, including ened and I could not sell insurance to hun­ Wright’s own. His aim with Native Son was gry Negroes. I sold my watch and scouted for to write something “so hard and deep” that cheaper rooms; I found a rotting building readers “would have to face it without the and rented an apartment in it. . . . ​When my consolation of tears” (454). ­mother saw it, she wept. I felt bleak” (285). The success of Wright’s effort can be Before the 1929 crash, however, Wright mea­sured by the early critical response to perceived the Midwest as much more ac­ the novel, partially documented in the in­ commodating than the South he had left troduction to Robert J. Butler’s The Critical ­behind. The “Chronology” addendum of the Response to Richard Wright (1995). Writing for Harper Perennial edition stresses this posi­ the Book-­of-­the-­Month Club, Henry Seidel tion in its “1928” section: “Wright finds

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Chicago stimulating and less racially op­ Native Son’s bleak Chicago industrial pressive than the South, but is often dis­ landscape, coupled with the limited choices mayed by the pace and disarray of urban of Bigger Thomas to determine his own fate, life” (466–67). Chicago’s urban landscape has led many critics to identify the novel as in Native Son becomes the environment in urban naturalism. Wright himself testifies to which Wright, in “How ‘Bigger’ Was Born,” the influence of naturalism in his autobio­ asserts that African American men are graphical Black Boy. When he was a young “trying to react to and answer the call of reader still living in the South, realism and the dominant civilization” (439) but are by naturalism ­were conflated in his mind: “I social custom forbidden from answering read Dreiser’s Jennie Gerhardt and ­Sister Car- that call. The disjunct between this “call of rie and they revived in me a vivid sense of the dominant civilization” and the inability my ­mother’s suffering; I was overwhelmed. of African Americans like Bigger Thomas to I grew silent,­ wondering about the life answer produces the urban Midwest’s dis­ around me. It would have been impossible inherited and alienated native sons. for me to have told anyone what I derived In the novel the call of dominant civili­ from these­ novels, for it was nothing less zation comes to Bigger in the form of work than a sense of life itself” (239). It is fitting, as a chauffeur for the wealthy Dalton fa­ mily. given Wright’s identification with natu­ The family­ members do not see Bigger as ralism, that the inexorable conclusion of ­human. They are blind to his individual ex­ Bigger’s life is traced in the arc of the novel’s istence. Mr. Dalton uses Bigger as an object three main sections: “Fear,” “Flight,” and on which to exercise his philanthropic im­ “Fate.” pulse, attempting to assuage the guilt he In addition to the ­actual 1938–1939 Rob­ feels for eco­nom­ically exploiting blacks liv­ ert Nixon murder trial, parts of which ing in slums he owns. Mrs. Dalton, who is Wright fictionalized for inclusion inNative literally blind, views Bigger as an unformed Son, critics have identified several significant being in need of educational refinement. literary sources for the novel. In “Native Son”: Mary Dalton and Jan Erlone treat Bigger and The Emergence of a New Black Hero (1991) Rob­ blacks in general as live subjects for the so­ ert Butler identifies characters in the work cial experiment of communism, a philoso­ of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Henrik Ibsen (1828– phy that in the novel disregards Bigger’s 1906), and Émile Zola as literary ancestors heartfelt desires to “blot out” the society that of Bigger Thomas (112). Other critics see dif­ has ­shaped him. Boris A. Max, arguably the fer­ent literary influences on Native Son. person who comes closest to understanding Dale E. Peterson, in “Richard Wright’s Long Bigger, is horrified at the novel’s end when Journey from Gorky to Dostoevsky,” African Bigger affirms his satisfaction at having American Review 28.3 (Fall 1994): 375–87, cred­ killed out of racial hatred. ibly argues that Native Son was substantially Bigger is alienated from the dominant influenced by Dostoyevsky’s Crime and white culture by which he is oppressed; he Punishment (1866). Noel Polk remarks on is also estranged from the black community. William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury Bigger rejects his ­family and friends, all of (1929) and its influence on Wright in “Rich­ whom he considers blind to the meaning of ard Wright Award Address: Notes of An­ his murders. Critic Burton Rascoe, in his other Native Son,” Southern Quarterly: A May 1940 American Mercury essay “Negro Journal of the Arts in the South 44.2 (Winter Novel and White Reviewers,” argues that 2007): 126–37. Seymour Gross argues in “Na­ Bigger’s distance from his fellow blacks is a tive Son and ‘The Murders in the Rue fault of the novel (113). Wright foresees this Morgue’: An Addendum,” Poe Studies 8 type of criticism and responds to it in “How (1975): 23, that Poe’s 1841 poem influenced ‘Bigger’ Was Born” by pointing to the black the novel (23). In the College Language Asso- men who ­were the models for Bigger Thomas. ciation Journal 12.4 (1969): 358–59, Keneth Such men, Wright explains, rejected every­ Kinnamon suggests that Shakespeare’s thing the black community had to offer Othello left its mark on Native Son. In “Black even as they rejected the white world that Folklore and the Black American Literary restricted them. Tradition,” in Long Black Song (1972), Hous­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 573 N ATIVE S ON ton Baker identifies figures from black folk firstcentury, ­ when the CHICAGO RENAISSANCE culture as kin to Bigger Thomas, including and the Black Chicago Re­nais­sance are dis­ Brer Rabbit and heroes like Nat Turner cussed, Richard Wright and Native Son re­ (18–42). main central to the conversation. In the years af­ ter the publication of Black IMPOR­TANT EDITIONS: Native Son was Boy, Wright was unable to match the success first published in1940 by Harper. That edi­ achieved with Native Son. This perceived tion was a radical alteration of the original flagging of his literary talent led critics, for manuscript Wright submitted in June 1939. a time, to diminish their esteem for his The changes Wright made to the text un­ der earlier achievements, Native Son in par­tic­u­ the advice of Edward Aswell, Wright’s lar. The nadir of negative reaction occurred ­editor at Harper, are considered by many in the early 1960s when James Baldwin critics acts of voluntary censorship. In 1942 (1924–1987) and Irving Howe (1920–1993) as­ Harper added Wright’s essay “How ‘Bigger’ serted that Wright had gone wrong when Was Born” to printings of Native Son. In 1991 he abandoned naturalism for existential­ Harper Perennial published Richard Wright: ism and critics such as Richard Gilman Early Works, which included Native Son as re­ (1923–2006) proclaimed Wright an incom­ stored by the Library of Amer­i­ca, the basis petent writer. The pendulum of critical of the 1993 Harper Perennial restored edi­ ­favor began to swing the other way in the tion, which is introduced by Arnold Ramp­ late 1960s. Readers in the wake of the civil ersad. Since its initial publication Native Son rights movement and the start of the Black has been translated into at least seventeen Arts movement ­were disposed to identify languages. In 1941 (George) Orson Welles Wright as one of the most po­liti­cally and (1915–1985) and John House­man (Jacques socially relevant writers of his time. Law­ Haussmann, 1902–1988) produced a theatri­ rence P. Jackson, however, argues that cal version of Native Son. In 1951 and 1986 film Wright’s fall from fa­ vor has been exagger­ adaptations of Native Son ­were directed by, ated. In The Indignant Generation: A Narrative respectively, Pierre Chenal (1904–1990) and History of American Writers and Critics, 1934– Jerrold Freedman. 1960 (2010) he asserts that Wright’s art and FURTHER READING: Among the book-­ vision, although controversial, ­were essen­ length studies addressing Richard Wright’s tial to Chicago and Amer­i­ca even before the Native Son, Keneth Kinnamon’s 1972 The civil rights movement began in 1960. Posi­ Emergence of Richard Wright is among the best tive responses to Native Son ­were many and known and provides a close account of the deep between its publication and the begin­ ideology and biography undergirding Native ning of the civil rights and Black Arts move­ Son. Joyce Ann Joyce’s 1986 Richard Wright’s ments. The graphic vio­lence portrayed in Art of Tragedy deemphasizes the biographi­ Native Son became an asset during the age cal and social influences on Wright’s novel of black militancy. In the field of ­women’s and focuses instead on Wright’s literary studies, Native Son has been interpreted as a craft. Robert Butler’s 1991 Richard Wright’s novel that displays hostility ­toward ­women, “Native Son”: The Emergence of a New Black signaling that even negative critical assess­ Hero also discusses the literary structure of ments of Wright’s masterwork judge the Native Son. novel to be a serious work of lit­er­a­ture. The paucity of authoritative book-­length Native Son has influenced la­ ter writers as treatments of Native Son is offset by the plen­ they have articulated their versions of Afri­ itude of book chapters and articles devoted can American identity, most notably Ralph to the novel. Perhaps the most notable de­ Ellison (1914–1994) in Invisible Man (1952) and fense of Native Son’s importance to American TONI MORRISON (CHLOE ARDELIA WOFFORD) (b. lit­er­a­ture is Irving Howe’s “Black Boys and 1931) in The Bluest Eye. As Robert Butler notes Native Sons,” in A World More Attractive: A in “Native Son”: The Emergence of a New Black View of Modern Lit­er­a­ture and Politics (1963). Hero (1991), before Native Son no fiction by The introduction to Robert J. Butler’s 1995 any writer, white or black, contained “de­ The Critical Response to Richard Wright provides tailed, realistic portraits of the impoverished a boon to scholarship on Native Son by giv­ masses of urban blacks” (9). In the twenty-­ ing a comprehensive and detailed overview

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EBRASKA 574 of the critical opinion surrounding the nais ­sance,” Callaloo 28 (Summer 1986): 446– novel. Richard Wright: An Annotated Bibliogra- 68, is the place to begin. phy of Criticism and Commentary, 1983–2003 For a biographical treatment of Richard (2006), compiled by Keneth Kinnamon, is Wright, read Michel Fabre’s The Unfinished also valuable as an overview of Native Son Quest of Richard Wright (1973). Hazel Rowley’s criticism. Ayesha K. Hardison’s Writing Richard Wright: The Life and Times (2001), through Jane Crow: Race and Gender Politics in particularly her chapter “The South Side of African American Lit­er­a­ture (2013), particu­ Chicago” (50–73), ­will aid Richard Wright larly in chapter 1, “At the Point of No Re­ turn: scholars in their quest for an accurate A Native Son and His Gorgon Muse,” offers understanding of his aesthetic, ideas, and scholars a nuanced examination of Wright’s history. misogynist depiction of female characters Wright’s papers are held in the Beinecke in Native Son and a fascinating discussion Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale of how Wright attempted to correct that per­ University; 136 boxes ­were sold in 1976 by ception in “Black Hope,” an unfinished novel Ellen Wright, his ­widow. This material manuscript archived in the Richard Wright was added to Yale’s collection af­ ter Fabre Papers in the Yale Collection of American ­completed his impor­tant biography and Lit­er­a­ture at the Beinecke Rare Book and contains intimate 1930s and 1940s letters Manuscript Library. from Chicago friends Abe Aaron and Abe Houston A. Baker Jr. (b. 1943), in “Rich­ Chapman. ard Wright and the Dynamics of Place in The James Weldon Johnson Collection of Afro -­American Lit­er­a­ture,” in Keneth Kin­ the Beinecke Library at Yale has the major­ namon’s New Essays on Native Son (1990), 85– ity of the material related to the publication 116, discusses the role of place in the novel, of Native Son, including the bound page as does Charles Scruggs in “The City with­ proofs sent to the Book-­of-­the-­Month Club. out Maps in Richard Wright’s Native Son,” in The Fales Collection of the New York Uni­ Kinnamon’s Critical Essays on Richard Wright’s versity Library and the Firestone Library at “Native Son” (1997), 147–79, reprinted from Prince­ton University hold other significant Sweet Home: Invisible Cities in the Afro-­American material related to Native Son’s publication. Novel by Charles Scruggs (1993). Two chap­ Horace Cayton left recorded interviews with ters from Elizabeth Schroeder Schlabach’s several of Wright’s Chicago friends and col­ Along the Streets of Bronzeville: Black Chicago’s leagues; ­these are in the Vivian G. Harsh Re­ Literary Landscape (2013)— ­“From Black ­Belt search Collection of Afro-­American History to Bronzeville” and “The South Side Com­ and Lit­er­a­ture at the Car­ter Woodson branch munity Art Center and South Side Writers of the Chicago Public Library. The State De­ Group”—­may be of par­tic­u­lar interest to Na- partment files at the National Archives in tive Son scholars. They examine daily life in Washington also include forty-­two pages on Bronzeville locations and remind readers Richard Wright. that places such as the Regal Theater where JOHNNIE WILCOX OHIO UNIVERSITY Bigger Thomas viewed the double feature MARILYN JUDITH ATLAS OHIO UNIVERSITY The Gay ­Woman and Trader Horn ­were real and that Wright’s relationship to the South NATURALISM. Side Community Art Center and the South See Realism and Naturalism Side Writers Group immeasurably nurtured his creativity. NATURE WRITING. For a fellow Chicagoan’s response to See Environmental Lit­er­a­ture Richard Wright, read “Remembering Rich­ ard Wright” by NELSON ALGREN (b. Nelson Al­ NEBRASKA ghren Abraham, 1909–1981) in The Nation Nebraska was admitted to the Union on 192 (January 28, 1961): 85. For ­those inter­ March 1, 1867, as the thirty-­seventh state. ested in the Chicago Re­nais­sance and the Before statehood it was part of Louisiana Black Chicago Re­nais­sance, Robert Bone’s Territory (1805–1812) and then part of Mis­ essay “Richard Wright and the Chicago Re­ souri Territory (1812–1821). From 1821, when

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homesteading in a difficult and sometimes unforgiving terrain, often involving ac­ counts of travel to or through the state. In this re­spect Nebraska lit­er­a­ture is similar to that of Midwestern states to the east, but as in the other states in this western tier, geog­ raphy is essential. Nebraska is crossed by © Karen Greasley, 2014 the ninety-­eighth meridian, roughly mark­ ing the start of the Gr­ eat Plains, with its dif­ Missouri became a state, to 1854, the land fer­ent terrain—­shorter grass, less rainfall— comprising the ­future state of Nebraska was an area earlier dubbed the “­Great American without official government as part of a vast, Desert.” To the west, farms give way to unora ­g ­nized “Indian Country.” Fi­nally, ranches, and population density decreases through the Kansas-­Nebraska Act, it became severely. part of Nebraska Territory (1854–1867). HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE: This sec­ Area: 77,348 square miles tion considers Nebraska lit­er­a­ture by genre, Land: 76,824 square miles subject, and theme. Included in genres are ex­ ­Water: 524 square miles ploration and travel, fiction, poetry, DRAMA, Population (2010 census): 1,826,341 and significant aspects of popu­lar lit­er­a­ture. OVERVIEW: Nebraska’s literary history be­ Discussion follows of Nebraska journalism, gan with sporadic passages by explorers and the Nebraska Federal Writers’ Proj­ect, state fur traders in the early nineteenth ce­ ntury literary socie­ties and awards, and Nebraska based primarily on the state’s location on the literary archives and collections. Missouri River. The state takes its name Exploration and Travel: Nebraska’s from an Omaha and Otoe word meaning central position on the ­Great Plains, its two “flat ­water,” a reference to the shallowness ­great rivers, the Missouri and the Platte, and of Nebraska’s major river, the Platte. ­Because the conflicting claims of Spain and France the Platte River, ru­ nning west to east across made the land area associated with the pres­ the state, was developed early into the ­Great ent-­day state the focus of much westward Platte River Road, Nebraska was a crucial exploration, at least un­ til the Louisiana Pur­ place for travelers participating in the gr­ eat chase in 1803. As early as 1540 Francisco migration to Utah, Oregon, and California. Vásquez de Coronado (1510–1554) is thought The land that became Nebraska was home to to have entered Nebraska. An in­ter­est­ing fic­ many American Indian tribes, including the tional account is The Quest of Coronado: An Pawnee and Arikari; the Omaha, Ponca, Historical Romance of the Spanish Cavaliers in and Otoe, who arrived in the eigh­teenth Nebraska (1901) by Rev. Denis Gerald Fitzger­ ­century; and ­others, including the Teton ald (b. 1858). Any Spanish claim ended in Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Santee Sioux, 1720 with the deaths of Pedro de Villasur and Winnebago. and many of his men in a ­battle with the Nebraska lit­er­a­ture began in earnest Pawnee on the Platte River. ­after the Kansas-­Nebraska Act in 1854, when The most impor­tant expedition into Ne­ the state was brought in as a fr­ ee territory braska was that of Lewis and Clark in 1804 in contrast to KANSAS. Nebraska’s territo­ as the Corps of Discovery ascended the Mis­ rial status spurred development of the re­ souri River. The party explored Nebraska lo­ gion, especially ­after the Homestead Act of cations from July to September. In early 1862. With settlement, interest in lit­er­a­ture August its members held their first official developed rapidly, inspired by Chautauqua council with American Indians, a party of and literary socie­ties intended to build and Otoe and Missouria, north of pres­ent-­day maintain culture. Omaha, the ­later site of Fort Atkinson. Im­por­tant early themes of Nebraska lit­ Nebraska’s early reputation as an unin­ er­a­ture include exploration and cultural and habitable “­Great American Desert” resulted po­liti­cal development, as well as the debate from reports by Zebulon Montgomery Pike over slavery. A perennial theme is that of (1779–1813) in 1806 and Major Stephen Long

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(1784–1864) in 1820, a reputation that still ished in 1857. The diary also gives details of needed correction fifty years la­ ter. the rigors of travel and life in a new territory, A year ­after the artist George Catlin along with glimpses into politics and social (1796–1872) ascended the Missouri River life. Beadle went on to be a major partner, on the steamboat Yellowstone, Prince along with Robert Adams, in the DIME-­NOVEL Maximilian von Wied (1782–1867), followed industry. Another firsthand account is Mol- in 1833, accompanied by Karl Bodmer lie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford in Ne- (1809–1893), perhaps the most impor­tant of braska and Colorado Territories, 1857–1866 (1959) the explorer-­artists. Maximilian kept dia­ by Mollie Sanford (1838–1915). It includes ries in which he recorded Indian life and an account of homesteading on the Li­ ttle observations about flora and fauna that Nemaha River. Solomon Butcher (1856– ­were published in German in 1839, and 1927), the photographer who first recorded translated into Engl­ ish as Travels in the In- the homes of homestead families with their terior of North Amer­i­ca (1843). John Treat possessions prominently displayed, com­ Irving (1812–1906), a nephew of Washing­ piled S. D. Butcher’s Pioneer History of Custer ton Irving (1783–1859), had an intense in­ County: And Short Sketches of Early Days in Ne- terest in aboriginal Indian life and traveled braska (1901). into Kansas and Nebraska, where he closely Works by renowned writers traveling observed many tribes, including the Paw­ in Nebraska include The California and Or- nee and the Otoe. He published his expe­ egon Trail: Being Sketches of Prairie and Moun- riences in Indian Sketches (1835). See also tain Life (1849) by Francis Parkman (1823– ETHNOGRAPHY. 1893); The Adventures of Captain Bonneville Among the many early missionaries to (1850) by Washington Irving, based on the Nebraska Indians we­ re Moses Merrill (1803– famous fur trader’s journals; and Roughing It 1840) and Pierre-­Jean de Smet (1801–1873). (1872) by SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS (1835– Baptists Moses and Eliza Merrill moved to 1910), writing as Mark Twain. Roughing It Bellevue in 1833, where they ministered to describes the author’s adventures in Ne­ the Otoes. Moses’s translation of parts of the braska Territory in 1861, including ex­ Bible into Otoe is sometimes considered the tended descriptions of the coyote, the first book published in Nebraska. The Jesuit “jackass rabbit,” and the class structure of priest Pierre-Jean de Smet was much ad­ stagecoach riders. A visit to Nebraska by mired by Indian tribes along the Platte Stephen Crane (1871–1900) in February River. His chief work is Letters and Sketches: 1895 occasioned a brief meeting with WILLA With a Narrative of a Year’s Residence among the CATHER (1873–1947) and precipitated “The Indian Tribes of the Rocky Mountains (1843). Blue Hotel”­ (1899). Two memoirs by Methodist ministers are Fiction: Some of the earliest fiction Solitary Places Made Glad: Being Observations written about Nebraska centers on conflicts and Experiences for Thirty-­Two Years in Ne- between Indians and whites. The first Ne­ braska (1890) by Henry Turner Davis (b. braska novel is The Hunters of the Prairie; or, 1832) and A Frontier Life: Being a Description of The Hawk Chief: A Tale of the Indian Country My Experience on the Frontier the First Forty-­ (1837) by John Treat Irving. The volume is Two Years of My Life (1902) by Rev. Charles a romance about a young Pawnee chief Wesley Wells (1843–1927). Several guide­ and includes all the classic romance ele­ books ­were available for immigrants, in­ ments: Indian-­white warfare, captivity cluding Nebraska in 1857 by James M(ills) and rescue, a love triangle, and epigraphs Woolworth (1829–1906), Kansas and Nebraska from Shakespeare and the En­glish roman­ Handbook for 1857–­8 (1857) by Nathan Parker, tic poets. and Nebraska: Its Advantages, Resources and Another early writer on Native Ameri­ Drawbacks (1875) by Edwin A. Curley. can life in Nebraska was William Justin The diary of Erastus F. Beadle (1821– Harsha (1853–1931), who was sympathetic to 1894), first published asTo Nebraska in ’57 Indians and studied the cultural dynamics (1923), provides a detailed account of land by which they we­ re suppressed during white speculation for a proposed town, Saratoga, encroachment. His Ploughed ­Under: The Story to be located near Omaha, but which per­ of an Indian Chief, Told by Himself (1881) ap­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 577 N EBRASKA pears to be the first novel about American Signal Lights: A Story of Life on the Prairies Indians by a white person living in Ne­ (1906) by Louise M. Hopkins (b. 1860) is braska. Harsha appears to have had help about the Indian Wars in 1858; in it eighteen-­ from Thomas Henry Tibbles (1840–1928) and year-­old Newton Bolt is captured by Sioux Omaha Indian Inshta Theamba (Susette La and escapes to rejoin his party, in the pro­ Flesche) (1854–1903). Another novel by Har­ cess learning to re­spect his captors, includ­ sha is A Timid Brave: The Story of an Indian Up- ing young Red Cloud and Sitting Bull. The rising (1886), which details the theft of the Long Land (1977) by Budington Swanson (ca. “Maha” Noah’s ­cattle, his tribe’s revolt 1913–1991) is a novel of Fort Atkinson, active against the Indian agent, and the Indians’ north of Omaha from 1818 to 1827, written inevitable defeat. Tibbles wrote the novel from the perspective of a regimental sur­ Hidden Power: A Secret History of the Indian geon. May Roberts Clark (1867–1937) wrote Ring, Its Operations, Intrigues, and Machina- short stories about homesteading and Native tions: Revealing the Manner in Which It Con- American life, as well as a novel about a trols Three Im­por­tant Departments of the United Pawnee Indian, Taka, the Man Who Would Be States Government (1881). It posits a “Black White (1938). Code” by which Indians we­ re manipulated Another impor­tant contributor to the lit­ by government officials. Tibbles also wrote er­a­ture depicting Native Americans was The Ponca Chiefs: An Account of the Trial of MARI(E SUSETTE) SANDOZ (1896–1966), whose Standing Bear (1880), which focused on the carefully researched historical studies of Na­ case in which Native Americans we­ re first tive American figures ­were often rendered judged persons with ­legal status; and Buck- through controversial fictional devices. Two skin and Blanket Days: Memoirs of a Friend of such works are Crazy Horse: The Strange Man the Indians (1905). of the Oglalas (1942) and Cheyenne Autumn The ­Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the (1953); the latter is Sandoz’s account of the Omaha Tribe (1900) by Francis La Flesche return of a band of Cheyenne from Okla­ (1857–1932) is a series of lighthearted sketches homa to their ancestral home in western based on La Flesche’s life in a Presbyterian Nebraska and their imprisonment and es­ mission school. La Flesche also published cape from Fort Robinson, concluding with ethnographic short stories, which we­ re col­ many dead. A movie version directed by lected in 1995 in Ke-­ma-­ha: The Omaha Stories John Ford appeared in 1964. of Francis La Flesche. Susette La Flesche, ­sister Native American life and relations with of Francis and wife of Thomas Henry Tib­ whites are a staple of Nebraska lit­er­a­ture, es­ bles, was active in art and writing, creating pecially in popu­lar genres, such as Behold the illustrations for Fannie Reed Giffen’s Oo-­ the Brown-­Faced Man, appearing in Warwhoop: mah-ha Ta-­wa-­tha (Omaha City) (1898), said Two Short Novels of the Frontier (1952) by to be the first book illustrated by an Ameri­ MACKINLAY KANTOR (1904–1977), a tale of In­ can Indian. dian fighting in 1864. In The Road Home The importance of JOHN G(NEISENAU) NEI­ (1998) JIM (JAMES THOMAS) HARRISON (1937– HARDT (1881–1973) to the lit­er­a­ture depicting 2016) continued his saga of his heroine American Indians cannot be overestimated. Dalva and her ­family, begun in his novel Neihardt’s short stories about the Omaha Dalva (1988), tracking back to Nebraska and ­were first published in the opening de­cade its tangled history of white and Indian re­ of the century,­ when Neihardt was a Ne­ lations through the fictional diaries of Dal­ braska resident, and ­were collected by his va’s ­great-­grand­father John Northridge. ­daughter, Hilda Neihardt Petri, in The End of ­There appear to be no novels published by the Dream, and Other Stories (1991). Neihardt’s Native Americans in Nebraska’s history. When the Tree Flowered (1951) is a fictional au­ A number of Nebraska novels have fo­ tobiography of a Sioux named Ea­gle Voice. cused primarily on westward travel. One of Neihardt’s most impor­tant book is BLACK ELK the earliest is Shadow of a ­Great Rock (1907) by SPEAKS (1932), his influential collaborative William Rheem Lighton (1866–1923), which interpretation of the life of the “holy man of conveys the spirit energizing the westward the Oglala Sioux” as reported to him by movement. A Prairie-­Schooner Princess (1920) BLACK ELK (1863–1950). by Mary Katherine Maule (b. 1861) portrays

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EBRASKA 578 a ­family’s move from OHIO to Nebraska Ter­ ritory in 1856 and the rescue of an immigrant girl whose parents had been killed by Indi­ ans. A Cry of the Soul: A Romance of 1862 (1917) by Anne Newbigging (1869–1921) concerns the Mormon trek; several chapters are set near Omaha. A lighter novel written from a Catholic perspective is A Bridal Trip in a Prairie Schooner (1921), apparently by ­Sister Mary Angela (fl. 1920s), writing as Gilbert Guest. Hayden Carruth (1862–1932) pub­ lished a comic variation on the travel novel, The Voyage of the Rattletrap (1897), in which three men leave their homes in Dakota Ter­ Willa Cather’s childhood home, Red Cloud, ritory to seek their fortunes farther west, Nebraska, 1999. Photo by William Barillas. making their way through the Sandhills before changing their minds and returning home. Bob Hardwick: The Story of His Life and Elkhorn Valley farm and in Omaha, details Experiences (1911) by Henry Howard Harper the idealistic departure and la­ ter return of (1871–1953) has picaresque ele­ments and is a chastened native. Some of John Nei­ apparently based on the author’s childhood hardt’s frontier fiction appears in Indian experiences with a restless ­father. Tales and Ot­ hers (1926); The Ancient Memory Sometimes slighted as a genre is the lit­ (1991), edited by Hilda Neihardt Petri, col­ erary sketch, exemplified by works such as lects other Neihardt stories published from ­those of Anson Uriel Hancock (1856–1899), a 1905 to 1908. humorous observer of frontier life. His Old Nebraska novels with po­liti­cal impli­ Abraham Jackson and His Fam­ ily: Being an Ep- cations also appeared early. The first is isode in the Evolution of Nebraska Dug-­Outs Golden-­Rod: A Story of the West; By a ­Daughter (1891) is a fictionalized social history of the of Nebraska (1896), whose author was la­ ter development of a community, from primi­ identified as Anna M. Saunders; the book is tive dugout to the construction of frame apparently an argument for WILLIAM JEN­ ­houses, the development of farming, and the NINGS BRYAN (1860–1925), pop­u­lism, and ­free building of institutions. Hancock used silver. Out of the West (1902) by Elizabeth Hig­ Dickens-­like characters named Flipperty gins ­Sullivan (b. 1874) may be the first novel and Fizzlepate. Hancock also contributed published by a ­woman born in Nebraska; it Silhouettes from Life: On the Prairie, in the Back- is a story of love, politics, and the efforts of woods (1893), sketches about attorneys, edi­ Frank Field to get elected to Congress, over­ tors, and vari­ous rascals. Thrice a Pioneer: A come corruption, and sponsor a bill limiting Story of Forests, Plains, and Mountains (1901) railroad freight rates. The Promoters: A Novel by P. M. Hannibal (1849–1935) is a fictional­ without a ­Woman (1904) by William Hawley ized account, telling the story of Thomas Smith (1845–1922) follows four business part­ Rugby in WISCONSIN, Nebraska, and the ners who choose Cherry County, Nebraska, Rockies. Hannibal employed three thematic as the site for a plan to realign the earth on concerns in his work: slavery, warfare, and, its axis by firing100 ,000 cannons in se­ most impor­tant, intoxicants, a topic carried quence; they hope, un­ der the guise of a into his ­Uncle Sam’s Cabin: A Story of a Mighty promise to bring rain, to have Nebraska in­ Mystery (1910); the cabin in the title is a habitants buy into the scheme. “dram house.”­ William Rheem Lighton’s As might be expected, many literary ­Uncle Mac’s Nebrasky (1904) is about settle­ works were­ written about Nebraska home­ ment, relations between whites and Paw­ stead farm life. Perhaps the first ofth ­ ese is nee, Sioux, and Winnebago, and Unc­ le by ELIA W. PEATTIE (1862–1935), who lived in Mac’s meeting with John Brown. Lighton’s Nebraska for only a few years. Her collection novel The Ultimate Moment (1903), set on an of stories A Mountain Wo­ man (1896) contains

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 579 N EBRASKA power­ful examples: two stories are set on an’s Shoes (1932) a reluctant ­house­keeper Nebraska farms. Peattie was one of twelve works for a widower who continues to ­women who wrote an experimental novel, mourn his dead wife but nevertheless im­ Inasmuch: A Story of the West (1898), for the pregnates and marries Virgie. The novel de­ ­Woman’s Home Missionary Union of Ne­ tails how she gradually wins his love. Hart’s braska. In Impertinences: Selected Writings of Strange Harvest (1936) concerns a fa­ mily run Elia Peattie, a Journalist of the Gilded Age (2005), by a strict German with a passion for land Susanne George-­Bloomfield collected arti­ who forces his da­ ughter to marry a man she cles, editorials, and sketches Peattie wrote despises. Another story of a controlling from 1888 to 1896 while she worked at the ­father is told by Howard Farrens (1901–1983) Omaha World-­Herald. The most impor­tant in Hilda (1940), but ­here the ­family is Swed­ works on homestead Nebraska ­were written ish, and the fa­ ther’s motives are even more by Willa Cather. Cather arrived from psychologically vicious. ­Virginia with her ­family in 1883, moved to Dorothy Thomas (1898–1999) published Lincoln in 1890, and attended the University two collections of humorous and closely de­ of Nebraska before moving east in 1896. Her tailed stories about Nebraska farm and first novel,Alexander’s Bridge (1912), is set ­family life: Ma Jeeter’s Girls (1933) and The mainly in Boston and London but none­ Home Place (1936). Christine Pappas edited theless evinces some of Cather’s la­ ter the­ another collection by Thomas, The Getaway matic interests. In some of her early shorter (2002). Spring Storm (1936) by Alvin Johnson works, such as “Peter” (1892), “On the Di­ (1874–1971) is a novel set in the Nebraska of vide” (1896), “A Sculptor’s Funeral” (1903), Johnson’s youth and tracks the protagonist and “A Wagner Matinée” (1904), Cather’s from his first arrival in the West at fourteen view of the Nebraska landscape is dark and to his departure for college. Johnson’s The somewhat negative. As Cather matured, ­Battle of the Wild Turkey (1961) is a collection however, her sensitivities to landscape deep­ of short stories. ened. “The Bohemian Girl” (1912) foreshad­ In Friends We Trust (1938) by Marjorie ows Cather’s novel O PIONEERS! (1913), which Bayley (1902–1979) is a Depression novel that is usually considered the first indispens­ tells how Johnny Hincks enlists the aid of able novel written about Nebraska. Set on freight-­yard “bums” to help run his farm a homestead farm, O Pioneers! focuses on and overcome the machinations of the local Alexandra Bergson and details immigrant banker. Footprints across the Prairie (1930) by heroism, thwarted love, and fulfillment Carolyn Renfrew (ca. 1858–1948), an earnest through mature love of the land. O Pioneers! tale of flawed character, includes a scene in was followed by My Ántonia (1918), a story which a church wedding is disrupted. Seeds about Bohemian Ántonia Shimerda, who of Time (1938) by Ethel Doherty (1889–1974) homesteads with her fa­ mily and endures and Louise Long (1886–1966) concerns three years of difficulty on the intensely evoked generations of a ­family on a farm near Bea­ Nebraska prairie. One of Ours (1922), which trice from the 1880s to the 1930s. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize, carries its protago­ debates the utility of machines and the nist, Claude Wheeler, to college in Lin­ conflicts between capitalism and commu­ coln and then to war in France. “Neighbor nism. In Nebraska Coast (1939) CLYDE BRION Rosicky” (1930), first published as a maga­ DAV IS (1894–1962) pres­ents an often humor­ zine story and la­ ter collected in Obscure ous picture of the newly settled Nebraska Destinies (1932). is a tender story of a decent Territory, when steam wagons ­were in com­ man who confronts his death with philo­ petition with the development of the cross-­ sophical equilibrium while setting the tone country railroad. for flight from twentieth-­century cities, in­ WRIGHT MORRIS (1910–1998), the most dustrialism, and modern life. In Lucy Gay- impor­tant Nebraska novelist ­after Cather, heart (1935) a ­woman leaves Nebraska to developed a new genre in the photo-­text pursue ­music in CHICAGO and beyond. novel The Home Place (1948). It examines Mildred Burcham Hart (b. ca. 1888) wrote traditional farm values as exemplified in a two Nebraska farm novels. In Dead Wom- Nebraska farmstead. The novel incorporates

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EBRASKA 580 a complex plea for the disappearing value is best known for her stories of small-­town of privacy in American life and contains domestic life, which are romantic works about ninety of Morris’s photo­graphs of intended to be uplifting. She may have been rural structures and objects. In his final the first writer to place a series of fa­ mily sto­ novel, Plains Song (1980), which won the ries in American magazines. Many of th­ ese American Book Award, Morris traces the are collected in her first book, ­Mother Mason lives of three generations of wo­ men in rela­ (1924). Aldrich’s other works include the tion to their sense of attraction-­repulsion novels The Rim of the Prairie (1925); the much-­ for the plains. In Homefield: Sonata in Rural lauded A Lantern in Her Hand (1928) and A Voice (2000) Robert Richter (b. 1948) tells White Bird Flying (1931), featuring Abbie the story of a Vietnam War resister’s en­ Deal’s ­family; Spring Came On Forever (1935); counter with the Nebraska farm crisis in and The Lieutenant’s Lady (1942). The novel the 1970s. David Kubicek (b. 1952) edited The Prairie ­Women (1930) by Ivan Beede (1896– Pelican in the Desert, and Other Stories of the 1946) is a series of sketches about disap­ ­Family Farm (1988). pointments, guilt, and telling moments of The ranch novel set in ­cattle country is a passion and anger. Weldon Kees (1914–1955) frequent Nebraska genre. The Sand Hiller wrote short stories in a similar vein; they are (1944) by John Coleman (1871–1959) and collected in Ceremony (1984) and Selected Short Beatah H. Coleman (1876–1949) is an ad­ Stories (2002). venture set in the 1890s concerning a man Wright Morris wrote several works fo­ who encounters rustlers and romance. Too cused ironically on memories evoked by Tough to Die (1987) by John B. Davis is a small-­town life. Morris’s central theme in­ short, appreciative ranching novel set near volves the prob­lem of relying too heavi­ly on Cody, a Sandhills town. JONIS AGEE (b. 1943) the past for meaning. He first addressed this contributed Strange Angels (1993) and The theme in The World in the Attic (1949), where Weight of Dreams (1999), books employing he discusses the “home-­town nausea” pro­ Sandhills settings and incorporating ac­ duced by excessive nostalgia (26). The Field tion based on fa­ mily conflicts;The Weight of of Vision (1956), which won the National Dreams was the first novel to win the Ne­ Book Award, and Ceremony in Lone Tree braska Book Award. In Slogum House (1937) (1960) are comic novels on this theme. In the Mari Sandoz’s fascist heroine brutally accu­ former, set at a Mexico City bullfight as ob­ mulates land. Ladette Randolph (b. 1957), served by Nebraskans, Morris examines im­ who served as the executive editor at the plications of living in the past; Ceremony in University of Nebraska Press, wrote the Lone Tree is set against a murder spree based lyrical novel A Sandhills Ballad (2009) and on the Starkweather-­Fugate murder ram­ Haven’s Wake (2013), the latter concerning a page across Nebraska in 1957. The Works of Nebraska Mennonite fam­ ily. Love (1952) explores the pathos of the life of In addition to homestead fiction, many a man based on Wright Morris’s ­father; the works about village and small-­town life author also explored this life in his memoir, have been written about Nebraska. Among ­Will’s Boy (1981). the first were­ th­ ose of Kate M. Cleary (1863– Omaha-­born Ron Hansen (b. 1947) has 1905), who migrated with her husband from written several celebrated novels, including Chicago to Hubbell, Nebraska, in 1884. Mariette in Ecstasy (1991), Atticus (1996), and Cleary’s Like a Gallant Lady (1897) is a novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Cow- involving insurance fraud. In A Lost Lady ard Robert Ford (1983); the last was made (1923) Willa Cather tells the story of an into a movie with the same title in 2007, enigmatic western wo­ man in Sweet ­Water, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. Han­ a town based on Red Cloud; the novel is sen employs Nebraska settings sparingly in impor­tant for its portrayal of the loss of fron­ Nebraska: Stories (1989), including “Ne­ tier values. braska” and “Wickedness,” a memorable fic­ The im­mensely popu­lar interpreter tional account of the blizzard of 1888. His of Midwestern prairie experience, BESS ­Isn’t It Romantic? An Entertainment (2003) is STREETER ALDRICH (1881–1954), moved to Elm­ something of a screwball comedy involving wood, Nebraska, from IOWA in 1909. Aldrich two French tourists who find themselves as

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 581 N EBRASKA guests in a town called Seldom, Nebraska concerns two Nebraskans’ attempts to find (population 395). The celebrated and often meaning in Vietnam-­era politics. The some­ anthologized TILLIE (LERNER) OLSEN (1912– times redemptive qualities of small-­town 2007), whose works have been praised for life are explored in works by con­temporary the beauty of her language, was brought up writers like Tom McNeal (b. 1947), author of in a Rus­sian Jewish neighborhood in Goodnight, Nebraska (1998), and Dan Chaon Omaha. Olsen wrote the famous Tell Me a (b. 1964). Chaon’s books include Fitting Ends Riddle (1961), which includes “I Stand He­ re (1995), stories about ­family and small-­town Ironing” and the title story, the winner of narrow -­mindedness; Among the Missing the First Prize O. Henry Award in 1961. (2001); and You Remind Me of Me (2004), his “Tell Me a Riddle” was made into a movie first novel.Await Your Reply (2009) is more starring Melvyn Douglas and Lila Kedrova complex and is only partly set in Ne­ in 1980. braska. His latest collection of stories is Many novels portray the development of Stay Awake (2012). The Phantom Limbs of the Nebraska towns. In The Wine o’ the Winds Rollow ­Sisters (2002) by Timothy Schaffert (1920) Keene Abbott (1876–1941) narrates the (b. 1968) is about two si­ sters forced to come adventures of Dr. Harry North and a place to grips with their fa­ ther’s suicide and aban­ called Tecon City in the Elkhorn River val­ donment by their mo­ ther; The Singing and ley. This novel pres­ents a picture of the Paw­ Dancing ­Daughters of God (2005) deals with a nee Scouts in action. Retreat of a Frontier recently divorced man who seeks to pull his (1950) by Kathryn Fingado O’Neil (1874– scattered ­family members back together; 1959) is based on personal experiences Dev­ils in the Sugar Shop (2006) is a comedy homesteading in what she calls “Willow focused on the art scene in Omaha; and The Grove.” The Call of the Western Prairie (1952) by Swan Gondola (2014) is set during the 1898 Elizabeth Jane Leonard (1881–1955) does Omaha World’s Fair. In 2011 Robert Viv­ something similar for central Nebraska. Two ian (b. 1967) completed his somewhat novels about the development of ­actual Ne­ apocalyptic Tall Grass Trilogy, The Mover braska towns are A City Grew on the Sod (1952) of Bones (2006), Lamb Bright Saviors (2010), by George O. Criswell (1875–1952), about and Another Burning Kingdom (2011). The Loup City from pioneer days to the 1950s, first two novels feature visionary preach­ and Mari Sandoz’s Son of the Gamblin’ Man ers and preacher-­like figures roaming the (1960), a fictionalized biography of the art­ ­Nebraska plains offering forgiveness and ist Robert Henri, whose ­father founded Co­ ­redemption. The final novel principally con­ zad, Nebraska. cerns two ­brothers: the older br­ other, Lem, Mari Sandoz’s Miss Morissa (1955) tells is driving from the West Coast to interrupt the story of a young female doctor on the his younger br­ other Jackson’s plan to bomb frontier near Sidney, Nebraska, in the 1870s. the Nebraska state capitol in Lincoln. His Hang Up the Fiddle (1954) by Frederic Bab­ 2012 novel ­Water and Abandon probes the cock (1896–1979) concerns small-­town Ne­ emotions of a Nebraska ­family ­after the braska life before World War I. The Proud death of their seventeen-­year-­old ­daughter. Walk (1960) by Nancy Moore (b. 1929) deals Karen Gettert Shoemaker (b. 1957) explores with provincial attitudes to­ ward a young the rising hatred of all ­things German dur­ ­woman transplanted from Vi­ rginia to 1930s ing World War I and how it affects a Ne­ Nebraska. braska farm ­family in The Meaning of Names In recent years Nebraska fiction has be­ (2014). come more complex, often troubled by the Wide -­ranging con­temporary short-­story tension between traditional Midwestern val­ collections, often on small-­town themes, in­ ues and the complexities of con­temporary clude The Summer before the Summer of Love life. For example, in “Starkweather’s Eyes,” (1995) by Marly Swick (b. 1949), Are We Not from River Street: A Novella and Stories (1994) Men? (1996) by Brent Spencer (b. 1952), The by Phil Condon (b. 1947), a son narrates the Dirty Shame Ho­ tel (1998) by Ron Block (b. story of his fa­ ther’s disappearance at the 1955), Troublemakers (2000) by John McNally time of Charles Starkweather’s murderous (b. 1965), and Night Sounds (2002) by Karen rampage. Condon’s novel Clay Center (2004) Gettert Shoemaker. Nebraska folklorist and

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EBRASKA 582 humorist Roger Welsch (b. 1936) has writ­ scriptions of African American life and ten about rural and small-­town life in racism. such books as It’s Not the End of the Earth, The ­Water’s Edge (1958) by Allen Dale (b. but You Can See It from ­Here: Tales of the ­Great 1923) is about the Missouri River flood of Plains (1990). Ladette Randolph’s short sto­ 1952 and its impact, especially on two re­ ries have appeared in This Is Not the Tropics porters sent to Omaha to write about it. (2005). Omaha-­born Carl Jonas (1913–1976) wrote a Several urban novels have employed series of satires set in Gateway City. They in­ Omaha and Lincoln as settings. The first clude Jefferson Selleck (1952), Riley McCullough Omaha novel appears to be Joe Jason of Omaha (1954), Lillian White Deer (1964), The Observa- (1897) by Anson Eby (1867–1941). It tells the tory (1966), and The Sputnik Rapist (1973). In story of a Kentuckian who se­ ttles in Omaha, Star Smash (1984) Sumner Hayward (1916– courts a young ­woman, loses her through 2013) depicts the retreat to Omaha of a bud­ a moral lapse, and then, repenting, marries ding actress who has been disfigured and her. The Main Chance (1903) is the first novel put under­ the care of a plastic surgeon. by MEREDITH NICHOLSON (1866–1947) and the James Magorian (b. 1942) is a prolific poet first to use Omaha,­ here called Clarkson, as and writer of ­children’s stories, as well as a the setting for a BUSINESS novel. It involves novelist; his Hearts of Gold (1996) is a comic an attempt by two business leaders to gain novel in which a member of the Omaha financial control of the city’s cable-­car ­Flying Saucer Spotters Club seeks to find system. the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, pursued by Social prob­lems have occasionally been a host of oddballs and inept government the subject of Nebraska urban novels. Cap- agents. tain Martha Mary (1912) by (Mabel) Avery In addition to The Middle­ Five by Francis Abbott (1870–ca. 1960) provides a picture of La Flesche, novels about Nebraska school the lives of the poor in turn-­of-­the-­century life include The Cracker Box School (1917) by Omaha. The expressionistic Bill Myron (1927) Elizabeth Miller Lutton (1869–1945), which by Dean Fales (1897–1965) follows Myron as portrays the development of a progressive he tries to succeed in a dismal city called school devoted to practical realities. Willa Prospect. Coincidences abound in this tale of Cather’s last story, “The Best Years,” pu­ blished class and the social forces and personal flaws in The Old Beauty, and Ot­ hers (1948), celebrates that keep the protagonist down. Carr Hume the life of a Nebraska schoolteacher. Winter (1916–1999), a former Cudahy Packing Com­ Thunder (1951) by Mari Sandoz is based on pany accountant turned minister, wrote the blizzard of 1949 and concerns a teacher Hodgepodge (1971) to consider inner-­city prob­ and her pupils as they cope with their over­ lems in the troubled Vietnam era. Tillie turned bus. Olsen’s unfinished novel Yonnondio: From The first Nebraska novel about university the Thirties (1974) takes place partly in the life was John Auburntop, Novelist: His Develop- South Omaha packing­house district. Capi- ment in the Atmosphere of a Fresh Wa­ ter College tal City (1939) by Mari Sandoz is a bit­ ter (1891) by Anson Uriel Hancock (1856–1899). Depression-­era proletarian protest novel Set in the 1870s at the newly opened Uni­ set in a state capital, Kenawa, intended to versity of Nebraska, the novel pres­ents a represent Midwestern state capitals in gen­ detailed picture of literary debates. Dean eral but nevertheless understood to be Lin­ Fales’s satirical Bachelor of Arts (1932) focuses coln, Nebraska. on a football star at Cornucopia University. The Red Menace (1984) by MICHAEL ANANIA Barney is a failure as a student and ends up (b. 1939) is an autobiographical “fiction” working at his fa­ ther’s creamery business. about growing up in 1950s Omaha and com­ The novel was made into the musical comedy ing to terms with identity and sexuality in College Humor (1933), starring Bing Crosby, the wake of the atomic bomb. Dirty Bird Blues George Burns, and Gracie Allen. Around (1996) by Clarence Major (b. 1936) concerns 1940 Weldon Kees wrote the satirical college an African American blues musician who novel Fall Quarter, first published in 1990. moves to Omaha in the 1950s to get a new Miss Bishop (1933) by Bess Streeter Aldrich start in life. The novel pres­ents power­ful de­ takes place largely at Midwestern College in

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 583 N EBRASKA a generalized Iowa and Nebraska, where i­ca and works on a Nebraska farm, marries Ella Bishop teaches for half a ce­ ntury. The the Swedish farmer’s da­ ughter, and intro­ novel was made into the movie Cheers for duces the community to Eu­ro­pean classical Miss Bishop (1941), which gave Lincoln its ­music. Stromberg, a Methodist minister, first movie premiere. Elizabeth Atkins (1891– wrote a trilogy of Nebraska novels pub­ 1963) wrote the comic Holy Suburb (1941), set lished in Sweden between 1933 and 1940. at Epworth College and based on Nebraska Poetry: The first poem appearing in Wesleyan University; it is a gentle satire print in Nebraska was apparently “A Lady directed at college politics and the Method­ Type Setter” by T. D. Curtis, published in ism supporting the institution. In his novel the first issue of the Nebraska Palladium Edsel (1971) iconoclastic KARL SHAPIRO (1913–­ on July 15, 1854. The first book-­length poem 2000) takes on the excesses of the 1960s in a employing the name of the territory was city called Milo (Lincoln)—­particularly the Nebraska: A Poem, Personal and Po­liti­cal, pub­ roles of certain poets and administrators in lished in Boston in 1854 and attributed to politicizing the university. Samuel R. Phillips (1824–1880) and George W. As the Nebraska homestead era saw a Bungay (1818–1892). Written in blank verse, ­great influx of Eu­ro­pe­ans, primarily from it is largely a po­liti­cal work concerned Scandinavia, Germany, and Bohemia, with the implications of the Kansas-­ many immigrant novels appeared, includ­ Nebraska Act. ing several written in the author’s original Nebraska’s first impor­tant poet, Orsamus ­language and not translated. A good intro­ Charles Dake (1832–1875), was born in Por­ duction is found in the videotape The tage, New York, and was ordained in the ­Nebraska Frontier in Swedish and Danish Episcopal Church before migrating to ­Ethnic Lit­er­a­ture (1985) by Dorothy Skardal. Omaha in 1862. In 1871 he became the first Perhaps the best known of the immigrant professor of belles lettres at the University of writers was Sophus Keith Winther (1893– Nebraska. Dake published two books, Ne- 1983). Winther was born in Denmark and braska Legends and Poems (1871) and Midland wrote the Grimsen Trilogy, employing some Poems (1873), the latter including many po­ of his family’s­ experiences near Weeping ems found in the earlier volume. The two ­Water, Nebraska. The first novel, Take All to most impor­tant works are long poems devel­ Nebraska (1936), carries Danish immigrants oped from Native American legends. In Peter and Meta Grimsen and their ch­ ildren “The Raw Hide,” about white incursion into to a rented farm, where they encounter Pawnee territory, a white man deliberately unexpectedly harsh conditions. In the sec­ murders a Pawnee wo­ man and is subse­ ond, Mortgage Your Heart (1937), the ­family is quently flayed to death by the wo­ man’s evicted, and the ch­ ildren grow up and leave; husband. The second poem, “The Weeping protagonist Hans makes his way to the uni­ ­Water,” tells the story of an Otoe man who versity, where his values are severely tested. marries an Omaha wo­ man and lives with In This Passion Never Dies (1938) the ­family’s her in the Omaha camp, precipitating a difficulties continue, and Hans returns to ­battle in which the men of the two tribes de­ the farm. Kristian Ostergaard (1855–1931), stroy one another. The tears of the ­women writing in Danish, set at least four novels in and children­ who find them form the stream Nebraska, only one of which, A Merchant’s henceforth called Weeping ­Water. House (1909), has been translated into En­ Another epic poem on the naming of a glish. It is set in 1870s Omaha, the first book river is Niobrara’s Love Story: An Indian Ro- of a trilogy about the Krogh fa­ mily, whose mance of Prehistoric Nebraska; Of the Fabled members attempt to define themselves in Ancient Empire of Quivera (1900) by E. E. the new world but are eventually over­ Blackman (1865–1942). In the poem the whelmed by the surrounding culture. warrior Keya Paha falls in love with a Two Swedish writers whose novels have goddess-­like being named Niobrara. When not yet been translated are Gustav Malm Keya Paha is killed in ­battle, Niobrara (1869–1928) and Leonard Stromberg (1871– mourns him extravagantly, and her ­father 1941). Malm’s Charli Johnson: Svensk-­Amerikan gives his ­daughter’s name to the beautiful (1909) concerns a student who visits Amer­ Nebraska River.

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Isabel Grimes Richey (b. 1863), perhaps the Nebraska State Historical Society from the first wo­ man in Nebraska to publish 1917 to 1943, the founder of Nebraska History, books of poetry, wrote A Harp of the West and a prolific writer. His poems deal with (1895), which included no specifically Ne­ historical figures, landscape, architecture, braska material, and When Love Is King and weather—­even the 1903 Kansas-­ (1900). The latter book is of interest primar­ Nebraska football game. ily because­ of its introduction by J. Sterling As was the custom at the time, newspa­ Morton, a champion of Nebraska ­causes. per columnists published verse, sometimes Other early efforts include the work of collected in book form. A. L. “Doc” Bixby Herbert Bates (1868–1929) in Songs of Exile (1856–1934) published Driftwood (1895) and (1896). A Gallery of Farmer Girls (1900) by Memories, and Other Poems (1900) from his Schuyler Miller (1868–1914) is an attempt “Daily Drift” column for the Nebraska State to write verse about “real” th­ ings through Journal. ­Will M. Maupin (1863–1948), the use of phonetic spelling and colloquial who wrote for the Omaha Bee, the Omaha language paralleling the dialect verse of World-­Herald, and William Jennings Bry­ FINLEY PETER DUNNE (1867–­1936), JAMES an’s Commoner, was less overtly po­liti­cal. WHITCOMB RILEY (1849–­1916), and ­others. He published ­Whether Common or Not (1903) William Reed Dunroy (1869–1921) pub­ and Sunny Side Up (1926). Grace Sorenson lished Corn Tassels: A Book of Corn Rhymes (1880–1952) published Home Made Jingles (1899), Tumbleweeds (1901), and Rubaiyat of (1908), originally written for the Omaha the Roses (1907). Mary French Morton’s World-­Herald. (1832–1902) Leaves from Arbor Lodge (1901) is Several landmark Nebraska volumes a collection of nature poems. Willa Cath­ have been written on historical subjects. er’s first book, a volume of poetry titled Among ­these are Barbed Wire and Wayfarers April Twilights (1903), only occasionally (1924) by Edwin Ford Pi­ per (1871–1939), on hints at Nebraska themes. conflicts between ranchers and homestead­ The most significant early Nebraska poet ers; The Copper Ke­ ttle, and Other Poems (1925) was John G. Neihardt, the state’s first poet by Cora Phebe Mullin (1866–1923), long laureate, who held the title from 1921 to 1973. poems devoted to Manuel Lisa, Omaha His first bookswe ­ re The Divine Enchantment chief Logan Fontenelle, and the Mormons (1900) and A Bundle of Myrrh (1907). Nei­ at Winter Quarters; and The True Story of hardt’s major poetic work is the epic A Cycle Parker the Outlaw (1927) by William Earl of the West (1949), concerning western history Hill (1880–1943), including “Sagas of the from the beginnings of the MISSOURI fur Sand Hills” and poems about the murders trade to the massacre at Wounded Knee in of two homesteaders by Sandhills cattle­ 1890. It is composed of five parts:The Song of men. The Trumpeting Crane (1934) by Helene Hugh Glass (1915), The Song of Three Friends Magaret (1906–1998) is a book-­length poem (1919), The Song of the Indian Wars (1925), The about love and duty on the prairie. The Song of the Messiah (1935), and The Song of Jed Smith (1941). Another influential Nebraskan was Hart­ ley Burr Alexander (1873–1939). He wrote poetry, plays, philosophical studies, works on Indian life, and the inscriptions for archi­ tect Bertram Goodhue’s Nebraska state cap­ itol building in Lincoln. Among Alexander’s volumes of poetry are The Mid Earth Life (1907), The Mystery Of Life: A Poetization Of “The Hako”—­A Pawnee Ceremony (1913), and Odes and Lyr­ics (1922). Poems and Sketches of Nebraska (1908) by Addison Sheldon (1861–1943) is of greater historical than literary interest. Sheldon was Ted Kooser, Garland, Nebraska, 2006. Photo a dedicated Nebraskan, superintendent of by María Ghiggia.

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­Great Horse (1937) concerns the Mormon dent. Among his books are Shooting a Farm­ trek west. Dan Jaffe’s (b. 1933) Dan Freeman house / So This Is Nebraska (1975); Sure Signs (1967) highlights the nation’s first home­ (1980), winner of the Society of Midland Au­ steader, who filed his claim, now the Home­ thors Prize; Weather Central (1994); and De- stead National Monument in southeastern lights and Shadows (2004). The Blizzard Voices Nebraska, just ­after midnight on January 1, (1986) concerns the famous blizzard of 1888. 1863. Kooser’s friendship with Jim Harrison is LOREN COREY EISELEY (1907–1977) was also reflected inWinter Morning Walks: One Hun- a poet of considerable force. His Notes of an dred Postcards to Jim Harrison (2000) and Alchemist (1972), The Innocent Assassins (1973), Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003). Another Kind of Autumn (1977), and All the His Local Won­ders: Seasons in the Bohemian Night Wings (1979) provide meditations on Alps (2002) contains prose observations the won­ders of nature and oblique refer­ and reminiscences. ences to Eiseley’s plains childhood and days Con­temporary Nebraska poetry is strong as a “bone-­hunter.” Three Nebraska poets of and vital, with too many poets to note in de­ merit for their sophistication and influence tail. The following books are representa­ ­were Virgil Geddes (1897–1989), Weldon tive: Gay . . . ​Some Assembly Required (1995) by Kees, and Karl Shapiro. Geddes wrote Forty Brian E. Bengtson (1966–2015); Dismal River Poems and Poems 41 to 70 (1926). Kees’s works, (1990) by Ron Block; Cheyenne Line (2001) by The Last Man (1943), The Fall of the Magicians J(ames) V(ernon) Brummels (b. ca. 1951); (1947), and Poems, 1947–1954 (1954), are eas­ The Dark Is a Door (1984) by Susan Strayer ily accessible now only in The Collected Poems Deal (1948–2014); Bullroarer: A Sequence of Weldon Kees (1975). Shapiro was editor of (2001) by Ted Genoways (b. 1972); How to Live Prairie Schooner from 1956 to 1966. in the Heartland (1992) by Twyla Hansen (b. Three of Michael Anania’s books contain 1949); In a River of Wind (2000) by Neil Har­ poems pertinent to Nebraska: The Color of rison (b. ca. 1952); A Quiet I Carry with Me Dust (1970), Riversongs (1978), and The Sky at (1994) by Nancy Peters Hastings (b. 1953); Ashland (1986). The poems in Walking along Disciples of an Uncertain Season (2001) by the Missouri River (1977) by John McKernan Larry Holland (1937–1999); Skies of Such Valu- (b. 1942) deal with personal responses to life able Glass (1990) by Art Homer (b. 1951); No- and the death of his fa­ ther in Nebraska. body Lives ­Here Who Saw This Sky (1998) by WILLIAM KLOEFKORN (1932–2011), Nebraska Greg Kosmicki (b. 1949); Nebraska: A Poem State Poet from 1982 ­until his death, focused (1977) and Selected Poems (1996) by Greg largely on farm and village life in such vol­ Kuzma (b. 1944); Freezing (2001) by Steve umes as Alvin Turner as Farmer (1974), based Langan (b. 1965); From the Dead Before (2000) on Kloefkorn’s grand­father; Cottonwood by Clif Mason (b. 1950); Old Froggo’s Book of County (1979), written with Ted Kooser (b. Practical Cows (1998) by Matt Mason (b. ca. 1939); Platte Valley Homestead (1981); Welcome 1968); Girl Talk (2002) by Nancy McCleery to Carlos (2000), on a small-­town boy discov­ (b. 1933); Divine Honors (1997) by Hilda Raz (b. ering poetry through a friend; and Loup 1938); Lost in Seward County (2001) by Marjo­ River Psalter (2001). The monumental collec­ rie Saiser (b. 1943); Before We Lost Our Ways tion Swallowing the Soap: New and Selected (1996) by Mark Sanders (b. 1955); Pointing Out Poems (2010), edited by Ted Genoways, is the Sky (1985) by Roy Scheele (b. 1942); The admirable and contains a generous se­lection Upside Down Heart (2003) by Barbara Schmitz of poems from across Kloefkorn’s ca­ reer. (b. 1945); Prairie Air Show (2000) by Steven P. This Death by Drowning (1997), Restoring the Schneider (b. 1951); Dead Horse Tab­ le (1975) by Burnt Child: A Primer (2003), At Home on This Don Welch (b. 1932); and Lights along the Mis- Moveable Earth (2006), and Breathing in the souri (1979) by Fredrick Zydek (b. 1938). Fullness of Time (2009) are memoirs. Kathleene West (1947–2013), who grew up Ted Kooser, one of Nebraska’s best-­ near Genoa, Nebraska, has explored farm known poets, was named Poet Laureate of life and her fa­ mily’s Nebraska roots in such the United States in 2004. For most of his works as Land Bound (1978), ­Water Witching writing years, Kooser worked at the Lincoln (1984), Plainswoman: Her First Hundred Years Benefit Life Com­pany, retiring as vice presi­ (1985), and The Farmer’s ­Daughter (1988).

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In Frankenstein Was a Negro (2002) Afri­ Grace: Writing by ­Women of the ­Great Plains / can American Charles Fort (b. 1951) pres­ents High Plains (2002), edited by Marjorie Saiser, a series of near-­surrealistic prose ­poems, Greg Kosmicki, and Lisa Sandlin, collects some involving a recurrent character, poetry, fiction, and memoir. Twyla M. Darvil. Fort also has written As the Lilac Hansen was named State Poet in 2013. Burned the Laurel Grew (1999) and Immortelles Drama: The first professional dramatic (2000); ­these cast an African American group performed in Omaha in 1857, and light on the Nebraska frontier. Nebraska several theatres ­were built in Omaha in the State Penitentiary death-­row inmate Har­ 1860s. Early theatre focused on known tal­ old Lamont Otey (1952–1994) published the ent rather than on development of an in­ chapbooks And Me I Am like the Leaf (1981) digenous Nebraska drama. The Omaha and Singing for Mooncrumbs (1985). Native Drama League originated in 1915 and American poetry from Nebraska is found in awarded prizes for new drama. (Mabel) La-­ta-­we-­sah (­Woman of the Bird Clan): Her Po- Avery Abbott, an Omaha fixture, won the etry and Prose (1989), the work of Eunice W. league’s prize in 1923 for Mr. Enright Enter- Stabler (1885–1963); and Up River: Good Medi- tains. Allena Harris (b. ca. 1887) wrote cine Poems (1973) by Frank V. Love. mostly one-­act plays, like Old Walnut (1926). The first anthology of Nebraska poetry The Omaha Community Play­house opened was Nebraska Poets: One Hundred Pages of Prai- in 1924. This very active theatre is currently rie Poems (1893) with work by thirty-­two the largest community theatre in the poets, including Kate Cleary and Elia Peat­ United States. tie. Some ­others are Minnesota and Nebraska The pageant, a form of entertainment Poets (1937), edited by Robert Cary; and the in Nebraska that combined words, ­music, two -­volume collection Poems by Nebraska and spectacle, was intended primarily to Poets (1940), edited by Frederick Blaine instill pride and patriotism. Well-­known Humphrey. ­Later anthologies include The pageants are The Pageant of Lincoln (1917) and Sandhills and Other Geographies (1980), edited Coronado in Quivera (1922) by Hartley Burr by Mark Sanders; Wellsprings: A Collection of Alexander. Grace Welsh Lutgen (1888–1969) Poems from Six Nebraska Poets (1995), edited by wrote Goldenrod Sprays: Pageants (1943). Susanne George Bloomfield, with fresh in­ Nebraska was home to a number of play­ troductions to Hansen, Kloefkorn, Kooser, wrights who wrote li­ ttle on Nebraska sub­ Saiser, Strayer, and Welch; and The Plains jects, including Colin Campbell Clements Sense of ­Things (1997), in two volumes, edited (1894–1948) and Frederick Ballard (1884– by Mark Sanders. Greg Kuzma has edited 1957). Ballard’s 320 College Ave­nue (1938), several anthologies, including Nebraska Po- written with mystery novelist Mignon G. ets (1975) and Forty Nebraska Poets (1981). On Eberhart (1899–1996), is a comic whodunit Common Ground: William Kloefkorn, Ted Kooser, set in a sorority ­house in College City, U.S.A. Greg Kuzma, and Don Welch (1983), with in­ Mabel Conklin Allyn (1894–1941) wrote a terviews, was edited by Mark Sanders and number of unpublished plays about farm J. V. Brummels. Nebraska Presence: An An- life, as well as published works such as Mag- thology of Poetry (2007), edited by Greg Kos­ gie Fixes It (1929) and Big ­Brother (1934). micki and Mary K. Stillwell, is a collection Notable Nebraska dramatic works in­ of work by nearly eighty con­temporary clude Home Light of the Prairies (1920) by Gil­ poets, with thoughtful introductions on the bert Guest and Sod: A Drama of the Western condition of poetry and the audience for Prairie in One Act (1934) by Stuart M. Hunter poetry in Nebraska. (1883–1957). Sod is set in a sod ho­ use in 1900; Two anthologies have focused on Ne­ a ­mother plans to have her ­daughter escape braska women­ poets. Judith Sornberger ed­ life on the prairie by sending her to school ited All My Grand­mothers Could Sing: Poems by in INDIANA, but her hope is thwarted when Nebraska ­Women (1984), and Elizabeth Ban­ the ­daughter elopes. ­Virginia Faulkner set, William Kloefkorn, and Charles Stub­ (1913–1980) wrote the libretto for Songs from blefield editedAdjoining Rooms (1985), with out of the Wind (1977), a musical drama based poems by five poets. Another collection is on Cather’s “Eric Hermannson’s Soul.” broader in scope; Times of Sorrow / Times of Grace Sorenson published plays for ­children,

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 587 N EBRASKA including Juvenile Comedies (1926) and Holi- Omaha Wild Kingdom emcee as the narrator day Plays for Young Actors (1950). ­Virginia in a comic play that examines Midwestern Bradley (1912–2003) produced plays for teen­ restlessness. agers; they include Is ­There an Actor in the Omaha premiered three plays featuring House? (1975) and Stage Eight: One-­Act Plays significant Nebraska stories: Minstrel Show (1977). (1998) by Max Sparber (b. 1968), the story of Two unreasonably neglected Nebraska William Brown, a black man dragged by a playwrights are E. P. Conkle (1899–1994) and mob from Omaha’s Douglas County Jail and Virgil Geddes. Conkle’s work includes over lynched in 1919, as told by two fictional min­ fifty plays, among them Prologue to Glory, a strel players; Something Is Wrong (1999) by drama about ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809–1865) Robert Vivian; and Ink and Elkskin (2004) by that played on Broadway and was acclaimed Carson Grace Becker (b. 1964), chronicling one of the best plays of 1938. Crick Bottom the first official meeting of Lewis and Clark Plays: Five Mid-­Western Sketches (1928) con­ with American Indians, the Otoe and Mis­ tains five humorous one-­act plays about souria, in 1804 Nebraska. common Nebraska folks; among them are Several plays use Nebraska as a generic Minnie Field, Sparkin’, and ’Lection. In the setting to focus on con­temporary cultural Shadow of a Rock (1937) is a more ambitious conditions. Among ­these are the anti-­vio­ play set in Peru, Nebraska, in 1849; frontier lence and anti-­child-­abuse play Goona Goona life, slavery, and politics come together as (1991) by Megan Terry (b. 1932), The Swan the protagonist reluctantly accepts runaway (1994) by Elizabeth Egloff (b. 1953), and Ne- slaves—­two small ­children. This play served braska (1989) by Keith Reddin (b. 1956). The as part of Conkle’s doctoral thesis at the Uni­ last of these­ is set on an air force base and versity of Iowa in 1936. links modern angst to the responsibilities of Virgil Geddes, like Eugene O’Neill (1888– characters tending a missile silo. The comic 1953), was interested in the Greek my­thol­ Man from Nebraska (2005) by Tracy Letts (b. ogy that inspired Freudian themes. In The 1965) is about a man suddenly stricken Earth Between (1929) Nat Jennings removes with a conviction that God does not exist. all obstacles to his da­ ughter’s affections, in­ Film: Nebraska’s first movie theatre, the cluding possibly committing murder, and Parlor, opened in Omaha in 1905. Many the play also suggests that Floy ­will “replace” films are associated with Nebraska. Terrence her ­mother. Such dark Oedipal themes are Malick’s Badlands (1973) is based on the continued in Native Ground: A Cycle of Plays Starkweather-­Fugate killing spree and stars (1932), including Native Ground, The Plow- Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Terms of En- share’s Gleam, and As the Crow Flies. dearment (1983), set in Lincoln and starring Memorable playwriting continues in Ne­ Jack Nicholson, Shirley Maclaine, and Debra braska. David G. Wiltse (b. 1940) uses south­ Winger, garnered many Academ­ y Awards. eastern Nebraska settings to explore themes Dan Mirvish (b. 1967) made Omaha: The of marital conflict, infidelity, and general Movie (1994), the first in­de­pen­dent film made menace, as in A ­Grand Romance (1982), A in Nebraska by a native Nebraskan. The most Dance Lesson (1991), and Temporary Help acclaimed Nebraska filmmaker is Alexander (1999). Doug Marr (b. 1953) has written many Payne (b. 1961). His credits include Citizen plays, including Back at the Blue Dolphin Sa- Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt loon (1988), about an Omaha packing plant (2002), all filmed in Nebraska. Payne’sSide - in the 1970s; The Big Band Boys Grow Old ways (2004), a comedy set in California wine (1992); Voices (1995), containing an extended country, won an Acad­emy Award for Best monologue by Mari Sandoz; East of Denver Writing in an Adapted Screenplay. Hilary Christmas Eve (2000), starring a disc jockey Swank won an Academ­ y Award for her per­ at an isolated Nebraska radio station; and the for ­mance in Boys Don’t­ Cry (1999), in which multimedia drama Starkweather (1989). Tim she played Brandon Teena, a troubled young Kaldahl (b. 1968) has written several one-­act transgender man who is ultimately mur­ plays, including West Omaha Soul Sucker dered in Falls City. The Indian Runner (1991) (2001), and the full-­length Marlin Perkins by Sean Penn (b. 1960) was filmed in Platts­ ­under Glass (2004), employing the Mutual of mouth, Nebraska.

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Pop ­u­lar Lit­er­a­ture: ZANE GREY (1872–1939) fictionalized Edward Dime Novels: The most famous figure in Creighton’s feat in stringing the telegraph the dime-­novel tradition was (William lines through Nebraska and the West in Frederick) “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846–1917), Western Union (1939). The more traditional although not many Buffalo Bill titles we­ re popu­lar western is found in the works of actually set in Nebraska. Cody was born in George G. Shedd (1877–1937), including Cry- Iowa, was raised in Kansas, and lived der (1922). Wayne C. Lee (1917–2010) wrote much of his adult life in Nebraska. Prentiss popu­lar westerns, such as Barbed-­Wire War Ingraham (1843–1904) wrote well over one (1983), set in the Sandhills. Another prolific hundred Buffalo Bill dime-­novel adven­ writer was Wayne D. Overholser (1906– tures. ­These included Adventures of Buffalo 1996); as Joseph Wayne he wrote The Long Bill from Boyhood to Manhood (1881), the first Wind (1953), a story about conflict among of Beadle’s Boy’s Library of Sport, Story, promoters, settlers, and cattleman in west­ and Adventure, and Buffalo Bill’s Life-­Stake; ern Nebraska. or, The Pledged Three: A Story of the Marked Mystery and Detective Fiction: The best-­ Shadower of Rocky Ridge (1895), which is set in known Nebraska mystery writer is Mi­ Nebraska. Ingraham also wrote Dashing gnon G. Eberhart; she wrote nearly sixty Charlie’s Pawnee Pard; or, Red Hair, the Rene- novels and was the second-­highest-­paid gade: A Romance of Real Heroes of Borderland mystery writer in Amer­i­ca. She set her third (1892). Another writer was Edward Zane novel, The Mystery of Hunting’s End (1930), in Carroll Judson (1821–1886), using the pseud­ the Sandhills. It was la­ ter made into the onym Ned Buntline, who often employed movie Mystery House (1938) with Ann Sheri­ the character of Buffalo Bill. dan. Crime pulp writer Jim Thompson Other recurrent dime-­novel characters (1906–1977) wrote Heed the Thunder (1946), ­were Pawnee Bill and Nebraska Charlie. The an untidy novel set in a Sandhills town latter is found in Ingraham’s The Adventur- roughly from 1890 to 1910. The novel involves ous Life of “Nebraska Charlie,” the Boy “Medicine-­ unsavory characters in the Fargo clan. Man” of the Pawnees (1882). Three dif­fer­ent Jo(sephine) Frisbie (1903–1996) and writers employed the pseudonym Edward C. Gunnar Horn (1912–2001) wrote four mys­ Taylor; titles include the Ted Strong novels teries set in Nebraska: Murder in the Old Mill in the Western Story Library, among them (1979), Murder in the Museum (1980), Murder Ted Strong in Nebraska; or, The Trail to Fremont in the Church Yard (1982), and Murder on Ma- (1904) and Ted Strong’s Nebraska Ranch; or, ple Street (1984). David Wiltse has written Fun and Frolic in the West (1905). Oliver crime novels featuring Billy Tree, a Secret “Oll” Coomes (1845–1921) wrote two dime Ser­vice agent who has lost his nerve and re­ novels set on the Platte River, Wild Raven, turns home to Falls City, Nebraska, in the Scout; or, The Missing Guide (1870) and Heartland (2001) and The Hangman’s Knot Old Strategy, the Trapper Ventriloquist (1870). (2002), where he confronts bullies, drugs, William G. Patten (1866–1945) wrote Wild and buried racial prejudice. Wiltse’s Home Vulcan, the Lone Range-­Rider; or, The Rustlers Again (1986) is also set in Nebraska. Tear- of the Bad Lands: A Romance of Northwest Ne- drops Are Red (2000) by psychiatrist John braska (1890). Schepman (b. 1937) involves murder, rape, Western Novels: Nebraska generated and a doctor who claims to have a “vio­lence many popu­lar westerns. Noel B. Gerson cure.” The novel’s protagonist, Zed Taggert, (1914–1988), writing as Dana Fuller Ross, is another detective drawn back to Ne­ wrote Nebraska! (1979), the second volume of braska to solve a crime. Outside Valentine Gerson’s Wagons West series, about a wagon (2004) by Liza Ward (b. ca. 1976) is a sus­ train crossing the plains in 1837. Blood on the pense novel employing the Starkweather-­ Republican (1992) by Jeff O’Donnell (b. 1953) Fugate murders. opens in 1861 when Lute North’s ­family is at­ Several writers have set mystery novels tacked by Cheyennes. Lute is a fictionalized in Omaha locations. William J. Reynolds (b. version of the scout Luther North (1846– 1956) wrote a series of novels featuring an 1935), leader of the Pawnee Scouts. (PEARL) Omaha detective named Nebraska: The Ne-

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 589 N EBRASKA braska Quotient (1984), Moving Targets (1986), far in his Acme Novelty Library, begin­ Money Trou­ble (1988), ­Things Invisible (1989), The ning in 1994, among a variety of other Naked Eye (1990), and Drive-­By (1995). Rich­ works. ard Dooling (b. 1954) specializes in medical ­Children’s and Young Adult Lit­er­a­ture: satire and suspense. Critical Care (1992) was Early Nebraska works for juveniles often fo­ made into a film directed by Sidney Lumet. cused on animal life, as in Fairy Tales of the Bet Your Life (2002) is a novel about an Western Range (1902) by Eugene O. May­ insurance-­fraud investigation in Omaha. field (1860–1943). ­These ­were animal fables Dooling collaborated with Stephen King on and adventure stories. As Un­ cle Ross, thei tele­v ­sion miniseries Kingdom Hospital Frank A. Secord (1867–1954) wrote about an­ (2004). Sharon Kava (b. 1960), writing as imals in Won­der Tales: Gabby Crow and Mud-­ Alex Kava, has written several thrillers and-­Sticks Stories (1933). Dan V. Stephens starring Maggie O’Dell, a retired FBI pro­ (1868–1939), a U.S. congressman from 1911 filer. A Perfect Evil (2000) deals with serial to 1919, tells homey tales in Cottonwood murder in Platte City, Nebraska. Kava’s Yarns: Being Mostly Stories Told to ­Children One False Move (2004) concerns a bank about Some More or Less Wild Animals That Live robbery in which six pe­ ople are killed at “the Cottonwoods” on the Elkhorn River in and the killers escape to Platte River State Nebraska (1935). In Passing of the Buffalo at Park near Omaha. Sean Doolittle (b. 1971) the Cottonwoods (1938) he tells of having to has set two of his fast-­moving suspense slaughter buffalo. novels with down-­and-­out protagonists The frontier has remained a staple of fic­ in Nebraska locations: Rain Dogs (2005) in tion for juveniles. Marion Marsh Brown the Sandhills and The Cleanup (2006) in (1908–2001) wrote copiously for ­children and Omaha. teen­agers, sometimes telling tales from her Graphic Novels: The poet Ted Kooser homesteader grand­father. Among her most wrote a work titled Hatcher (1978) that is popu­lar books is Stuart’s Landing: A Story of sometimes called a GRAPHIC NOVEL, although Pioneer Nebraska (1953; originally Frontier it does not meet strict criteria for that genre. Beacon), the story of a young man who It is an amusing, if slight, work composed wants to be a writer in pioneer Nebraska. largely of borrowed prints—­many of them Jean Bothwell (1892–1977) wrote many apparently German prints from the nine­ books for juveniles, including The Tree House teenth ­century—to which Kooser added at Seven Oaks: A Story of the Flat Wa­ ter Country cartoon dialogue boxes in which figures in in 1853 (1957), a novel about Bellevue that in­ the prints comment on the romantic pur­ corporates historical figures Peter Sarpy suits and sexual prowess of the mysterious and Joseph La Flesche. Wires West (1957) by poet and lover Hatcher. William Harms (b. Leo V. Jacks (1896–1972) concerns an Irish­ 1969) published a graphic novel titled Abel man who comes to Omaha to work for Ed­ (2002), set in a small Nebraska community ward Creighton stringing telegraph wires and concerning a boy growing up with a across the plains. San Domingo: The Medicine violent brother;­ when the br­ other kills a Hat Stallion (1972) by Marguerite Henry young woman,­ the town blames a Chinese (1902–1997) deals with a boy’s emergence as servant in town, and the book ends with a a Pony Express rider. Prairie Songs (1985) by lynching and the boy’s emotional accom­ Pam Conrad (1947–1996) won acclaim for its modation to the murder. The best-­known treatment of pioneer sod-­house life. A Pony graphic novelist originally from Nebraska, for Jeremiah (1997) by Robert H. Miller (b. although he is now based in Chicago, is 1945) is about an African American slave Franklin Christenson Ware (b. 1967), usu­ ­family that escapes to Nebraska. ally writing as Chris Ware. His work has The cultures of American Indian tribes won numerous awards and has been ex­ are popu­lar subjects for juvenile fiction.Bea - hibited in impor­tant art museums. His ver: The Pawnee Indian (1918) by Stephen. M. best-­known graphic novel is Jimmy Corri- Barrett (1865–1948) is a fictional account of gan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000), and the Pawnees, tracing tribal history from he has created at least twenty volumes so their life in the Platte River valley to their

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EBRASKA 590 removal to Indian Territory. A Bow for Turtle where someone is threatening to harm the (1960) by Dorothy Heiderstadt (1907–2001) heir to the fa­ mily fortune. Gail Rock (b. is a short novel about a Pawnee child’s 1940) wrote a series of novels based on her official ac­cep­tance into the life and cul­ Nebraska childhood in the 1940s. Among ture of his ­people before the coming of the ­these is The House without a Christmas Tree whites. Mari Sandoz wrote several works (1974), also a TV movie (1972) starring Jason for young adults, including The Horse­catcher Robards and Lisa Lucas. The Night of the (1957), the story of a Cheyenne teenager, and Twisters (1984) by Ivy Ruckman (b. 1931) The Story Catcher (1963), on Sioux society in centers on reaction to seven separate torna­ the 1840s. See also CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG-­ does that touched down on Gr­ and Island in ADULT LITERATURE. June 1980. Tom Frye’s (b. 1956) Scratchin’ on Many juvenile books have orphans as the Eight Ball (1982) depicts a fourteen-­year-­ heroes. Among ­these is Young Sand Hills old boy in Lincoln who ­faces issues with Cowboy (1953) by Francis Lynde Kroll (1904– drugs and crime. Two young-­adult books 1973). Massacre at Ash Hollow (1960) by Rob­ on religious themes are Davey in the Sand ert T. Reilly (1923–2004) portrays the coming Hills (1951) by Anne M. Halladay, which of age of the orphaned protagonist on the concerns the impact of home missionary Nebraska frontier. An Orphan for Nebraska activities on ­children; and Calling Me Home (1979) by Charlene Joy Talbot (1924–2013) fo­ (1998) by Patricia Hermes (b. 1936), which cuses on an Irish boy sent by the ­Children’s treats a teenage girl’s strug­gle to accept her Aid Society to Nebraska, where he works for life on the Nebraska prairie in the 1850s. a newspaper. The ­Great American Elephant Romance Novels: The love story re­ Chase (1993) by Gillian Cross (b. 1945) pres­ mains healthy in Nebraska, and several ents a fifteen-­year-­old who takes an ele­ ­romance organ­izations and writers have phant from Pennsylvania to Nebraska in fueled the genre. Barbara Bonham (b. 1926) 1881. The companion volumes Gratefully is best known for her historical romances, Yours (1997) and Hank’s Story (2001) by Jane including Challenge of the Prairie (1965), in Buchanan (b. 1956) are set in 1923 when the which a homestead fa­ mily copes with protagonists are sent west by orphan train. squatters; Passion’s Price (1977), about a My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane young ­widow who enters a relationship Price, a Prairie Teacher (2001) by Jim Murphy with a “­family man”; and Green Willow (b. 1947) reconstructs the life of a nineteenth-­ (1982). The Woman­ I Am (1979) and Dear century orphan who became a teacher in Stranger (1982) by Catherine Kidwell (1921– Nebraska. In Holding Up the Earth (2000) by 2002) are “feminist romances” set in Lin­ Dianne Gray (b. 1944) the heroine learns coln at the University of Nebraska and the about the Nebraska past through letters and Cornhusker ­Hotel during World War II. diaries she discovers in her stepmother’s Barbara Leigh’s Web of Loving Lies (1993) ­house. concerns a ­woman’s relationship with an Trella Lamson Dick (1889–1974) wrote Indian scout. Pam Hart’s Lies and Shadows several novels of con­temporary life for juve­ (1993) is about a ­woman who hires an un­ niles, among them Tornado Jones (1953) and usual nanny—­a handsome young man— Tornado’s Big Year (1956), set in the Sandhills. to help her raise her three troubled ­children. A Bee in Her Bonnet (1944) by Eva Margaret In Land of Dreams (1995) by Cheryl Ludwigs Kristoffersen (1901–1954) carries a MICHIGAN (b. 1951), writing as Cheryl St. John, two ­family to an inherited Nebraska farm during adults vie for the care of a young orphan World War II. ­Virginia Bradley (1912–2003) girl, and the protagonist builds a mill based wrote Bend to the Willow (1979), in which a on the historic mill at Neligh. A Husband by transplanted schoolteacher comes to terms Any Other Name (1996), set near the apple with the car accident that killed her parents. orchards of Nebraska City, concerns twin Bradley’s Who Could Forget the Mayor of Lodi? ­brothers, one with amnesia, the other (1985) portrays small-­town life and ­mental carry­ing the first’s identity. The Gypsy in health in the 1930s. Florence Laughlin’s Lady Gypsy (2001) by Pam Crooks (b. 1955) en­ (1910–2001) The Seventh Cousin (1966) is a counters conflict and love with a railroad mystery novel set in an old Lincoln mansion man in the northern Nebraska of 1876. Kim

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Louise Whiteside (b. 1962), writing as Kim (1902–1980), edited by his son, Lowen V. Louise, an African American romance writer, Kruse. The best-­known homesteader ac­ wrote Destiny’s Song (2000) and A Touch Away count is Mari Sandoz’s first book,Old Jules (2001), about an African American ­woman’s (1935), the famous biography of Sandoz’s belated return to college in Omaha. Walks complex ­father and an insider’s account of the Fire (1995) and Soaring Ea­gle (1996) by life on the frontier. Stephanie Grace Whitson (b. 1952) and Un- Other popu­lar accounts are Them Was the forgettable Faith (2000) by Cynthia Rutledge Days: An American Saga of the ’70’s (1950) by (b. 1954) are inspirational Christian ro­ Martha Ferguson McKeown (1903–1974), mances. Other authors associated with The Buffalo Wallow (1953) by Charles Tenney ­Nebraska, among them Victoria Alexander Jackson (1874–1955), and Thunder and Mud: A (b. 1965), Barbara Blackman, writing as Pioneer Childhood on the Prairie (1996) by Ju­ Jeanne Allan, Victoria Morrow (b. 1957), Ju­ lia Brown Tobias (1902–2001). Well-­known dith Nelson, and Kathleen Pieper (b. 1951), Sandhills memoirs are Western Story: The also write romances. Recollections of Charley O’Kieffe, 1884–1898 Science Fiction and Fantasy: In The (1960) by Charley O’Kieffe (1879–1967) and Fork River Space Proj­ect (1977), set in Ne­ No Time on My Hands (1963) by Grace Snyder braska and Kansas, Wright Morris has his (1883–1983), assisted by Nellie Snyder Yost characters confront an expansion of con­ (1905–1992). Trails of Yesterday (1921) by John sciousness by way of a mysterious space Bratt (1864–1918) is considered a classic on show. In Deus ex Machina (1989) the writer ranching. character constructed by J. V. Brummels (b. Memoirs of famous Nebraska citizens in­ 1951) ­faces the end of the world and is forced clude those­ of Luther North (1846–1935), the to choose between staying on Earth or head of the Pawnee Scouts, Man of the Plains: transporting himself into space. Recollections of Luther North, 1856–1882 (1961); Lesbian and Gay Fiction: ­Little Nebraska and Buffalo Bill’s The Life of Hon. William F. fiction deals explic­itly with gay and lesbian Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill: The Famous themes. Some exceptions are Walkin’ Hunter, Scout, and Guide; An Autobiography Matilda (1984) by Larry Paul Ebmeier (1950– (1879). Po­liti­cal autobiographies include 2011), writing as Clayton R. Graham, a com­ ­those of William Jennings Bryan, Memoirs edy about a gay exchange student from of William Jennings Bryan (1925); Bryan ad­ Australia with a wooden leg; Nebraska (1987) viser Alfred P. Mullen (1873–1938), Western by George Whitmore (1945–1989), a sexual Demo­crat (1940); and George W. Norris coming-­of-­age novel in which a boy gradu­ (1861–1944), Fighting Liberal: The Autobiogra- ally discovers that his un­ cle has been given phy of George W. Norris (1945). electroshock treatment as a response to his Two memoirs involving Omaha are of homo ­sexuality; and Omaha’s Bell (1999) by significant interest.The Face of a Naked Lady: Penny Hayes (b. 1940), involving a lesbian An Omaha Fam­ ily Mystery (2005) by Michael triangle and the purchase of a bell for a local Rips (b. 1954) philosophically connects some school in nineteenth-­century Omaha. See intriguing fa­ mily mysteries to Omaha his­ also LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, tory. In Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop (2005) AND QUEER LITERATURE. Joseph Lelyveld (b. 1937), executive editor at Nonfiction Literary Genres: In addi­ the New York Times from 1994 to 2001, ex­ tion to fiction, two kinds of personal writing plores his feelings of abandonment within are of special importance in Nebraska: his troubled fa­ mily in the years when they memoirs and personal essays. Homesteader lived in Nebraska. memoirs are abundant. Among the most ­Because much of Nebraska is rural and useful collections are Nebraska Pioneer sparsely populated, a lit­er­a­ture of science Reminiscences (1916), issued by the Nebraska and reflection on nature emerged early in society of the Da­ ughters of the American poetry and the personal essay. That tradition Revolution; Sod House Memories in three vol­ may have started with Forests and Orchards umes (1972), edited by Frances Jacobs Al­ in Nebraska: A Handbook for Prairie Planting berts; and Paradise on the Prairie: Nebraska (1884) by James Thomas Allan (1831–1885). Settlers Stories (1986) by Baldwin F. Kruse The best-­known naturalist writer is Loren

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Eiseley, who wrote what he called “concealed first newspaper in the state for African essays,” reflections on nature and science Americans. Mary Fairbrother owned and connected to autobiographical anecdotes. edited the ­Woman’s Weekly in Omaha from His most popu­lar book, The Im­mense Journey 1894 to 1901; it served as the official organ of (1957), contains poetic accounts of evolu­ the Omaha ­Women’s Club. Thomas Tibbles tionary highlights; similar essays make up edited the In­de­pen­dent, a weekly Populist his autobiographies, The Night Country paper in Lincoln in the 1890s. J. Sterling (1971) and All the Strange Hours: The Excava- Morton started the weekly Conservative in tion of a Life (1975). Paul A. Johnsgard (b. Nebraska City in 1898. WILLIAM JENNINGS 1931) and John Janovy Jr. (b. 1937) are pro­ BRYAN (1860–1925) began the Commoner, a lific scientific writers. Johnsgard’s works weekly, in Lincoln in 1901. ­There ­were also include The Platte: Channels in Time (1984) several immigrant newspapers, such as the and The Nature of Nebraska: Ecol­ogy and Bio- German Nebraska Deutsche Zeitung, begun in diversity (2001). Janovy’s work includes Nebraska City in 1861, and the Czech Pokrok Keith County Journal (1978) and other books. Zapadu, begun in Omaha in 1871. Several lyrical books are Hawk Flies Above: Literary magazines and journals pub­ Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills (1996) by lished in Nebraska include immigrant liter­ Lisa Dale Norton (b. 1956), The Last Prairie: ary periodicals such as the Czech Kvéty A Sandhills Journal (2000) by Stephen R. Americké, begun in Omaha in 1884. The Jones (b. 1947), Cold Snap as Yearning (2001) quarterly Nebraska Literary Magazine, first by Robert Vivian, and The Nature of Home: A published in 1895, was the first devoted to Lexicon and Essays (2002) by Lisa Knopp (b. student literary efforts at the University of 1956). Nebraska. It was followed by the monthly Printing and Journalism: Given the Kiote (1898–1899). Im­por­tant journals of na­ intensely heightened activity resulting from tional distinction included Mid-­West Quar- the 1854 Kansas-­Nebraska Act and the fron­ terly (1913–1918), edited by Prosser Hall Frye, tier traffic flowing through Nebraska, it was and the ongoing Prairie Schooner, a literary not long before newspapers took root. The quarterly with an international reputation first newspaper, the Nebraska Palladium, for quality, established in 1926 by Lowry C. began in mid-­July 1854, but was actually Wimberly. printed in Iowa un­ til October of that year The University of Nebraska Press, estab­ when it moved to Bellevue. It was followed lished in 1941, is a major national press that by the Omaha Arrow at the end of July 1854 publishes in a number of specialties, includ­ and then by the Omaha Nebraskian in Janu­ ing Midwestern and Western regional books; ary 1855. The Nebraska City News began in its series called Flyover Fiction includes new November 1854; its first editor was J. Ster­ work by regional writers. Many small presses ling Morton. In Brownsville Robert W. Fur­ are devoted primarily to Nebraska poetry, nas began the Nebraska Advertiser in 1856 such as Backwaters Press (Greg Kosmicki), and the Nebraska Farmer in 1859. An early Logan House Press (J. V. Brummels and Jim newspaper, Huntsman’s Echo, was estab­ ­Reese), Best Cellar Press (Greg Kuzma), and lished in Wood River Center, now known Sandhills Press (Mark Sanders). Harry Dun­ as Shelton, in 1859. Other early newspapers can (1916–1997) was well known for produc­ included the Daily Nebraskan Republican ing fine books through Cummington Press (1858) in Omaha; the Nebraska State Journal and Abattoir Edition Books. Bradypress (De­ in Lincoln (1869), for which Willa Cather nise Brady), associated with the Nebraska began to write in 1893; and the Omaha Bee, Book Arts Center, publishes letterpress edi­ founded by Edward Rosewater in 1871. The tions of poetry. Omaha Daily World, founded by Gilbert M. Nebraska Federal Writers’ Proj­ect: Hitchcock in 1885, combined with the Omaha The Nebraska Federal Writers’ Proj­ect devel­ Daily Herald in 1889 to form the Omaha oped out of the Emergency Relief Act of 1935 World-­Herald. and was headquartered in Lincoln ­under Early specialized newspapers included Elizabeth Sheehan, then J. Harris “Jake” the Pro­gress, begun in Omaha in 1889 as the Gable, and fi­nally Rudolph Umland un­ til its

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 593 N EBRASKA termination in March 1942. According to mately explores spiritual Native American Jerry Mangione in The Dream and the Deal life on the plains. (1972), the Nebraska unit was considered Useful approaches to early Nebraska po­ one of the most successful in the country. etry are found in Nebraska Legends and Poems It produced thirteen books in addition to (1871) by Orsamus Charles Dake, which in­ the state guide and over thirty pamphlets corporates mythic materials, and the first on Nebraska folklore. Some of the books anthology, Nebraska Poets: One Hundred Pages ­were Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State of Prairie Poems (1893). ­Later works include (1939), Old Bellevue (1937), Origin of Nebraska Neihardt’s saga A Cycle of the West (1949), Wel­ Place Names (1938), A Military History of Ne- don Kees’s The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees braska (1939), Negroes of Nebraska (1940), and (1975), and Loren Eiseley’s works, including Italians of Omaha (1941). Its most popu­lar ti­ Another Kind of Autumn (1977). Nebraska state tle was Lincoln City Guide (1937), which sold poet William Kloefkorn’s many works in­ 16,000 copies. clude Welcome to Carlos (2000) and Loup River Nebraska Literary Socie­ties and Psalter (2001). U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s Awards: Writers in Nebraska early sought works include Weather Central (1994), Winter association with ot­ hers. In 1898 the English­ Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Club at the University of Nebraska estab­ Harrison (2000), and Delights and Shadows lished the The Kiote, self described as “a lit­ (2004). erary monthly dedicated to the prairie Nebraska drama is well represented by yelper.” The Quill, for wo­ men writers in Lin­ Crick Bottom Plays: Five Mid-­Western Sketches coln, began informally in 1921; the Omaha (1928) and In the Shadow of a Rock (1937) ­Women’s Press Club was created in 1946. The by E. P. Conkle, as well as by the Oedipal still-­active Nebraska Writers Guild began in dramas of Virgil Geddes in Native Ground: A 1925, at the start including such figures as Cycle of Plays (1932). David G. Wiltse, a con­ Cather, Neihardt, Bess Streeter Aldrich, and temporary playwright of interest, has con­ Louise Pound (1872–1958). The Nebraska tributed suspenseful plays such as Temporary ­Poetry Association produced Sandbars and Help (1999). Cattails: The Nebraska Poetry Association 1976 Nebraska fiction is rich in subjects and Anthology (1976). The Omaha Writers Group themes. Native American life is glimpsed in wasa or­g ­nized in 1946. the novel Ploughed Under:­ The Story of an In- Im­por­tant current groups supporting lit­ dian Chief, Told by Himself (1881) by William er­a­ture in Nebraska include the Nebraska Justin Harsha and in The Middle­ Five: Indian Humanities Council, the Nebraska Arts Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe (1900) by Fran­ Council, and the Nebraska Center for the cis La Flesche. Danish immigrant life is ex­ Book, which has generated a number of lit­ plored by Sophus Keith Winther in the erary awards. ­These include the Mildred Grimsen Trilogy, beginning with Take All to Bennett Award for contributions to “the lit­ Nebraska (1936). The Nebraska frontier is the erary tradition in Nebraska”; the Jane Geske subject of A Lantern in Her Hand (1928) by Award for organ­izations or schools for long­ Bess Streeter Aldrich and of Willa Cather’s time commitment to writing in Nebraska; classic works noted previously. Another and the Nebraska Book Awards Competition Cather novel, A Lost Lady (1923), is impor­ for best annual books in several categories, tant for portraying the decline of frontier including adult and juvenile fiction and values. Tillie Olsen’s Yonnondio: From the poetry. Thirties (1974) is a work of urban life in the SELECTED WORKS: A good place to start Depression. Wright Morris pictures Ne­ an exploration of Nebraska writing is with braska farm life in the photo­graphs and text four classic works: Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! of The Home Place (1948) and explores post­ (1913) and My Ántonia (1918), farm novels that frontier conditions ironically in Ceremony put Nebraska fully into American conscious­ in Lone Tree (1960). ness; Mari Sandoz’s fictionalized biography In addition to th­ ose already noted, of her father,­ Old Jules (1935); and John Nei­ several anthologies should be mentioned. hardt’s Black Elk Speaks (1932), which inti­ ­Virginia Faulkner edited Roundup: A

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­Nebraska Reader (1957), collecting essays and pear every­ year. Two standard works are excerpts putting the lit­er­a­ture into historical the biography Willa Cather: A Literary Life perspective. Nebraska Voices: Telling the Sto- (1987) by James Woodress and The Voyage ries of Our State (1993) consists of newspaper Perilous: Willa Cather’s Romanticism (1986) by columns selected by the Nebraska Human­ Susan Rosowski. Scholarly editions from the ities Council and occasioned by the 125th Willa Cather Archive are available for sev­ anniversary of Nebraska statehood. Rural eral novels, including O Pioneers! (1992) and Voices: Lit­er­a­ture from Rural Nebraska (2002), My Ántonia (1994). An introduction to Wright edited by Christopher Rand Gustafson, in­ Morris’s work in fiction and photography is cludes a broad variety of short poems and found in Wright Morris Revisited (1998) by prose pieces by both established writers Joseph J. Wydeven. Mari Sandoz is well and newcomers. Ladette Randolph edited served by Helen Winter Stauffer’s biogra­ A Dif­fer­ent Plain: Con­temporary Nebraska phy Mary Sandoz: Story Catcher of the Plains Fiction Writers (2004) and, with Nina (1982). Stauffer also edited Letters of Mari Shevchuk-­Murray, a nonfiction collection, Sandoz (1992). Useful books for approaching The Big Empty: Con­temporary Nebraska Non- John G. Neihardt include A Sender of Words: fiction Writers (2007). These­ volumes sug­ Essays in Memory of John G. Neihardt (1984), gest the rich diversity of con­temporary edited by Vine Deloria Jr., and Black Elk Nebraska writing. Road Trip: Conversations and Flaming Rainbow (1995), Hilda Neihardt with Writers (2003) contains excellent inter­ Petri’s memories of the relationship be­ views with twelve Nebraska writers con­ tween her ­father and Black Elk. James Re­ ducted by Shelly Clark and Marjorie Saiser. idel wrote Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Several impor­tant sources on folklore in­ Weldon Kees (2003). Carol Miles Petersen’s clude Nebraska Folklore (1959) by Louise Bess Streeter Aldrich: The Dreams Are All Real Pound and A Trea­sury of Nebraska Pioneer (1995) is a useful biography. Good introduc­ Folklore (1966) and Omaha Tribal Myths and tions to Kate Cleary are found in The Ne- Trickster Tales (1981) by Roger Welsch. braska of Kate McPhelim Cleary (1958), a mis­ FURTHER READING: cellany of stories, poems, ­recipes, and Bibliography, Biography, and Criti- sketches, and Kate M. Cleary: A Literary Biog- cism: Although no history of Nebraska raphy with Selected Works (1997) by Susanne lit­er­a­ture has yet been written, several George -­Bloomfield. valuable biblio­graphies exist. The first is No one can explore the Nebraska expe­ by Sophia J. Lammers, A Provisional List of rience in any depth without the expansive Nebraska Authors (1918). Margaret Badollet resources of the Nebraska Historical Society Shotwell and Henry F. Kieser compiled First and its quarterly journal, Nebraska History, Nebraska Authors’ Week—­Also Containing a first published in 1918. Several of the soci­ Directory of Nebraska Authors (1923). Alice G. ety’s publications are of value, including Harvey’s Nebraska Writers (1934), claiming Published Sources on Territorial Nebraska: An some four hundred Nebraska writers, is Essay and Bibliography (1956) by John Brown­ quite useful; the second edition (1964) does ing White, The Great­ Platte River Road: The not significantly expand the field. Jack Covered Wagon Mainline via Fort Kearny to Fort Brodie and Bernice Kauffman’s Nebraska Laramie by Merrill J. Mattes (1969), and Con- Centennial Literary Map and Guide to Nebraska quering the ­Great American Desert: Nebraska Authors (1967) is short but well annotated, (1975) by Everett Dick. John D. Unruh Jr.’s while Emily Jane Uzendoski’s doctoral the­ revisionist The Plains Across: The Overland Em- sis, “Handlist of Nebraska Authors” (1977), is igrants and the Trans-­Mississippi West, 1840–60 extensive but not annotated. A ­later bibli­ (1979) emphasizes cooperation rather than ography is Guide to Nebraska Authors (1998) individualism. For the Midwestern states on by Gerry Cox and Carol MacDaniels. The the ­Great Plains, a vital resource is the En- online website Nebraska Center for Writers cyclopedia of the ­Great Plains (2004), edited by at Creighton University is indispensable. David J. Wishart. Biographical and critical works on Willa Libraries, Archives, and Other Re- Cather are extensive, and new studies ap­ positories: Significant collections of Ne­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 595 N EW H OME—­W HO’LL F OLLOW? A , OR, G LIMPSES OF W ESTERN L I F E braska lit­er­a­ture are found throughout the land (1800–1846­ ), who was also an educa­ state, but especially in Lincoln. The Jane tor. ­After marrying in 1828, William and Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Au­ Caroline administered a girls’ school in Ge­ thors in the Bennett Martin Public Library neva, New York, from 1828 to 1835. In 1835, in Lincoln has the largest general collection, with their four ­children, including the along with a special Weldon Kees collection ­future writer JOSEPH KIRKLAND (1830–1894­ ), and the Dorothy Thomas Archive. The Ne­ the ­family moved to DETROIT, Michigan, braska State Historical Society Archives also where William Kirkland became a principal has a broad collection. The University of Ne­ at the Detroit ­Family Seminary. Two years braska Love Library Archives has special ­later, in 1837, the ­family moved to Pinckney, collections on Cather, Kees, Morris, Nei­ Michigan, a town that William Kirkland hardt, and Sandoz. Other impor­tant reposi­ founded on an eight-­hundred-­acre land tories are found at the Willa Cather Pioneer purchase. Caroline Kirkland’s experiences Memorial and Educational Foundation in in Pinckney inspired her first book, A New Red Cloud, the Mari Sandoz High Plains Home—­Who’ll Follow? and two subsequent Heritage Center at Chadron State College, works, Forest Life (1842) and Western Clearings and the John G. Neihardt Historical Site in (1845), all published ­under the pen name Bancroft. Mrs. Mary Clavers. The Kirklands re­ JOSEPH J. WYDEVEN BELLEVUE UNIVERSITY turned to New York City in 1843 ­because of financial pressures caused by the panic of NEW HOME—W­ HO’LL FOLLOW? A, OR, 1837. ­After William’s untimely death in GLIMPSES OF WESTERN LIFE 1846, Caroline Kirkland supported her HISTORY: The 1839 publication of A New ­family through her editorship from 1847 to Home—­Who’ll Follow? or, Glimpses of Western 1850 of Union Magazine of Lit­er­a­ture and Art, Life by CAROLINE KIRKLAND (1801–1864) pre­ which was renamed Sartain’s Union Maga- sented the American public for the first time zine in 1848. She was a prolific magazine with a realistic, conversational account of a contributor and wrote several books before ­woman settler’s experience in the West. An her death in 1864. autobiographical narrative employing In the preface to A New Home—­Who’ll pseudonyms for real ­people and places in Follow? Kirkland describes her central MICHIGAN, A New Home—­Who’ll Follow? premise: “I claim for th­ ese straggling and offers first-­person impressions of settle­ cloudy crayon-­sketches of life and ma­ nners ment by a well-­educated East Coast émi­ in the remoter parts of Michigan, the merit gré, Mrs. Mary Clavers, Kirkland’s nom de of general truth of outline” (v). The first plume. Chronicling the establishment over a eleven chapters recount Mrs. Clavers’s travel three-­year period of Montacute, a stand-in from Detroit to Montacute, offering humor­ for the actual­ town of Pinckney, Michigan, ous sketches of ­people and places. The semi­ Kirkland portrays the complex forces and nal image of chapter 1 is the ­omnipresent diverse ­peoples propelling the creation of “a Michigan bog hole. The remaining chapters new home” in the West. cover such topics as ho­ use­keeping and ­house Born Caroline Mathilda Stansbury, Kirk­ building in the West, the development of the land grew up in a supportive ­middle-­class local economy, the nuances of wildcat bank ­family in New York City. Her fa­ ther, Samuel scandals, and the contrasting fortunes of two Stansbury, was employed by an insurance towns, Montacute and Tinkerville. Through­ com­pany, and her ­mother, Eliza Alexander out, Kirkland depicts the pe­ ople, particu­ Stansbury, was an avid reader and writer. larly the ­women, who make up fledgling Kirkland received a strong formal education. western communities. In 1809, at the age of eight, she enrolled at In 1839 C. S. Francis and Com­pany pub­ a Quaker school where her aunt, Lydia lished the single-­volume first edition of A P(hiladelphia) Mott, was headmistress. A New Home—­Who’ll Follow? in New York. In gifted student, Kirkland became a school­ 1840, under­ the title Montacute: Or, A New teacher in New Hartford, New York. In 1819 Home—­Who’ll Follow?, E. Churton published she met her ­future husband, William Kirk­ the book in London in two volumes. The

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undertakes to describe, with a fidelity and real­ity, which at once fix the reader’s atten­ tion, and make him feel, that no common intellectual power is at work” (206). The re­ view extracts lengthy sections and praises their originality and artistry. Favorable notices appeared in American magazines, including Godey’s Lady’s Book, the Knickerbocker, and the New York Review. The “Editors’ Book Ta­ ble” notice in Godey’s Lady’s Book, January 1840, 45 describes the work as “very clever” and “one that must have been written from ac­ tual experience.” Noting the text’s “graphic sketches of life in Michigan” and ability to convey “the interest which so­ ber real­ity can assume,” the editors also praised its comedic merit: “We commend the book to ­every dyspeptic gentleman, and ner­ vous lady as a special antidote for low spir­ its.” The review in the Knickerbocker 14 (No­ vember 1839): 452–56­ begins with a strong endorsement: “Unhesitatingly, with the im­ pressions derived from its perusal fresh upon us, do we pronounce this unpretending vol­ ume one of the most natu­ral, pleasant, and Illustration by Felix Octavius Carr Darley entertaining books that we have read for a for the 4th edition of Caroline Kirkland’s twelvemonth” (452). Lambert Lilly, in the A New Home—Who’ll Follow?, 1850. New York Review 6 (January 1840): 250, called Image courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special the work “one of the cleverest productions Collections Research Center of the season; containing very in­ter­est­ing and lively pictures of western life, character, and manners.” work was popu­lar with the American pub­ The English­ press carried similarly favor­ lic and was acclaimed by American and Brit­ able notices. The review in the Athenaeum ish reviewers alike. By 1842, three editions 635 (December 28, 1839): 981–82­ describes had been printed in the United States, and the work as “lively, freshly-­coloured, and three editions had been published in characteristic” and suitable for ­those with ­Eng­land. C. S. Francis and Com­pany had “any appetite for what is humorous and published five American editions by 1855. As graphic.” The Literary Gazette, no. 1190 (No­ a testimony to its durability and continued vember 1839): 713, calls it “a more minute interest among readers, it was reissued in and faithful account of their [the settlers’] 1872 as Our New Home in the West: or, Glimpses daily life than any book of travels that has of Life Among the Early Settlers by James Miller been published.” in New York and reprinted in 1874. In the 1840s and 1850s positive assess­ Initial reception was celebratory. Corne­ ments of Kirkland’s ca­ reer appeared. In lius Conway Felton’s sixteen-­page review in “American Lit­er­a­ture: Its Position in the the North American Review 50 (January Pres­ent Time, and Prospects for the ­Future,” 1840): 206–23­ heralds the work’s “striking in Papers on Lit­er­a­ture and Art, part 2 (1846), merit,” dif­fer­ent from other works defined 121–59­ , the review by Margaret Fuller (Os­ by “repetition and imitation” (206). The re­ soli) (1810–1850­ ) highlights Kirkland’s view describes Kirkland as a “person who “spirited delineations” of settlers and “the sees for herself, and understands what she features of Hoosier, Sucker, and Wolverine sees” and characterizes her as possessing life . . . ​peculiar to the soil . . . ​[which] indi­ “the happy art of representing what she cate its hidden trea­sures” (130). John S.

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Hart in Female Prose Writers of Amer­i­ca (fifth sonation. This I utterly deny” (3–4­ ). Although edition 1855) praises Kirkland’s writing for she admits some regret, she also claims ar­ its “racy wit, keen observation of life and tistic freedom: “In ma­ tters of opinion I manners, and a certain air of refinement claim the freedom which is my birthright as which never forsakes her, even in the an American, and still further, the plain­ roughest scenes.” Hart adds, “­These sketches ness of speech which is a striking charac­ of western life ­were entirely without a par­ teristic of this Western country, the land of allel in American Lit­er­a­ture” (116–17­ ). my adoption” (4). Edgar Allan Poe’s series “The Literati of SIGNIFICANCE: A New Home—­Who’ll Fol- New York,” Godey’s Lady’s Book, August low? or, Glimpses of Western Life is an impor­ 1846, 75–76­ , assesses Kirkland’s ­career en­ tant work in American lit­er­a­ture and a thusiastically. It describes A New Home—­ significant contribution to Midwestern lit­ Who’ll Follow? as having “wrought an un­ er­a­ture for four reasons. First, Kirkland’s doubted sensation” and explains that “the account of settlement in the Old Northwest cause lay not so much in picturesque de­ Territory challenges masculine depictions of scription, in racy humor, or in animated the West prevalent at this time. Discussing individual portraiture, as in truth and nov­ ­women’s friendships, contributions, and elty” (75; Poe’s emphasis). The review com­ hardships, Kirkland underscores the cen­ mends her realism: “With a fidelity and trality of women’s­ experience in the pro­cess vigor that prove her pictures to be taken of migration and settlement. Second, Kirk­ from the very life, she has represented land’s account is an early work of American ‘scenes’ that could have occurred only as realism. Published one year before a work and where she has described them” (75). Poe considered a forerunner of American real­ ranks Kirkland as a top-­tier American au­ ism, Two Years before the Mast (1840) by thor: “Unquestionably, she is one of our Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882­ ), Kirk­ best writers, has a province of her own, and land shares many of the commitments to in that province has few equals” (76). verisimilitude noted in Dana’s work. Third, Rufus Griswold’s first edition of The Prose Kirkland’s artistry anticipates the mid-­ to Writers of Amer­i­ca (1847), a study of seventy-­ late nineteenth-­century interest in region­ one American writers, includes five wo­ men alism and local color that proliferated af­ ter writers: Caroline Kirkland, Catharine M. the Civil War. Kirkland’s narrative voice Sedgwick (1789–1867­ ), Eliza Leslie (1787–­ displays a range of response that includes 1858), Lydia M. Child (1802–1880­ ), and alternating detachment and close identi­ Margaret Fuller. About Kirkland’s three fication with characters, a technique typi­ western texts, Griswold’s book maintains, cal of local-­color prose. Fourth, Kirkland’s “No works of their class ­were ever more depiction of Michigan documents the “First brilliantly successful than ­these original West”—­territories immediately west of the and admirable pictures of frontier scenery, thirteen colonies—as a dynamic, heteroge­ woodcraft, and domestic experience” (463). neous site. Kirkland emphasizes demo­ Griswold heralds Kirkland’s art as a para­ graphic and topographic diversity in a man­ gon, “­free from the tyranny of British ex­ ner that defies any easy classification of amples” (463). the Midwest as a par­tic­u­lar type of place. Although the general public welcomed She captures the complex, chaotic forces the book, residents of Pinckney, Michigan, ­behind the establishment of new western bristled at the portrayal of them. In the communities. preface to Forest Life (1842) Kirkland ex­ Kirkland’s influence is evident in the hy­ presses caution about literary depictions of brid narrative style of Fuller’s A Summer on the ­people, commenting on her neighbors’ dis­ Lakes, in 1843 (1844). Fuller’s first sentence— approval: “I am credibly informed that inge­ “Since you are to share with me such foot-­ nious malice has been busy in finding sub­ notes as may be made on the pages of my stance for the shadows which ­were called life during this summer’s wanderings”—­ up to give variety to the pages of a ‘A new echoes Kirkland’s pre­sen­ta­tion of her work Home,’ [sic]—in short, that I have been ac­ as “straggling and cloudy crayon-­sketches cused of substituting personality for imper­ of life and manners.”

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More generally, Kirkland’s blending nity, consumerism, depictions of Native of realism and sentimentalism and her Americans, and repre­sen­ta­tions of social mixing of social commentary with humor class and classism. place her among the major American fe­ Osborne’s 1972 Caroline M. Kirkland re­ male authors of the nineteenth ­century. mains the only major biography. The four Kirkland contributes to, and belongs within, Kirkland entries in Dictionary of Literary Bi- a ­woman’s tradition of nineteenth-­century ography 3, 73, 74, and 250 are exceptionally American lit­er­a­ture that includes, among informative, as is Stacy L. Spencer’s profile ­others, Lydia Maria Child, Catharine in Legacy 8.2 (Fall 1992): 133–40­ , which ­Maria Sedgwick, Fanny Fern (Sara Willis ­includes a bibliography of primary and sec­ Parton) (1811–1872­ ), Harriet Beecher Stowe ondary sources. Erika M. Kreger’s 1999 (1811–1896­ ), and E. D. E. N. Southworth ­bibliographic essay “A Bibliography of Works (1819–1899). by and about Caroline Kirkland,” Tulsa Stud- IMPOR­TANT EDITIONS: A New Home—­ ies in ­Women’s Lit­er­a­ture 18.2 (Fall 1999): 299–­ Who’ll Follow? remained out of print for 350, provides an annotated bibliography of nearly eighty years un­ til 1953, when John Kirkland scholarship through the mid-1990s. Nerber edited A New Home; or, Life in the Clear- Five notable studies of the text since 2000 ings, which included selected chapters from include a chapter on Kirkland and Sedgwick both A New Home—­Who’ll Follow? and Forest in Lori Merish’s Sentimental Materialism: Life, for G. P. Putnam’s Sons. In 1965 the Col­ ­Gender, Commodity Culture, and Nineteenth-­ lege and University Press published an edi­ Century Lit­er­a­ture (2000), 88–134­ ; Eliza­ tion of A New Home—­Who’ll Follow?, edited beth C. Barnes’s 2003 essay “The Politics of by William S. Osborne. In 1990 Sandra A. Vision in Caroline Kirkland’s Frontier Zagarell contributed an edition for Rutgers Fiction,” Legacy 20.1–2­ (January 2003): 62–­ University Press’s American ­Women Writers 75; Mary DeJong Obuchowski’s essay Series. Using the 1839 C. S. Francis and Com­ “ ‘Murdered Banquos of the Forest’: Caro­ pany first edition, Zagarell includes an ex­ line Kirkland’s Environmentalism,” Mid- tensive introduction, explanatory notes, and western Miscellany 33.1(Spring 2005): 73–79; a bibliography. Hers is the definitive critical Jeffrey Hotz’s essay “Imagining a New edition. West, a Midwest, in Caroline Kirkland’s A FURTHER READING: Despite its initial New Home, Who’ll Follow?,” Midwestern Mis- success, Kirkland’s A New Home—­Who’ll Fol- cellany 38 (Spring/Fall 2010): 8–23­ ; and Ra­ low? garnered ­little scholarly attention in chel Azima’s essay “Promotion, Borrowing, the first half of the twentieth ce­ ntury. and Caroline Kirkland’s Literary La­ bors,” Langley C. Keyes’s 1935 Harvard Univer­ ESQ: A Journal of the American Re­nais­sance 57.4 sity ­dissertation “Caroline Matilda Kirk­ (2011): 390–426­ . ­These interpretations focus, land: A Pioneer in American Realism” is the respectively, on consumerism, visual textual most substantial criticism before 1965. This dynamics, environmental consciousness, limited response mirrors early twentieth-­ regional repre­sen­ta­tions, and Kirkland’s century scholarly re­sis­tance to nineteenth-­ textual borrowing as an economic commen­ century ­women writers. tary. Obuchowski has also contributed William S. Osborne’s 1965 edition of the “Caroline Kirkland” to Early American Nature novel and his 1972 biography Caroline M. Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia, edited by Kirkland marked a shift in reception. Build­ Daniel Patterson (2008), 235–41­ . ing on feminist criticism and the recovery Kirkland’s papers are held in a number of ­women’s texts, Annette Kolodny’s The of libraries, including the Clifton Waller Land before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the Barrett Library at the University of ­Virginia, American Frontiers, 1630–1860 (1984) made the Cornell University Library, the Mas­sa­ another impor­tant contribution, arguing chu­setts Historical Society, the New York that Kirkland revises masculine visions of Public Library, the Historical Society of the frontier. Since then, Kirkland’s first Pennsylvania, the Michigan Historical Col­ book has generated a body of criticism. lections, the University of Michigan, and the Studies focus on domesticity, female bond­ Cincinnati Historical Society. ing, gender identity and gender commu­ JEFFREY HOTZ EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY

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NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM and semiweekly Tribune editions that sup­ OVERVIEW: Journalism has become a pro­ plied agricultural news, advice, and moral fession noted for its rapid pro­cessing of facts support for ­people settling the frontier. and information for distribution through the Individualistic, cantankerous, and mass media, and American reporters have opinionated Midwest editors often seemed earned a reputation for reliable, nonpartisan more in­de­pen­dent than they ­were. They de­ reporting of major events and issues. News­ pended on their communities for advertis­ papers had been the major news medium ing and subscriptions, and they often needed since colonial settlement in North Amer­ po­liti­cal, economic, or religious sponsors. i­ca, but the nature of newspapers changed Boosterism sometimes replaced po­liti­cal in the early nineteenth ce­ ntury at the same patronage. Mary Wheel­house Berthel, in time as settlers moved into the Midwest. Horns of Thunder: The Life and Times of James M. Before that time newspapers had been par­ Goodhue (1948), quotes editor James M. tisan promoters of po­liti­cal and mercantile Goodhue (1810–1852) of the Minnesota Pioneer interests, mostly written by elites for other as saying, “I dwell upon Minnesota and elites.­ St. Paul; for they are ever in my thoughts Nineteenth-­century newspaper editors and a part of my very existence. Th­ ere is not faced new urban audiences with diverse lan­ a party tie or po­liti­cal association that I guage and literacy backgrounds. ­These new would not instantly sever, to promote their readers purchased news on the street about welfare” (75–77). Goodhue printed extra crime, sex, social issues, HUMOR, and other copies to celebrate MINNESOTA’s virtues to working -­class ­people. Pop­u­lar papers ­were the entire world and distributed his mes­ sometimes sold on the street for as li­ ttle as sage through the networks by which edi­ a penny rather than through annual sub­ tors exchanged copies with one another to scriptions. While urban newspapers in the share news with distant cities. East built larger and faster printing presses As an editor of the Ohio State Journal in to print newspapers for mass audiences, Columbus, WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS (1837– editors headed for the Midwest with the 1920) edited a regular column of items lifted ­simple Washington hand press with hol­ or summarized from exchanges. Thomas low legs to make it lighter to transport via Wortham in The Early Prose Writings of Wil- covered wagons. See also PRINTING AND liam Dean Howells (1990) quotes Howells as PUBLISHING. saying in a December 22, 1858, column of This entry emphasizes the late nine­ items, “We think that the business of item­ teenth and early twentieth centuries in the izing has a tendency to blunt the keen edge Midwest, when newspapers ­were the domi­ of the sense of honesty” (126). Some news­ nant mass medium. Editors in the Midwest papers tended to reprint items without usually promoted towns and, in competitive credit, Howells continued, and then other areas, often supported opposing po­liti­cal newspapers would reprint ­those items. An cliques in hopes of winning printing con­ agitated reader once complained that the To- tracts when their patrons won elections. ledo Blade had printed something he had Daily and Sunday newspapers published not written without credit. Then a Columbus only journalism but also poetry, humor, fic­ newspaper reprinted that item, giving credit tion, and essays. Many literary figures began to the Blade. Howells said that it was often in Midwestern journalism, which provided “a matter­ of some difficulty to indicate the a training ground, a rich source of material, original proprietorship of an item, and re­ and a place to be published. quires a prodigious effort to hunt up the HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE: The New pencil, and affix a credit” (126). Nonetheless, York Tribune ­under Horace Greeley (1811– the Toledo man’s item was “­going the rounds 1872) advocated westward expansion as a of a predatory press—­tossed upon a newspa­ “safety valve” to relieve poverty in New York per sea, a helmless boat, with no clearance City, and he borrowed and often repeated papers abroad.” Howells began his literary the advice “Go West, young man.” This oft-­ ­career at the Hamilton (Ohio) Intelligencer, quoted statement promoted opportunities in which his fa­ ther owned, and may have the Midwest, and Greeley published weekly been influential in creating a perception of

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EWSPAPER J OURNALISM 600 journalism as lowbrow culture and lit­er­a­ Perhaps the most partisan and creative ture as high culture. editor, although not in a literary sense, was The war of words over wh­ ether KANSAS Wilbur F. Storey (1819–1884), who, as quoted would become a ­free or a slave state began in Justin E. Walsh’s To Print the News and ­under an elm tree near the ­future site of Raise Hell: A Biography of Wilbur F. Storey Leavenworth when the Kansas Weekly Herald (1968), said in 1861 that a newspaper’s duty first appeared in 1854. A second pro-­slavery is “to print the news and raise hell” (4). As paper began at Kickapoo, and ­free-­state pa­ the nineteen-­year-­old editor of the La Porte pers soon followed at Lawrence, reflecting Herald in INDIANA, as quoted by Walsh, he at­ the national debate begun by the Kansas-­ tacked an opposing editor as “a degraded Nebraska Act passed that year. Fr­ ee-­state being, an abandoned reprobate, entirely papers— ­the Kansas Herald of Freedom, reckless of truth, deceitful and treacherous, the Kansas ­Free State, and the Kansas a filthy and loathsome blackguard, an object Tribune—began­ in Lawrence in the mid- of pity and contempt rather than of ridicule” 1950s. More than one hundred newspapers (18). ­Later, in South Bend he supported a ­were published in Kansas’s territorial pe­ candidate who fell so hopelessly ­behind in a riod between 1854 and 1861, and both sides congressional race that Storey ran a front-­ invited settlers to come and vote on page story saying that his Whig opponent ­whether Kansas would be slave or fr­ ee. had died, forcing residents to vote for Sto­ Raiders from MISSOURI often targeted rey’s Demo­crat. Readers ­were not intimi­ newspaper offices ­because they ­were influ­ dated, however, and the Whig candidate ential in the abolitionist movement. ­After won despite Storey’s dirty trick. ­After the the Civil War, African American editors election Storey said that he had relied on an boosted Kansas by encouraging the mi­ unfounded rumor. During the Civil War, gration of freed slaves into small towns Storey was the publisher of the Chicago Times founded on the prairie. and sent correspondent Franc B. Wilkie Trying to avoid the sectional strife and (1832–1892) to cover the war with this oft-­ the Civil War, SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS quoted and misquoted instruction: “Tele­ (1835–1910), who would write as Mark graph fully all the news, and when th­ ere is Twain, headed west from his native Mis­ no news, send rumors.” Wilkie, as quoted in souri. Before that, however, he worked as a Personal Reminiscences of Thirty-­Five Years of writer or printer on newspapers in ST. LOUIS, Journalism (1891), said that the comment em­ CINCINNATI, and Keokuk, IOWA. Clemens had phasized the telegraph, stressing that re­ served as an apprentice to his older ­brother porters should send news often and quickly Orion on two Missouri newspapers before (114–15). Nonetheless, General U. S. Grant becoming a riverboat captain and la­ ter fol­ banished one of Storey’s annoying reporters lowing him to Nevada, where ABRAHAM LIN­ from the war, but two ­others—­Wilkie and COLN (1809–1865) had appointed the older Sylvanus Cadwallader—­were respected Civil Clemens territorial secretary. Clemens wrote War journalists. Nonetheless, Union Major serious news and satire—­sometimes with­ General Ambrose Burnside moved his army out a clear difference—­for the Territorial into the Chicago Times to shut down this Cop­ Enterprise in Virginia­ City, Nevada. From perhead newspaper for three days in June Carson City he wrote a series of exagger­ 1863 before President Lincoln intervened. ated articles, one of which he signed “Mark In contrast to Storey, Abraham Lincoln, Twain,” a nom de plume derived from a also in ILLINOIS, exploited newspapers to river term meaning two chalk marks, or launch his po­liti­cal ­career. He sometimes twelve feet of wa­ ter, and appropriated by his wrote for newspapers, and his first known Nevada associates in drinking contests. Cle­ newspaper letter appeared in the Sangamon mens’s humor borrowed from CHARLES FAR­ Journal (sometimes called the Sangamo RAR BROWNE (Artemus Ward) (1834–1867) and Journal) of Springfield. Af­ ter election to William Wright (Dan De Quille) (1829–1898), the Illinois legislature, Lincoln sent reports whom he met in Nevada and California. He to the Sangamon Journal under­ pseudonyms both copied and parodied the method of that reflected his sense of humor: Johnny borrowing news from the exchanges. Blubberhead, Citizen of Sangamon, Con­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 601 N EWSPAPER J OURNALISM servative, Our Correspondent, Sampson’s it in 1879 with the Post to begin the Post-­ Ghost, Old Settler, and Rebecca. When Dispatch, one of the nation’s most influen­ Lincoln became the Whig floor leader, tial newspapers, based on in­de­pen­dence the Sangamo Journal began publishing his from po­liti­cal parties and support for the speeches. working poor. In Chicago, Melville Stone Lincoln seemed awkward among crowds, founded the Daily News in 1876 as an alter­ but he knew how to spin his message for native to the solidly Republican Tribune newspapers. Seeking to represent Illinois in with a pledge that the publisher would the U.S. Senate in 1858, Lincoln began stalk­ have no economic interests other than the ing the incumbent and taking the platform newspaper. Stone even investigated his ad­ to rebut each of his speeches. Senator Ste­ vertisers, and he provided sympathetic cov­ phen A. Douglas, the incumbent, became erage of striking railroad workers in 1877 so frustrated that he fi­nally allowed Lincoln despite business pressure to ignore them. to join him on the platform, creating the Stone became general man­ag­er of the As­ famous Lincoln-­Douglas debates. Unlike sociated Press in 1900 ­after the wire ser­vice ­today’s sound-­bite campaigns, ­these debates became a cooperative. Edward Willis Scripps allowed uninterrupted statements ranging (1854–1926) became even more in­de­pen­dent, from half an hour to an hour and a half. In starting a newspaper that spurned advertis­ this era newspapers reprinted documents ers, and counted Sandburg among his more than they wrote stories. The Lincoln-­ reporters. Douglas debates pushed newspapers a step The tumultuous urban growth and ­toward po­liti­cal in­de­pen­dence ­because cor­ change in journalism from the Civil War respondents knew that the opposition was through the 1920s stimulated a creative pe­ covering the same event and tried to report riod even as journalism moved ­toward glo­ as accurately as pos­si­ble. ­After he was rification of fact and objectivity over creativ­ elected president, Lincoln ended a complex ity. Several newspapers made distinctive patronage system for national, state, and lo­ impacts on the region’s culture. The Chicago cal newspapers by creating the Government Defender stimulated a large migration to Chi­ Printing Office. cago of African Americans from the South, ­After the Civil War, CHICAGO emerged as where discrimination, mob vio­lence, and both an agricultural and an urban center, lack of civil rights infected everyday life. and Chicago newspapers produced key LANGSTON (JAMES MERCER) HUGHES (1902–1967) literary figures, including playwright­later wrote a column for the Defender, which GEORGE ADE (1866–1944), muckraker RAY STANNARD BAKER (1870–1946), humorist FIN­ LEY PETER DUNNE (1867–1936), novelist (HER­ MAN) THEODORE DREISER (1871–1945), colum­ nist EUGENE FIELD (SR.) (1850–1895), and authors (HANNIBAL) HAMLIN GARLAND (1860– 1940), RING(GOLD WILMER) LARDNER (SR.) (1885–1933), and CARL (AUGUST) SANDBURG (1878–1967). Dreiser, Lardner, and Garland derived much of their somber realism from reporting on Chicago. Chicago journalists BEN HECHT (1894–1964) and CHARLES (GOR­ DON) MACARTHUR (1895–1956) re-­created many of the pe­ ople and events they knew in the Windy City in their classic comedy The Front Page, which opened on Broadway on August 14, 1928. In ­de­pen­dence preceded objectivity. In St. Louis, immigrant Joseph Pulitzer Chicago newsboy selling the Chicago (1847–1911) purchased the bankrupt Dis- Defender, 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. patch for $2,500 and within days combined Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N EWSPAPER J OURNALISM 602 also printed work by other major African large cities and small towns across the coun­ American writers, like GWENDOLYN BROOKS try available in an easily searchable format (1917–2000) and WILLARD F. MOTLEY (1909– that has revolutionized HISTORIOGRAPHY and 1965). By contrast, WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE journalistic studies. The online versions of (1868–1944) attracted national attention to some newspapers, such as the Chicago Tri- the Emporia Gazette with his po­liti­cal bune, offer archival access to their subscrib­ commentaries and columns about life in ers. The Library of Congress maintains small-­town Kansas. Novelist EDNA FERBER Chronicling Amer­i­ca, a free­ online database (1885–1968) began her ca­ reer writing for of digitized historical newspapers. Keyword newspapers in Appleton and Milwaukee, searches on th­ ese databases ­will yield many WISCONSIN; she later­ applied journalistic re­ articles written by authors of importance to search techniques to her fiction, as well as a literary history. certain reportorial style. A number of Fer­ The Early Prose Writings of William Dean ber’s contemporaries followed a similar Howells (1990), edited by Thomas Wortham, ­career path. By the end of the twentieth includes columns Howells wrote for Ohio ­century, however, as newspapers began to newspapers. An authoritative collection of decline, fewer literary writers made their Samuel Langhorne Clemens’s journalism start in journalism. The consolidation of has not been published, but a number of vol­ media and the cult of objectivity posed umes collect his newspaper writing; the difficulties for literary voices in daily jour­ two -­volume set Mark Twain: The Collected nalism, while academic creative-­writing Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays (1992), programs like THE IOWA WRITERS’ WORKSHOP edited by Louis J. Budd, provides a good became the new launching pad for literary start. Clemens provides a mix of fact and ­careers. autobiographical fiction in Roughing It (1872), The situation for newspapers has wors­ as does Theodore Dreiser in Newspaper Days: ened in the new millennium as readers An Autobiography (1931), originally pub­ have fled to the internet. Many papers have lished in 1922 as A Book about Myself. been forced to combine in joint operating Stories of the Streets and of the Town: From agreements, move operations partly or com­ the “Chicago Rec­ord,” 1893–1900 (1941) collects pletely online, or cease publication entirely. articles by George Ade, many with illustra­ Many small-­city newspapers have reduced tions by John T. McCutcheon. The book was page count and shifted their focus to local reprinted in 2003 as Stories of Chicago. Collec­ coverage. Positive signs, however, can be tions of journalism by Ray Stannard Baker seen in continued efforts to maintain qual­ include Our New Prosperity (1900). Finley Pe­ ity of writing and cultural coverage. ­These ter Dunne published several volumes of his include the columns of (MICHAEL) MIKE pieces written in the voice of an Irish bar­ ROYKO (1932–1997) in a succession of Chicago tender for the Chicago Sunday Post, including newspapers from 1959 through 1997; the Mr. Dooley’s Philosophy (1900). Sharps and Flats ­careers of novelists like Chicago-­based Cu­ (1900), a two-­volume set edited by Slason ban American Achy Obejas (b. 1956), begin­ Thompson, collects Eugene Field’s newspa­ ning in newspaper work; and the recent per columns. By-­line, Ernest Hemingway: Se- syndication of “American Life in Poetry,” a lected Articles and Dispatches of Four De­cades ­free weekly column distributed nationally, (1967), edited by William White, pres­ents featuring a poem by a con­temporary Amer­ some of ERNEST (MILLER) HEMINGWAY’s (1899–­ ican writer with a brief introduction by Ted 1961) best journalism. Kooser (b. 1939) of NEBRASKA, the 2004–2006 The Broadway comedy The Front Page Poet Laureate of the United States. The ­future (1928) by Chicago journalists Ben Hecht and of newspapers is uncertain, but such efforts Charles MacArthur satirizes Midwestern have demonstrated that ­there is still a place newspaper work. Christopher C. De Santis for literate journalism in the Midwest. has edited Langston Hughes and the “Chicago SELECTED WORKS: Newspaper databases, Defender”: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, to which college libraries are the primary 1942–62 (1995). Mike Royko’s columns ­were subscribers, have made nineteenth-­ and collected in many volumes, such as Sez Who? twentieth-­century newspapers from both Sez Me (1982).

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FURTHER READING: Although few stud­ press and the myth of objectivity displaced ies consider the development of journalism overt partisanship. William E. Huntzicker’s or literary journalism of the Midwest The Pop­u­lar Press, 1833–1865 (1999) looks at the alone, two succinct readable histories tell of transition as a slow, gradual change over the origins of journalism in Missouri and much of the ce­ ntury. David T. Mindich in MINNESOTA. William E. Lyon, in The Pioneer Just the Facts: How Objectivity Came to Define Editor in Missouri, 1808–1860 (1965), looks at American Journalism (2000) traces objec­ editors and their place in frontier life at a time tivity to the news releases of Lincoln’s when street fights between editors could co­ Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (1814– incide with their court ­battles. George S. 1869), who used factual reporting and num­ Hage in Newspapers on the Minnesota Frontier bers to manipulate the truth. Richard L. (1967) provides an in-­depth and entertain­ Kaplan’s Politics and the American Press: The ing look at the earliest newspapers in Min­ Rise of Objectivity, 1865–1920 (2002) looks at nesota. These­ editors doggedly attacked DETROIT newspapers to challenge the idea of po­liti­cal corruption, but such corruption, of a contrast between partisan and commer­ course, usually ran rampant among the op­ cial journalism, saying that publishers position and seldom, if ever, on the editor’s found that market segmentation appealed own side. to commercial and po­liti­cal constituencies. Aurora Wallace’s Newspapers and the Duane C. S. Stoltzfus, in Freedom from Ad- Making of Modern Amer­i­ca: A History (2005) vertising: E. W. Scripps’s Chicago Experiment explores the contributions to their commu­ (2007), looks at a newspaper without ad­ nities of dif­fer­ent types of newspapers, vertising and Sandburg’s role in it. Hazel including the African American Chicago Dicken -­Garcia’s Journalistic Standards in ­Defender, the Des Moines Register in Iowa, Nineteenth-­Century Amer­i­ca (1989) considers and William Allen White’s Emporia Gazette professionalism and ethics in the field. in Kansas. Studies of individual newspa­ Outsiders in 19th-­Century Press History: pers and journalists abound, but Michael Multicultural Perspectives (2002), edited by Robertson’s Stephen Crane, Journalism, and Frankie Hutton and Barbara Straus Reed, the Making of Modern American Lit­er­a­ture examines African American, Native Ameri­ (1997) links the journalism and lit­er­a­ture of can, Chinese American, and other minority Midwestern authors Howells, Dreiser, and newspapers. Patrick S. Washburn gives spe­ Hemingway with the works of Crane, show­ cial attention to the Chicago Defender in The ing how their journalism informed their lit­er­ African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom a­ture and how they used reporters as char­ (2006) and A Question of Sedition: The Federal acters in their fiction. Lincoln’s use of Government’s Investigation of the Black Press newspapers is outlined by Robert S. Harper during World War II (1986). in Lincoln and the Press (1951), by Lincoln In Chicago Journalism: A History (2009) scholar Harold Holzer in Lincoln and the Chicago reporter-­editor Wayne Klatt applies Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion his journalistic concern for accuracy and (2014), and by Gregory A. Borchard and flair for writing to a survey of the Windy David W. Bulla in Lincoln Mediated: The City’s journalism and occasionally weaves President and the Press through Nineteenth-­ into his story the literary figures and ­others Century Media (2015). “for whom the news business was just a Several comprehensive histories of phase” (108). Richard Junger ties early Chi­ the U.S. mass media have been written, but cago journalism to city boosters in Becoming none focuses exclusively on the Midwest. the Second City: Chicago’s Mass News Media, Like the histories of journalism, discussions 1833–1898 (2010), and Jon Bekken adds addi­ of literary journalism seldom look at the tional social context in “Shaping Chicago’s craft from a regional perspective, even Sense of Self: Chicago Journalism in the though they always include In Cold Blood Nineteenth Ce­ ntury,” published online in (1966) by Truman Capote (1924–1984), with H-­Net Reviews, August 2011. The best cri­ its focus on Kansas murders. tiques linking journalism to lit­er­a­ture are Journalism history scholars have de­ James DeMuth’s Small Town Chicago (1980), bated when the idea of an in­de­pen­dent emphasizing Ade, Dunne, and Lardner; and

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Shelly Fisher Fishkin’s From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in Amer­i­ca (1985), with sections on Midwestern news­ papermen Clemens, Dreiser, and Heming­ way. Fishkin, who has edited an extensive Oxford edition of Clemens’s writings, fo­ cuses on Twain’s lit­er­a­ture and journalism in Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on © Karen Greasley, 2014 Mark Twain and American Culture (1998). James Edward Caron has contributed Mark Twain: Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter (2010), which places Clemens’s early journalistic tory and culture often blend into th­ ose of ­career in a historical context. MINNESOTA, SOUTH DAKOTA, and Montana, Much scholarship touches on Ernest as well as the Canadian prairie provinces to Hemingway’s apprenticeship and la­ter the north. The northern-­flowing Red River work in journalism. Elizabeth Dewberry’s of the North sets its eastern border, and the “Hemingway’s Journalism and the Realist Missouri River, which served as an impor­ Dilemma,” in The Cambridge Companion to tant early means of EXPLORATION, travel, Hemingway (1996), edited by Scott Donald­ and commerce, tends to break the state into son, 16–35. is a good start for inquiry into sections. The map of tribal territory in 1850 the topic. published in Elwyn B. Robinson’s History of WILLIAM E. HUNTZICKER ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY North Dakota (1966) includes Mandan, Hi­ datsa, and Arikara in the center and west, NONFICTION. Teton Dakota in the southwest, Assiniboin See Creative Nonfiction in the northwest, Ojibwa in the northeast, and Yanktonai Dakota in the largest land NORTH DAKOTA area, the southeast and center. Reservations North Dakota was admitted to the Union include Fort Berthold, Standing Rock, Tur­ on November 2, 1889, as the thirty-­ninth tle Mountain, and Spirit Lake. state. Before statehood parts of North Da­ The first lit­er­a­ture in North Dakota was kota ­were claimed by France, Spain, and that of American Indian tribes, which was ­Eng ­land. The Louisiana Purchase trans­ passed down in oral accounts. The next ferred the North Dakota area drained by body of lit­er­a­ture was written by Eu­ro­ the Missouri River to the United Sates in pean adventurers, explorers, fur traders, and 1803. In 1818 North Dakota became part of missionaries and in business reports, letters, Missouri Territory. journals, and religious writings. The first ad­ The area east of the Missouri River was, venturers and explorers we­ re typically sent in succession, part of Michigan Territory from Eu­ro­pean centers of government and (1834–1836), Wisconsin Territory (1836–1838), commerce, and their utilitarian motives Iowa Territory (1838–1849), and Minnesota ­were mixed with greed as natu­ral resources Territory (1849–1858); the area was without ­were discovered. territorial oversight when Minnesota be­ In the ­later de­cades of the nineteenth came a state in 1858. The North Dakota area ­century, immigrants from over forty coun­ west of the Missouri River was part of Ne­ tries, with high percentages from Germany braska Territory (1854–1861). The whole­ of and Norway, settled in the state, bringing North Dakota was part of Dakota Territory their native cultures with them. Home­ (1861–1889). steader lit­er­a­ture reflected optimism that the Area: 70,699 square miles new land would be an improvement over Land: 69,001 square miles their recent experiences in their home ­Water: 1,698 square miles countries. ­These narratives emphasized Population (2010 census): 672,591 their formative years in the state and of­ OVERVIEW: North Dakota, the state at the ten described harsh natu­ral landscapes, geographic center of North Amer­i­ca, has a brutal weather conditions, and the rigors small population, and its Midwestern his­ of farming.

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HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE: The fol­ wrote about Indian life in The Taming of the lowing sections provide roughly chrono­ Sioux (1917) and Life and Death of Sitting Bull logical accounts of literary development (1933). Earth Lodge Tales from the Upper Mis- in North Dakota, beginning with American souri: Traditional Stories of the Arikara, Hi- Indian lit­er­a­ture and proceeding to ac­ datsa, and Mandan (1978), edited by Douglas counts of exploration and travel before R(ichard) Parks (b. 1942), A. Wesley Jones, statehood and to AUTOBIOGRAPHY, memoir, and Robert C. Hollow, incorporates both and biography, followed by fiction, poetry, native and Engl­ish texts. Mary Jane DRAMA, printing and journalism, the Schneider, author of North Dakota Indians: ­FEDERAL WRITERS’, PROJCT ­E , and significant An Introduction (1986) and North Dakota’s In- popu ­lar lit­er­a­ture categories. ­These sec­ dian Heritage (1990), wrote, with Carolyn tions are followed by a brief account of (Ives) Gilman (b. 1954), The Way to In­de­pen­ North Dakota’s literary awards.. dence: Memories of a Hidatsa Indian Fam­ ily, American Indian Lit­er­a­ture: Marie 1840–­1920 (1987). Native traditions are incor­ L(ouise Buisson) McLaughlin (1842–1933), porated in Teton Sioux ­Music (1918) and who was one-­quarter Sioux, wrote down Mandan and Hidatsa ­Music (1923) by Frances the stories her grand­mother had told her in Densmore (1867–1957). The First Sioux Nun: Myths and Legends of the Sioux (1916), first ­Sister Marie-­Josephine Nebraska, 1859–­1894 published by the Bismarck Tribune. “A Leg­ (1963) by ­Sister Mary Ione Hilger (1897–1971) end of Dev­il’s Lake” is included in Indian Boy- is a biography for young readers. hood (1902) by CHARLES ALEXANDER EASTMAN The best-­known North Dakota Native (Ohiyesa) (1858–1939). Gilbert (Livingstone) American fiction writer is (KAREN) LOUISE Wilson (1868–1930) recorded lives of the ERDRICH (b. 1954), who has been writing her Mandan and Hidatsa Indians in Goodbird saga for nearly three de­cades, employing the Indian: His Story (1914) and Wahenee: An stories she heard from her Ojibwa and Ger­ Indian Girl’s Story as Told by Herself to Gil- man ancestors. Her novel LOVE MEDICINE bert L. Wilson (1921). In Essie’s Story: The Life (1984), awarded the 1984 National Book Crit­ and ­Legacy of a Shoshone Teacher (1998) Es­ ics Circle Award, introduces the Kashpaw ther Burnett Horne (Shoshone) (1909– and Lamartine families; its chapters are set 1999), who taught at the Wahpeton Indian between 1934 and 1984 and are told by vari­ School from 1930 to the 1950s, tells her story ous ­family members. Erdrich’s novels also in collaboration with anthropologist Sally include The Beet Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), McBeth. The Bingo Palace (1994), Tales of Burning Love Other works about the state’s American (1996), The Antelope Wife (1998), The Last Re- Indians have been written or edited by port on the Miracles at ­Little No Horse (2001), white authors. Orin G(rant) Libby (1864– The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003), Four 1952), University of North Dakota professor Souls (2004), The Painted Drum (2005), The of history and longtime director of the State Plague of Doves (2008), Shadow Tag (2010), and Historical Society of North Dakota, inter­ The Round House (2012). The Crown of Colum- viewed men who ­were at the ­Little Bighorn bus (1991), written with Michael Dorris and wrote The Arikara Narrative of the Cam- (1945–1997), pres­ents a Native response to the paign against the Hostile Dakotas, June, 1876 “discovery” of the New World by Columbus. (1920), which is volume 6 in the State His­ Louise Erdrich’s poetry collections in­ torical Society of North Dakota’s North clude Jacklight (1984), Baptism of Desire (1989), Dakota Historical Collections. Libby’s and Original Fire: Selected and New Poems grandchildren, Robert Barr and Martha (2003). Her ­sister, Heid E. Erdrich (b. 1963), Barr Liebert, published Corn Silk (2004), a has published several books of poetry, in­ summary of which had been printed by the cluding Fishing for Myth (1997), The ­Mother’s State Historical Society. James McLaughlin Tongue (2005), and National Monuments (1842–1923), an Indian agent at Dev­ils Lake (2008). and Standing Rock, wrote My Friend the In- Susan Power (b. 1961), an enrolled mem­ dian (1910) about his life and ca­ reer. Frank ber of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, has (Bennett) Fiske (1883–1952), a photographer contributed two fictional works about who spent much of his life at Fort Yates, American Indian life: The Grass Dancer (1994)

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 606 and Roofwalker (2002). The Grass Dancer, win­ 1799–­1814 (1897). David Thompson (1770– ner of the PEN/Hemingway Award in 1995, 1857) explored and mapped the Mouse and is a wide-­ranging series of tales covering Missouri River basins in 1797–1798. four generations. In the short-­story col­ ­After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, lection Roofwalker (2002) Power emphasizes Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William the power of past traditions over con­ Clark (1770–1838) explored the region, col­ temporary ­people. lecting plant and animal specimens and Gordon Henry (Jr.) (b. 1955), an enrolled making reports about every­thing they saw. member of the White Earth Ojibwa tribe of When they reached the Mandan villages Minnesota, earned a PhD from the Univer­ along the Missouri River in 1804, they re­ sity of North Dakota, where he received the mained until­ spring, their longest stop at Thomas McGrath Award for poetry. Henry any location. Among the many books based uses traditional Anishinaabe stories and sto­ on the journals by Lewis and Clark is Clay rytelling techniques in his fiction. In the (Straus) Jenkinson’s (b. 1955) compilation A novel The Light People­ (1994; American Book Vast and Open Plain: The Writings of the Lewis Award winner for 1995) his character Oski­ and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804–­ naway seeks his American Indian identity 1806 (2003), incorporating the North Da­ and finds it through a variety of stories and kota portions of the journals of Lewis and storytellers. Another examination of iden­ Clark, John Ordway (ca. 1775–ca. 1817), Pat­ tity and consciousness is The Failure of Cer- rick Gass (1771–1870), and Joseph White­ tain Charms and Other Disparate Signs of Life house (1775–1817). (2008). Other explorers whose journals have Exploration and Travel: Like other been published include th­ ose of Henry Midwestern states, North Dakota has a his­ M(arie) Brackenridge (1786–1871), who trav­ tory of exploration and missionary work be­ eled to the Knife River villages with Man­ fore white settlement. The first Eu­ro­pe­ans uel (de) Lisa (ca. 1772–1820) and compiled came to explore the region or pursue the his Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River, in salvation of souls in the New World at a time 1811 (1814). The artist George Catlin (1796– when France, Spain, and Eng­ ­land we­ re 1872) sketched scenes at Fort Union in 1832, vying for dominance. Fur companies—­ recorded in The Manners, Customs, and Condi- the Hudson’s Bay Com­pany, the North tion of the North American Indians (1841). West Com­pany, and the American Fur Prince Maximilian von Wied (1782–1867), Com­pany—­kept business rec­ords, and some accompanied by the painter Karl Bodmer ­individuals kept journals. The coming of (1809–1893), spent a winter at the Knife the railroad in the 1880s, coinciding with River villages, as recorded in Travels in the the ­great Dakota boom, facilitated both the Interior of North Amer­i­ca (German, 1839–41; travel of immigrants to the region and the En ­glish translation, 1843). The North American transportation of farm crops to distant Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, volume markets. 1, from May 1832 to April 1833 (2008), and The journey of Pierre Gaultier de Va­ volume 2, from April through September rennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye (1685–1749), 1833 (2010), include the full text of the who came west from Montreal, claiming journals and annotations. Ornithologist land for France and setting up trading posts John James Audubon (1785–1851) traveled before reaching the Mandan villages along as far as the Mandan villages in 1843, as the Missouri River in 1738, is recorded in The ­reflected in Audubon and His Journals (1897). Journals and Letters of Pierre Gaultier de Va- Fur trader Henry A. Boller (1836–1902), who rennes de La Vérendrye and His Sons (1927). Al­ was at Fort Atkinson from 1858 through exander Henry (ca. 1765–1814) wrote about 1860, wrote Among the Indians: Eight Years in his years with the North West Com­pany, in­ the Far West, 1858–­1866 (1868). His journals cluding his establishment of a trading post ­were published as Twilight of the Upper Mis- at Pembina in 1801; his account was pub­ souri River Fur Trade: The Journals of Henry A. lished in New Light on the Early History of the Boller (2008). Yet another account of North Greater Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Dakota and other states is found in Sketches Alexander Henry . . . an​ d of David Thompson . . . ,​ of Frontier and Indian Life on the Upper Missouri

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 607 N ORTH D AKOTA and ­Great Plains (1889) by Joseph H(enry) Dakota with General Custer (1885), Tenting on Taylor (1845–1908), who was a hunter and the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and trapper near Bismarck beginning in 1869. Texas (1887), and Following the Guidon (1890). Among the missionaries who left written Linda Warfel Slaughter (1843–1911), who rec­ords, the Jesuit ­father Pierre-­Jean de moved to Fort Rice near Bismarck in 1871 Smet (1801–1873), who visited northern Da­ and later­ to Camp Hancock with her physi­ kota several times between 1839 and 1868, cian husband, published a series of articles wrote Letters and Sketches: With a Narrative of in 1893–1894, ­later republished by her grand­ a Year’s Residence among the Indian Tribes of the daughter, Hazel Eastman, as Fortress to Farm; Rocky Mountains (1843) and miscellaneous or Twenty-­Three Years on the Frontier (1972). writings published as Life, Letters and Travels Ranch life in the territory is also an of Pierre-­Jean de Smet (1905). ­Father George A. impor­tant subject of North Dakota autobiog­ Belcourt (1803–1874) built a mission near raphy. Theodore Roo­se­velt (1858–1919), the Pembina in 1848 and a second mission and state’s best-­known resident, came first to the state’s first flour mill several years ­later hunt but in 1883 deci­ded to ranch. Roo­se­velt at St. Joseph, now Walhalla. Proficient in eventually owned five thousand ca­ ttle on linguistics, Belcourt wrote an impor­tant his two ranches, the Maltese Cross and Elk­ Ojibwa -­language grammar, Principes de la horn, before heavy snow and cold weather langue des sauvages appelés Sauteux (1839), and in the winter of 1886–1887 doomed the ven­ a dictionary, Dictionnaire français-­sauteux, ou, ture. Roo­se­velt wrote poetic descriptions of odjibway (1877). his life on the ranch, his hunting trips, and Missionary life is also the subject of Ex- even winter storms. Most significant in de­ periences from My Missionary Life in the Dako- picting North Dakota are his Ranch Life and tas (1926) by Rev. Peter Bauer (1855–1942) and the Hunting-­Trail (1888), reflecting his ex­ 100 Years at Fort Berthold: The History of Fort periences as a ca­ ttle rancher in the Me­ Berthold Indian Mission, 1876–­1976 (1977), com­ dora area of Western Dakota, and The Wil- piled by Harold and Eva Case, who served derness Hunter (1893).e Roo­s ­velt’s appealing at Fort Berthold from 1922 to 1965. The lives accounts of his experiences captured the of early missionaries are the subject of ­Father imaginations of readers who would never de Smet in Dakota (1962) and James McLaugh- travel to the West. Lincoln A(lexander) lin: The Man with an Indian Heart (1978) by Lang (b. 1867), who called himself “a com­ Louis Pfaller, OSB (1923–1979). See also Mem- panion rancher,” contributed the memoir oirs of ­Father Anthony Kopp (1999) by ­Father Ranching with Roo­se­velt (1926). Anthony Kopp (1891–1964), which recounts Several other accounts focus on early his life serving five parishes in the Bismarck ranch life. A colorful Frenchman is the diocese. subject of The Marquis de Mores: Dakota Capi­­ Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Bi- tal­ist, French Nationalist (1972) by D. Jerome ographies: North Dakota has a strong Tweton (b. 1933) and The Marquis de Mores: ­autobiographical and biographical tradi­ Emperor of the Bad Lands (1970) by Donald W. tion. Like earlier writing about exploration Dresden (1910–1982). A(rthur) C(lark) and travel, th­ ese personal stories capture Huidekoper (1845–1928) recorded his mem­ the spirit of a pioneering ­people. They are oirs in My Experience and Investment in the Bad discussed he­ re in roughly topical and Lands of Dakota and Some of the Men I Met ­There chronological order. (1947). Edson Carr Dayton (1860–1942), who Accounts of army life include works by came to Dakota to raise sheep in 1886, ex­ George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) and plored his ­career in Dakota Days: May his wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer (1842–1933), 1886–­August 1898 (1937). William Timmons who came to Dakota Territory in 1873. (1878–1965), who worked for Charles Good­ George Custer’s articles published from 1872 night in Texas and ranched near Dickinson to 1874 in The Galaxy magazine we­ re re­ from 1896 to 1910, wrote Twilight on the printed as My Life on the Plains; or, Personal Range: Recollections of a Latter Day Cowboy Experiences with Indians (1874). Elizabeth Ba­ (1962). Harry V. Johnston (b. ca. 1876), who con Custer wrote three books about army lived in the Badlands area from 1900 to 1916, life in the west: “Boots and Saddles”;­ or, Life in wrote My Home on the Range: Frontier Life in the

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Badlands (1942), as well as a novel, The Last ish immigrants who fled anti-­Semitism in Roundup (1950). Yet She Follows: The Story of Rus­sia and came to Burleigh County, where Betty Freeman Dearborn (1931) by Edna Trupin’s ­father tried farming before setting LaMoore Waldo (1893–1999), whose brother­ up a butcher shop. Barrie Barstow Green­ Louis L’Amour (1908–1988) also wrote about bie uncovered his ­family’s buried history the West, portrays the “westering” roots of in the Jewish utopian Garske Colony near her ­family. Waldo also wrote Dakota: An In- Dev ­ils Lake in The Hole in the Heartland: An formal Study of Territorial Days (1936). The life American Mystery (1996). Philo T. Pritzkau of rancher Harriet T. Beckert is recorded by (1902–2004) wrote of growing up in a sod Irving Speed Wallace (1916–1990) in Stardust ­house in Growing Up in North Dakota (1996), to Prairie Dust (1976). published by the Germans from Rus­sia Settlement in the territory gave rise to Heritage Collection at North Dakota State many accounts of life in what would become University. North Dakota. One volume’s lengthy title Many autobiographical works concern summarizes many writers’ experiences of growing up during the early years of North pioneering, settlement, and ranching: Tom’s Dakota. Among ­these are Along the Trails of Experience in Dakota: Why He Went, What He Yesterday: A Story of McIntosh County (1941) by Did There;­ What Crops He Raised, and How He Nina Farley Wishek (1869–1957); and Grass Raised Them; What They Cost Him, and What of the Earth: Immigrant Life in the Dakota Coun- He Received for Them; and All about His Ups and try (1950) and Mea­sure of My Days (1953) by Downs, Successes and Failures; His Talks with Aagot Raaen (1873–1957). Dorothy Berry de Old Friends, and His Advice to Them about Go­ ing St. Clement (1879–1984) contributed White West, Who Ou­ ght to Go, and Who ­Ought Not; Gumbo (1951), which describes the experi­ What Men and ­Women with Money and with ences of her homesteading ­family, and ­later None Can Do ­There; Why Some Succeed, and a book of poems, Prairies and Palaces (1963), ­Others Do Not; with Practical Information for All dedicated to “my beloved husband, Count Classes of ­People Who Want Homes in the West, Giulio de Sauteiron de St. Clement, last Pointing Out Plainly the Way to Success (1883) scion of his noble fa­ mily on the borderline by A. P. Miller. Although he did not give his of France and Italy.” Mary Dodge Wood­ real name to avoid being “overrun with let­ ward (1826–1890) lived in Dakota Territory ters of inquiry,” the narrator provided infor­ on a bonanza farm, a large farm operation mation about his expenses and warned the employing many workers. The Dodge farm reader to listen cautiously to tales of big covered about 1,500 acres, and some opera­ crops and winter weather. tions ­were larger. Excerpts from Wood­ North Dakota attracted immigrants from ward’s diary, written between 1884 and 1888, many Eu­ro­pean countries, and some kept ­were published by her grandda­ ughter Mary diaries and journals suggesting their moti­ Boynton Cowdrey as The Checkered Years vations for risky emigration, discussing the (1937). ordeals of the journey, and exploring what I Remember (1978) and The Day of the Pio- they found upon arrival. Rachel Bella Calof neer (1980) by Russell Duncan (b. 1910) pro­ (1876–1952) left Rus­sia alone to marry a man vide short autobiographical sketches from she met through correspondence. In 1936 pioneer days to the 1970s. Harvey Sletten she wrote about life from her birth in 1876, (1912–2002) focused on personal episodes in and about the lure of fr­ ee land and the the years 1918 to 1932 in Hannaford in Grow- shock and despair of the early years on the ing Up on Bald Hill Creek (1977). Ann Marie homestead near Dev­ils Lake. Years af­ ter Low (1912–1998) used her diary from 1928 to her death, her ­daughter found the manu­ 1937 in Dust Bowl Diary (1984). Kathy L. Plot­ script, which was translated from Yiddish kin (b. 1930) authored The Pearson Girls: A into English­ and ­later published as Rachel ­Family Memoir of the Dakota Plains (1998), ad­ Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the North- dressing the loss of farm life for the ­children ern Plains (1995). and grandchildren of immigrants. Dean Dakota Diaspora: Memoirs of a Jewish Home- Hulse (b. 1955) wrote Westhope: Life as a For- steader (1984) by Sophie Trupin (1903–1992) mer Farm Boy (2009) about his boyhood on is a series of sketches about a group of Jew­ the ­family farm and his failed efforts to hold

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 609 N ORTH D AKOTA on to it. Edward F. Keller (b. 1927), a dentist You Wait? Amer­i­ca’s Changing Rural Culture in Dickinson, wrote My First World (1995) and (1991) describes the impacts of technology Memory Stories (1997), recalling incidents and agribusiness on Midwestern farms and from his childhood around Strasburg. Ama- rural communities. teur Writer (2000) concerns his adventures in North Dakotans involved with mu­ sic self -­publishing. See FARM LITERATURE. and the music­ industry have also written Three noted journalists have written autobiographical accounts. The best known about their lives in North Dakota as touch­ of ­these is the “Champagne ­Music Maker,” stones for their ­later success. Canoeing with Lawrence Welk (1903–1992), who wrote the Cree (1935), the first book by A( RNOLD) with Bernice McGeehan about his life in ERIC SEVAREID (1912–1992), tracks the 2,250-­ the Strasburg area and his ca­ reer in mu­ sic. mile canoe trip he and a high school friend Welk was a son of immigrant parents, and made from MINNEAPOLIS to York Factory on his German American dialect is reflected in Hudson Bay, partially along the Red River the titles of two books, Wunnerful, Wunner- of the North. Sevareid’s “history in per­ ful! (1971) and Ah One, Ah Two! Life with My sonal terms” is found in his Not So Wild a Musical ­Family (1974). My Amer­i­ca, Your Amer­ Dream (1946), beginning with his boyhood i­ca (1976) and This I Believe (1979) express in Velva, which he praises for its equality Welk’s appreciation for his life in Amer­i­ca among all ­people. Commentaries and in­ and the reasons for his success. ­You’re Never terviews include In One Ear (1952), Small Too Young (1981) includes his business plans Sounds in the Night (1956), This Is Eric Seva- for a resort and museum in Escondido, reid (1964), and Conversations with Eric Seva- California. reid (1976). Jamestown native Peggy Lee (1920–2002), In the foreword to the 1967 reprint of her born Norma Delores Egstrom, began her sing­ autobiography, American ­Daughter (1946), Era ing career­ in North Dakota. Miss Peggy Lee: An Bell Thompson (1905–1986) writes, “Usually Autobiography (1989) describes her life and an autobiography is written near the end of ­career, which included a Grammy for “Is a long and distinguished ca­ reer, but not tak­ That All ­There Is?” in 1969 and a Grammy ing any chances, I wrote mine first, then Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. Her began to live.” As a young girl living near songwriting credits include songs from Dis­ Driscoll, North Dakota, Thompson and her ney’s Lady and the Tramp (1955) and a Broad­ ­family, one of the few black families in the way production, Peg (1983). As an actress, she area, found kindness among the immigrant was nominated for an Academ­ y Award for families. In Bismarck and ­Grand Forks she her role as a singer in Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955). found ac­cep­tance and encouragement. ­Later, Composer (Johann) Peter Schickele (b. as an editor for Ebony, Thompson wrote 1935), who studied ­music theory with many articles and books, including Africa, Sigvald Thompson, conductor of the Fargo-­ Land of My Fat­ hers (1954). St. Thomas native Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, created Edward K(rammer) Thompson (1907–1996) The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach, 1807–­ wrote about his years at Life and Smithsonian 1742? (1976). Photo­graphs in the volume in­ magazines in A Love Affair with “Life” and clude several of the fictional University of “Smithsonian” (1995). Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Fi­nally, Distinguished North Dakota journalist rock music­ journalist Chuck Klosterman Richard (Patrick) Critchfield (1931–1994) re­ (b. 1972) discusses the influence of rural ported on war and life in the Third World for North Dakota in Fargo Rock City: A Heavy de­cades. He also wrote impor­tant works on Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota (2001) North Dakota, American experience, and and Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True values. These­ works carry the strength of Story (2005). Critchfield’s Third World experience and Other impor­tant North Dakota figures have strong implications for North Dakota, in the arts have written accounts of their the Midwest, and Amer­i­ca. ­Those Days: An experiences. The actress Dorothy Stickney American ­Album (1986) describes Critch­ (1896–1998) is best known on Broadway for field’s­family’s life in the rural Midwest her role as Mo­ ther in the long-­running Life from the 1880s through 1940. Trees: Why Do with ­Father. She also wrote and acted in A

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Lovely Light, based on the poems and letters Woiwode’s memoirs are about his fa­ mily’s of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950). Her strug­gle on a ­family farm near Mott, where autobiography, Openings and Closings (1979), ­mental and physical survival is as difficult as begins with her memories of Dickinson, it was for earlier generations. In addition to where her ­father was a friend of Theodore the ele­ments of nature, Woiwode’s ­family Roo­se­velt. Levon West (1892–1969), who also dealt with their son’s near-­fatal injuries on used the pseudonym Ivan Dmitri, wrote the farm; Woiwode was severely injured books about his artistic methods, Making an when an arm was pulled into a bailer. Etching (1932) and Kodachrome and How to Along with the difficulties of life on the Use It (1940). James Rosenquist (b. 1933), the farm, Woiwode writes about his strug­gles well-­known pop artist and creator of the epic as an actor and writer in New York City, painting F-111, has contributed Painting be- where he was guided as a writer by the ex­ low Zero: Notes on a Life in Art (2009), in traordinary New Yorker editor WILLIAM (KEEP­ which he devotes chapters to his early life ERS) MAXWELL (JR.) (1908–2000). Woiwode with his amateur aviator parents and among also wrote Aristocrat of the West: The Story of Scandinavian farmers in North Dakota and Harold Schafer (2000). The Blue Jay’s Dance: Minnesota. A Birth Year (1995) by Louise Erdrich com­ In the field of sports, Phil(ip Douglas) bines experiences of pregnancy and the Jackson (b. 1945), an athlete at Williston and births of her three da­ ughters. In Education the University of North Dakota, wrote Mav- of a Wandering Man (1989) Jamestown na­ erick: More than a Game (1975) with Charles tive Louis L’Amour, born Louis Dearborn Rosen, which begins with his childhood and LaMoore, describes his self-­education, in­ early years as a professional player with the cluding diary entries from the 1930s about New York Knicks before coaching the Chi­ books he had read. cago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers to Timothy Murphy (b. 1951) contributed Set several national championships. Jackson the Ploughshare Deep: A Prairie Memoir (2000), has also written Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Les- which combines his poetry and prose with sons of a Hardwood Warrior (1995). his ­father’s reminiscences about the quali­ Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson ties of a North Dakota life. The Horizontal (1879–1962) wrote My Life with the Eskimo World: Growing Up Wild in the Mi­ ddle of No- (1913), beginning with his memories of Da­ where; A Memoir (2006) by German Rus­sian kota Territory. Stefansson wrote more than Debra Marquart (b. 1956) explores the con­ twenty volumes about his explorations. Dis- flict between her desire to flee North Dakota covery: The Autobiography of Vilhjalmur Stefans- and her strong feelings of attachment to its son appeared in 1964. Dick Grace (1898–1965) history and environment. Marquart has also wrote Squadron of Death: The True Adventures published Every­thing’s a Verb (1995) and From of a Movie Planecrasher (1929), I Am Still Alive Sweetness (2002), collections of poetry; and (1931), and Visibility Unlimited (1950) about his The Hunger Bone: Rock and Roll Stories (2001), experiences during World War I and his about her years as a rock and heavy metal early days as a Hollywood pioneer stunt musician. pi. ­lot Fiction: In a young state where the In Chances of a Lifetime (2001) Warren drama of daily life has been so crucial to Christopher (1925–2011), statesman and sec­ memoir and autobiography, the relatively retary of state in the first Clinton adminis­ comfortable circumstances for writing tration, recalled what he learned in North fiction developed slowly. The first work of Dakota that helped him negotiate with na­ fiction in the state was by Linda Warfel tional and world leaders. Slaughter, already a published writer when Con­temporary literary memoirs include she arrived in North Dakota. “The Amazo­ What I Think I Did: A Season of Survival in Two nian Corps: A Romance of Army Life,” an Acts (2000) and A Step from Death: A Memoir autobiographical novella about an officer’s (2008) by LARRY (ALFRED) WOIWODE (b. 1941). wife, was published in the Bismarck Tribune Like his fiction, which explores relation­ in 1874–1875. ships among fa­ mily members and how Given the state’s ethnic history, much of families work to overcome difficulties, North Dakota’s fiction is based on immi­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 611 N ORTH D AKOTA grant and ethnic experience. Some works which deals with a young Norwegian im­ have not been translated. OLE EDVA RT RØL­ migrant and his pioneering experiences in VA AG (1876–1931), who wrote GIANTS IN THE the mid-1850s; and E(dgar) Palmer Rocks­ EARTH (1927) and other novels based on im­ wold (b. 1916) wrote Per: Immigrant and Pio- migrant experiences, spent time in North neer (1981). Dakota, and Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) Nora Fladeboe Mohberg (1903–1995) re­ worked on threshing crews before writing lied heavi­ly on biographical materials but Growth of the Soil (1920). Simon Johnson employed fictional techniques in The Strad- (1874–1970), who arrived in 1882 with his dlebug (1968) and A Home for Agate (1966); parents, wrote novels about immigrant ex­ Sarah, Your ­Sister Needs You (1977) concerns periences, most of which have not been Icelandic immigrants to North Dakota. Her translated. His works include From Fjord to Duke of Dunbar (1971) is about a ­horse told Prairie; or, In the New Kingdom (1916), Et Geni from the horse’s­ point of view and is perhaps (A Genius) (1907), Lonea (1909), Fire Fortell- best categorized as young-­adult fiction. Car­ inger (Four stories) (1917), Fallitten paa Braas- rie Young (b. 1923), who had written her tad (Bankruptcy at Braastad) (1922), and ­mother’s biography in Nothing to Do but Stay: Frihetens Hjem (Freedom’s home) (1925). My Pioneer Mo­ ther (1991), followed with seven Hans A. Foss (1851–1929) wrote romantic short stories in The Wedding Dress: Stories from novels, including The Cotter’s Son (1884; the Dakota Plains (1992). translation, 1963), Kristine: En Fortaelling fra Rodney Allen Nelson (b. 1941) is primar­ Valders (Kristine: A tale from Valdres) (1886), ily a poet but has written a number of nov­ and Valborg (1927). As a leader in the Dakota els, including Home River (1984) and the more Temperance Society, Foss wrote Tobias: A introspective Villy Sadness (1987), two novel­ Story of the Northwest (1899), Hvide Slaver: las of the mid-­twentieth ce­ ntury perti­ en social-­politisk skildring (White slaves: A nent to Scandinavian American social social-­political portrayal) (1892), and Livet i and po­liti­cal identity in the Red River val­ Vesterheimen (Life in the western home) ley near Fargo. Much of Nelson’s work is (1886). Johan Bojer (1872–1959) wrote pri­ now published only online. Wishek native marily of his native Norway, but The Emi- Ron(ald J.) Vossler (b. 1948) often uses the grants (Norwegian, 1924; translation, 1925) experiences of the Black Sea Germans who tells a story of Norwegian emigration to La came to Dakota from Rus­sia. His many Moure County in the 1880s. books include Horse, I Am Your ­Mother: Sto- Olga Overn (1897–1988) contributed Chal- ries (1988); an edited collection of corre­ lenge: A Saga of the Northwest (1949), in which spondence, ­We’ll Meet Again in Heaven: Ger- young Bjorn becomes a pioneer in the mans in the Soviet Union Write Their Dakota North Dakota Badlands and interacts with Relatives, 1925–­1937 (2001); and Dakota Kraut: such historical figures as the Marquis de A Memoir; Collected Notes on How I Learned to Mores and Theodore Roo­se­velt. In The Cof- Love My Accent and My Ancestry, 1983–­2003 fee Train (1953) Margarethe Erdahl Shank (2003). (1910–2004) re-­creates her childhood in the Ranch and farm life is a staple of North 1920s in fiction in a town she calls Prairie; Dakota lit­er­a­ture, including fiction. Zdena Shank also wrote the novel Call Back the Trinka (1888–1987) wrote the novel Medora Years (1966), reflecting on questions of Nor­ (1940), which concerns the days of the Mar­ wegian immigration to Amer­i­ca. Anna O. quis de Mores in the Badlands of western Bertinuson (1888–1972) wrote Echoes (1962) North Dakota. Bea Agard (1888–1983) about homestead life in North Dakota; an wrote a biographical novel of her parents’ earlier book by Bertinuson, Amalie of homesteading experience in Lark against Solvang (1955), is about daily life in Norway the Thunder (1953), set in Larimore, Dakota around 1900. In The Rag Rug (1955) Martha Territory, beginning in 1886. Lois Phillips Reishus (1888–1980) weaves a ­family story Hudson (1927–2010) wrote about the ef­ of immigration and settlement involving fects of the Depression on her fa­ mily, par­ the home country and WISCONSIN, Minne­ ticularly her ­mother and herself, in the cel­ sota, and North Dakota. Nina Hermanna ebrated classic novel The Bones of Plenty Morgan (b. ca. 1875) wrote Prairie Star (1955), (1962), describing Midwestern farmers’

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 612 responses to the drought and the Depres­ Friends of American Writers Award and was sion. Hudson’s Reapers of the Dust (1964) is a nominated for the National Book Award and collection of short stories concerning this the National Book Critics Circle Award. “The same period. Victoria (1953) by Hannah (Ul­ Street,” the “Prelude” to the novel, describes ness) Perhus (b. ca. 1895) takes place on a the main street and the narrator’s memories North Dakota farm during World War II; of par­tic­u­lar buildings and pe­ ople. This the plot asserts the importance of farming main street is like the one-­block main streets to the United States during the war years. of many small towns in North Dakota and Harvey Sletten wrote a novel set in the the Midwest during the 1940s and 1950s. Sheyenne River valley, Over These­ Steps Woiwode’s first novel, What I’m ­Going to Do, (1979), and a sequel, Erich Collins Comes Home I Think (1969), won the William Faulkner (1992); Walking Arrow (1992) tells an Ameri­ Foundation Award. Other works of fiction can Indian story set in the 1860s. include Poppa John (1981), Born ­Brothers School and college fiction from North (1988), The Neumiller Stories (1989), Indian Af- Dakota writers is exemplified by the work fairs (1992), and ­Silent Passengers (1993). of Dev­ils Lake native Lynn C. Miller (b. 1951), Larry Watson (b. 1947) has written sev­ who has written two academic novels, The eral novels, a collection of stories, and a Fool’s Journey (2002) and the mystery Death chapbook of poetry, Leaving Dakota (1983). of a Department Chair (2006). Walter Ellis Watson won awards from the Wisconsin Li­ (1943–2004) in Reflections on the Academic brary Association for Montana 1948 (1993) Life in North Dakota (2002) focuses on the and Orchard (2003), set in Door County, Wis­ relationship between a history professor consin. Watson’s first book, In a Dark Time at a North Dakota university and a gradu­ (1980), is a suspense novel about the murder ate student, as well as their tour of the Holy of several students in a Minneapolis high Land. school. Mavis (1996), by Brenda K. Marshall Keith Wheeler (1911–1994) wrote autobi­ (b. 1953), concerns six si­sters who ­were ography and fiction based on his experi­ reared on a North Dakota farm and the ences as a war correspondent for the Chi- murder of the husband of one of the ­sisters. cago Sun-­Times during World War II. The Marshall’s Dakota; or, What’s a Heaven For Pacific Is My Beat (1943) and We Are the Wounded (2010), is set in Dakota Territory from 1874 (1945) pres­ent his experiences, and The Reef to 1883. Much of the acclaimed first novel (1951) and Small World (1958) are fiction by Leif Enger (b. 1961), Peace like a River based on those­ experiences. Wheeler also (2001), takes place in the Badlands of North wrote many books about the Old West Dakota. and World War II for Time-­Life. In a novel, Poetry: According to Richard Lyons Peaceable Lane (1960), which won the (1920–2000) in his preface to Poetry North: Brotherhood Award in 1961 from the Na­ Five Poets of North Dakota (1970), North Da­ tional Council of Christians and Jews, kota poetry begins with poems written as Wheeler raises questions about prejudice, early as 1865 by Captain Enoch Adams, who integration, and prob­lems relating to race was stationed at Fort Rice near Bismarck. relations. Adams published his poems in the Frontier The impor­tant Midwestern philosophical Scout, a newspaper he edited. critic and fiction writer WILLIAM H(OWARD) North Dakota’s poets often write about GASS (b. 1924) was born in Fargo, but his the natu­ral beauty of the state and the pio­ ­family moved to OHIO when he was still an neering spirit, the intense ­labor involved in infant. North Dakota’s most famous writer working the land, the loneliness as well as is the novelist Larry Woiwode, who writes the promise of the wide open spaces, and the often about the experiences of three gener­ opportunities available to th­ ose who are ations of a North Dakota ­family from home­ willing to work hard. ­These poems are gen­ steading through the Depression to the erally optimistic. Some of the state’s early 1970s. Woiwode has written several books of poetry was written and published by indi­ fiction based on his experiences in North viduals, and from the 1920s through the Dakota, most notably Beyond the Bedroom 1940s the North Dakota Poetry Society pro­ Wall: A ­Family ­Album (1975), which won the vided a community of writers.

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Some of the state’s poets ­were immi­ Cornfields in North Dakota Long Ago: and an In- grants who wrote in their first language. dian Drama Pe­tite for School ­Children (1914), Perhaps the most impor­tant was Stephan G. and Heart-­in-­the-­Lodge (1915). Stephansson (1853–1927), who emigrated Modern Poems for Modern ­People (1919) by from Iceland and lived in Dakota Territory Florence Borner (1888–1962) includes po­liti­ from 1880 to 1889; he was a remarkable cal poetry dealing with two topics of the Icelandic farmer-­poet, according to Jane W. time, patriotic poems about World War I and McCracken, author of Stephan G. Stephansson: the rise of North Dakota’s Nonpartisan The Poet of the Rocky Mountains (1982). Stepha­ League (NPL) and NPL songs. The Nonpar­ nsson wrote six volumes of Andvokur tisan League emerged in several states in the (Wakeful nights) between 1909 and 1938. Midwest as citizens sought greater control of Stephan G. Stephansson: Selected Translations their economic conditions and successfully from “Andvokur” (1982) also includes some nominated and elected state officials. In letters and correspondence. Paul Bjarnason North Dakota, the State Mill and Elevator (b. 1882), an impor­tant translator of Stepha­ and the State Bank ­were established to nsson, contributed original poetry and ­counter the power and influence of busi­ translations in Odes and Echoes (1954) and nesses outside the state. More Echoes (1963), published in Engl­ ish; Although he was never officially recog­ Fleygar (1953), a work of fiction, was nized by the North Dakota legislature, “Poet published in Icelandic. The many poetic Laureate” James W. Foley (1874–1939), au­ dramas of the prolific Jon Norstog (1877– thor of more than thirty volumes of verse, 1942), often based on biblical themes, have was well known to the pe­ ople of the state, apparently not been translated in their and James Foley Day was observed with entirety from Norwegian; his works in­ programs of his poetry. Among Foley’s best-­ clude Moses: Drama i fem vendingar [Moses: known works are “North Dakota Hymn,” A Drama in Five Acts] (1914), Josef: Dit episk designated the state’s official song in 1947, dikt [Joseph: An Epic Poem] (1918), and and “Letter Home,” a poem celebrating free­ Tone, Forteljing [Tone: A Tale] (1920), among dom and opportunity in North Dakota. His many others.­ Some selected translations themes are found in the three volumes of from Norstog’s work appear in Inga Brede­ The Verses of James W. Foley (1911), Book of Boys sen’s account in “Jon Norstog, the Book-­ and Girls, Book of Life and Laughter, and Book Maker” in volume 30 of Poet Lore (1919). of Plains and Prairie. Florence F. Renfrow Much of the state’s early poetry is opti­ (1926–1996) published three volumes of mistic and was written primarily for ­family verse, Poems from North Dakota (1979), Coun- and friends. Among ­these poems are Infin- try Poems (1984), and Poems from Our Town ity; or, Nature’s God (1909) by F. J. Duggan (b. (1990), the “town” of the title being Turtle 1851) and Poems of Home Life (1912) by Lake, North Dakota. Mrs. John Heffernan (Elinor F. Heffernan; From the late 1920s through the 1940s b. 1869), including poems about religious many of the state’s poets we­ re members of reverence and the poet’s ­family. Some ­later the North Dakota Poetry Society. The soci­ volumes in this vein are Whispering Wings ety published news and poetry in its news­ (ca. 1955) by Snorri Thorfinnson (1901–1986), letter, Prairie Wings. North Dakota Singing Prairie Poems: Poetic Dreams of Prairie Themes (1936), edited by Grace Brown Putnam (1974) by Arnold H. Marzolf (1916–1998), and (1870–1933) and Anna Ackerman (1894– In My Own Way (1975) by Marge L. Stroklund 1976), includes works of sixty-­eight poets (1918–1993). and reflects the poetry of the time; much is Aaron McGaffey Beede (1859–1934), a written in iambic pentameter with strict missionary and attorney who spent much of rhyme patterns and deals with traditional his life among the Sioux, credits Indian cul­ themes that include death, friendship, love, ture for some of his poems. In addition to natu­ral beauty, home life, and trust in God. two volumes of poetry, ­Toward the Sun (1916) The poets in the collection are “singers” of and Self Sloughed-­Off Person ­Free: Heart and the state. The volume contains seven po­ Pluck in This Epoch (1934), Beede also wrote ems about travel experiences by Louis Sitting Bull and Custer (1913), Large Indian L’Amour, now better known for his fiction,

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 614 and in his biographical note L’Amour cre­ place. Letter to an Imaginary Friend (four parts, ated the image he used throughout his 1962–1985) emphasizes understanding one’s ­career: “He has been at times a miner, sea­ home and the relationship of that home to man, deep-­sea diver, lumberjack, pugilist, other places. McGrath’s collections of poetry reporter, tourist guide, and actor, adven­ include the four parts of Letter to an Imaginary turer and wanderer.” L’Amour’s first pub­ Friend, The Movie at the End of the World: Col- lished volume was a book of poetry, Smoke lected Poems (1972), and Passages toward­ the from This Altar (1939). Dark (1982). McGrath’s po­liti­cal novel, This Some local chapters, or “stanzas,” of the Coffin Has NoHa ­ ndles (written 1947, published North Dakota Poetry Society also published 1988) pits New York longshoremen against collections of poetry. Beta Stanzas (1940) was ­owners. The editor of the definitive edition printed on a press in the Bismarck basement of Letter to an Imaginary Friend, Dale Jacob­ of two members, Clell G. Gannon (1900– son (b. 1949), has also written collections of 1962) and Ruth Gannon. Clell G. Gannon, poetry, including the chapbook Dakota In- an artist as well as a poet, also wrote and il­ cantations (1973), Factories and Cities (2003), lustrated Songs of the Bunch-­Grass Acres (1924) and A Walk by the River (2004). and How Christmas Came to North Dakota The North Dakota state legislature has (1929). ­After Gannon’s death, his fa­ mily officially recognized several poets laureate: published Ever and Always I Sh­ all Love the Corbin A. Waldron (1899–1978), Henry R. Land (1965). Martinson (1883–1981), Lydia O. Jackson Other members of the North Dakota Po­ (1902–1984), and Larry Woiwode. Waldron, etry Society published collections of poetry. laureate from 1957 to 1978, wrote Voice of the Eva K. Anglesburg (1893–1976) wrote Of the Valley (1968), Lines and Lyr­ics from Dakota Level Land (1935) and For Many Moods (1938). (1943; revised 1956), and Footprints in Amer­ Richard Beck (1897–1980), who wrote in i­ca’s Fields (1975). Henry R. Martinson, laure­ Icelandic and En­glish and also translated Icelandic poetry, published Icelandic Lyr­ics: Originals and Translations (1930) and A Sheaf of Verses (1945; enlarged 1966). Paul South­ worth Bliss (1889–1940) created collections including Spin Dance and Spring Comes to Shaw’s Garden (1934), Cirrus from the West (1935), and a hand-­bound volume, The Rye Is the Sea (1936), all with illustrations by Harold J. Mat­ thews. Mary Brennan Clapp (1884–1966) wrote And Then Re-­mold It (1929), reprinted as part of Collected Verse (1951); Gottfried (Emanuel) Hult (1869–1950) published Rev- eries, and Other Poems (1909) and Outbound (1920). Huldah Lucile Winsted (1884–1959) wrote In the Land of Dakota: A ­Little Book of North Dakota Verse (1920), Amer­i­ca Makes Men, and Other Poems (1924), and North ­Dakota—Land of the Sky, and Other Poems (1927). Fi­nally, Nina Farley Wishek created Rose Berries in Autumn (1938). The North Dakota Poetry Society en­ couraged North Dakota’s best poet, THOMAS (MATTHEW) MCGRATH (1916–1990); some of his early poetry was published in Prairie Wings. McGrath wrote more than twenty volumes, including poetry, books for chil­ dren, two novels, and critical essays. As a Thomas McGrath, ca. 1964. poet, McGrath stresses the importance of Courtesy of North Dakota State University Archives

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 615 N ORTH D AKOTA ate from 1979 to 1981, was a farmer and or­ga­ it attracted regional and national poets from nizer for the Socialist Party and ­later for the 1971 through 1981. Dacotah Territory: A 10 Year Nonpartisan League. Martinson’s poetry in­ Anthology (1982) includes a se­lection of po­ cludes Old Trails . . . ​and New (1958); his auto­ ems from the seventeen issues. Vinz was biographical sketches are found in Village editor of Dakota Arts Quarterly, a publication Commune Barefoot Boy (1976). Lydia O. Jack­ devoted to lit­er­a­ture, visual art, and ­music son, Poet Laureate from 1979 to 1984, wrote and published from 1977 to 1984. Rhymes for ­Every Season (1943), Selected Poems Roland Flint (1934–2001) published sev­ (1962), ­Pardon My Gaff (1967), and A Trilogy eral volumes of poetry, including Resuming Trimmed in Lace (1984). Larry Woiwode was Green: Selected Poems, 1965–­1982 (1982) and named North Dakota’s Poet Laureate in 1995. Hearing Voices (1991), with William Stafford. His poetry is found in Even Tide (1977). This House Is Filled with Cracks (1994) is by In 1989 David R. Solheim (b. 1947) was Madelyn Camrud (b. ca. 1939). Her poem named North Dakota’s centennial poet. Sol­ “The River Leaps,” a meditation on the dev­ heim has published several collections of astating Red River flood, is found in the poetry, including On the Ward (1975), Inheri- book of photo­graphs ­Under the Whelming tance (1987), West River: 100 Poems (1989), and Tide: The 1997 Flood of the Red River of the North The Landscape Listens (1999). A volume com­ (1998). Jamie Parsley (b. 1969), ordained an piled in preparation for cele­bration of the Episcopalian priest in 2004, is a prolific poet state’s centennial, A Long Way to See: Images with at least ten books and chapbooks, in­ and Voices of North Dakota (1987), includes a cluding The Loneliness of Blizzards (1995) and se­lection of poems by Fargo-­born Michael No Stars, No Moon: New and Selected Haiku Moos (b. 1949), photo­graphs by Wayne Gud­ (2004). Cloud: A Poem in Two Acts (1997) con­ mundson, and an introduction by Lois Phil­ siders the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. lips Hudson. Rodney Allen Nelson, noted previously Richard Lyons edited Poetry North: Five ­under fiction, has published poetry books Poets of North Dakota (1970), which includes and chapbooks often centered on his Scan­ works by him, Thomas McGrath, John R. dinavian heritage; Red River Al­ bum (1982), Milton (1924–1995), Anthony Oldknow (b. Thor’s Home (1983), and Mere Telling (2009) 1939), and Larry Woiwode. His poem “Prai­ are representative. Much of Nelson’s work rie Wife” appears in the small collection Six since the mid-1980s, such as Swede Poems Poets of the Red River (1971) along with poems (2007) and the novel Harvestman (2004), ap­ by David Martinson (1946–2010), McGrath, pears only online. Oldknow, Mary Ann Pryor, and Mark Vinz North Dakota has a number of cowboy (b. 1942). Lyons and Prudence Gearey Sand poets. In 1987 Bill Lowman (b. 1947), author (1908–1984) contributed the chapbook Stack- of Riders of the Leafy Spurge (1985), The Blue- ers of Wheat (1951). Lyons also wrote Men berry Roan (1986), and Walk ah Mile in My and Tin ­Kettles (1956); Gallery B: Portraits Bones (1988), or­ga­nized a Dakota Cowboy (1963), indebted in technique to EDGAR LEE Poetry Gathering in Medora. Rodney (Rod) MASTERS (1868–­1950); and Enough to Be a Nelson (b. ca. 1949) has written Good Clean ­Woman (1994). Scanning the Land: Poems in Fun (1989) and Cowboy Laundry, and Other Po- North Dakota (1980) combines poetry and ems of Wit and Humor (1995); Up Sims Creek: photo ­graphs. The First 100 Trips (2001) is a collection of Mark Vinz wrote several collections of his humorous columns from Farm and poetry, including Climbing the Stairs (1983), Ranch Guide. Wilbur’s Christmas Gift (2000) is Mixed Blessings (1989), and Long Distance a book-­length poem for ­children illustrated (2005). He was also the co-­editor of many by Scott Nelson. A public performer, Nel­ ANTHOLOGIES, including Inheriting the Land: son once appeared on The Johnny Carson Con­temporary Voices from the Midwest (1993) Show. Shadd Piehl (b. 1967) is the author of a and Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest chapbook, ­Towards Horses: Poems (1999). (2000), both with Thom Tammaro. With Students in public schools and universi­ Grayce Ray he edited Dacotah Territory, a ties throughout the state produce chapbooks journal published just across the Red River and collections of lit­er­a­ture. One example of at Moorhead State University in Minnesota; poetry by high school and grade school

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 616 students is Sparks in the Dark: Student Writ- tion, and criticism; and many individual es­ ing from the North Dakota Writers-­in-­Residence says, articles, and reviews. Program (1983), edited by Joan Eades and Dakota Playmakers’ Vera Kelsey (1892– Mark Vinz. 1961) published ­Free in the Quarterly Journal Drama: Even before statehood in 1889, of the University of North Dakota in 1917, and many North Dakota communities built ­opera Sigrid by Margaret Radcliffe was published ­houses in which touring groups performed in American Folk Plays (1939). Mattie Crabtree operas, plays, and patriotic historical pag­ (b. ca. 1896) produced two outdoor pag­ eants. Pulitzer Prize–­winning playwright eants, Dickey County Historical Pageant in 1917 Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959) saw his first and A Patriotic Pageant of Dickey County in professional production in ­Grand Forks, 1918. Margaret Plank Ganssle (1893–1934) and New York Broadway actress Dorothy produced The New Day: A Masque of the Stickney saw her first professional per­for­ ­Future in 1918. Lauga Geir (1888–1968) pro­ mance in Dickinson. duced “Expressions of Icelandic Heritage in The dramatic heritage of North Dakota Pembina County.” centers on its schools, from the one-­room Franz Rickaby (1889–1925) continued the school­houses once found by the thousands Koch tradition, encouraging original plays, across the state to the state’s colleges and establishing the Ju­nior Playmakers for high universities. When Frederick Koch (1877– school students, writing plays, and editing 1944) came to the University of North Da­ Dakota Playmaker Plays (1923) on “colonial kota in 1905, he brought with him the idea themes.” With his wife, Lillian, Rickaby of “folk plays” and quickly or­ga­nized a group wrote The Christmas Spirit: A Poetic Fantasy of student actors. Koch believed that theatre (1921), presented by the Dakota Playmakers. should come from the pe­ ople, so he intro­ Rickaby’s Ballads and Songs of the Shanty-­Boy duced a class in playwriting and founded (1926) is based on ballads he collected from the Sock and Buskin Society in 1910, re­ lumber camps in MICHIGAN, Wisconsin, and named the Dakota Playmakers in 1917. By Minnesota. 1914 Koch was instrumental in establishing In 1914 Alfred G. Arvold (1882–1957) es­ Bankside Theatre. The Pageant of the North-­ tablished a theatre program at North Da­ West, performed ­there, was the first ambi­ kota State University. Arvold’s The ­Little tious theatre proj­ect in North Dakota. It was Country Theater (1922) is about the impor­ published as The Book of a Pageant of the North-­ tance of theatre to rural life and includes West (1914) by eigh­teen undergraduate original plays produced by his students and members ­under the direction of Koch and ­others. Arvold also staged pageants, includ­ Orin G. Libby. ing Covered Wagon Days in 1920 and a pageant Of all North Dakota playwrights, Max­ for the bicentennial of George Washington’s well Anderson, a charter member of the birthday in 1932. Reminiscences and miscel­ Sock and Buskin Society, has received the lanea are collected in Alfred . . . ​in ­Every Man’s most critical attention. Following the folk-­ Life (1957). See REGIONAL THEATRE. play tradition, Anderson’s first play for Frederick G. Walsh (1915–1999), who Broadway, White Desert (1923), concerns came to North Dakota State University and newly married immigrants who se­ ttle in the ­Little Country Theater in 1952, was also North Dakota in 1888. Both Your Houses (1933), committed to regional theatre. Walsh devel­ a po­liti­cal satire, was awarded a Pulitzer oped outdoor theatre programs in Medora Prize, and Winterset (1935) and High Tor (1937) in 1958 and Mandan in 1959. For the Theo­ won New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. dore Roo­se­velt centennial in 1958, Walsh co­ In 1936–1937 Anderson had the distinction of ordinated production and directed Old Four having three plays ­running si­mul­ta­neously Eyes, a play about Teddy Roo­se­velt’s ranch­ on Broadway—­The Wingless Victory, High Tor, ing days, at the Burning Hills Ampitheatre and The Masque of Kings. In his bibliography at Medora. Walsh co-­authored with W. T. in The Life of Maxwell Anderson (1983), Al­ Chichester and was consulting director for fred S. Shivers lists thirty-­one individually Trail West: An Historical Drama Produced on the published plays and twenty complete play Exact Locale Where Custer’s Last March Began manuscripts; numerous books of poetry, fic­ (1959). Trail West was presented over three

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 617 N ORTH D AKOTA seasons at Mandan and recounted the life of Scout, which was first issued at Fort Union General George Armstrong Custer, the Sev­ on July 7, 1864, and moved to Fort Rice in enth Cavalry, and the events leading to the 1865, when for a few issues it became a ­Battle of the ­Little Bighorn. weekly. Clement A. Lounsberry (1843–1926) For the fiftieth anniversary of the ­Little founded the weekly the Bismarck Tribune in Country Theatre in 1964, Walsh wrote The July 1873. On July 6, 1876, he published an Trial of Louis Riel (1965); Riel was a leader of “extra,” “First Account of the Custer Massa­ the “Riel Rebellions” in Manitoba and Sas­ cre,” within hours of the return of the katchewan to secure rights for the Métis. steamer Far West from the Li­ ttle Bighorn in Walsh also created the Prairie Stage touring Montana. Other early newspapers include com­pany, which presented approximately the Fargo Express, the Daily Plaindealer (­Grand five hundred per­for­mances in eighty com­ Forks), and the Jamestown Alert. See also munities from 1971 through 1976. Among NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM and PRINTING AND Walsh’s students, Doug Fosse of Gr­ and Forks PUBLISHING. directed Dakota Land (1987), a community Lounsberry published a three-­volume production in the tradition of the first folk history, North Dakota: History and Pe­ ople; Out- plays. lines of American History (1916); the second William Borden (1938–2010) won many and third volumes ­were composed of bio­ credits for his work in drama. When the graphical sketches of pioneers and other Meadowlark Sings (1989) was selected by the citizens of importance. “The Press of North North Dakota Centennial Commission as Dakota,” chapter 30 of the first volume, is the state’s official drama. Other plays in­ about newspapers established through 1890. clude Sakakawea: The ­Woman with Many In History of the Red River Valley (1909) Names (1989), Turtle Island Blues (2000), and George B. Winship, founder of the ­Grand Bluest Reason: The Winter of Their Discontent; Forks Herald in 1879, writes that the first pub­ The Untold Story of Lewis and Clark (2001). lication in North Dakota’s Red River valley Joan Eades (b. 1947) wrote several plays, was ­Father George A. Belcourt’s “­little ­including Beacon over Our Western Land (1983) ­missionary paper” in French in the 1850s for the centennial of the University of North “descriptive of his work among the Indi­ Dakota. ans.” Among newspapers published in lan­ Ev Miller (b. 1935) is a Bismarck play­ guages other than En­glish, Lounsberry in­ wright whose plays are based on North Da­ cludes Der Pioneer, established in 1883 at kota events and ­people. Miller’s first play, A Jamestown. Winship lists two Scandina­ Dusty Echo (1990), based on his ­family’s ex­ vian papers established in Gr­ and Forks, Ti- periences on a farm near Bismarck, won the dende in 1885 and Normanden in 1888, and North Dakota Bicentennial Playwriting the Fargo Posten, established in 1889. Dako- Contest in 1976 and was selected for a tour tans Are Reading ­People: The Continuing Story of thirty North Dakota communities. Among of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, many other plays, Miller has written Crying 1886–2003 (2003) by Danny Butcher and from the Earth (1997) and ­Here’s to the Winner Marah De Meule is a history of North Da­ (2003). In 1995 he received a Bush Founda­ kota journalism. tion Grant for Playwrights of North Dakota, Three North Dakota newspapers have which Miller says in his introduction is “the won Pulitzer Prizes. In 1938 the Bismarck Tri- only complete listing of North Dakota play­ bune won a Pulitzer for articles and editori­ wrights ever done.” als about the Dust Bowl. The Fargo Forum Rodney Allen Nelson wrote Detriment: won a Pulitzer for its coverage of a June 10, A Radio Play (1981) and The Popcorn Man: A 1957, tornado. The ­Grand Forks Herald won a ­Norwegian Immigrant Verse-­Play (1982). His Pulitzer Prize for Public Ser­vice for never Cowboy Village (2005), set “in the western missing a publication although the 1997 Dakotas,” is available online from Scene4 flood covered the city, and the newspaper of­ Magazine. fices and other downtown buildings burned Printing and Journalism: The first while standing in floodwaters. Mike Jacobs, newspaper published in northern Dakota editor of the ­Grand Forks Herald, was previ­ Territory appears to have been the Frontier ously editor of his in­de­pen­dent newspaper,

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 618 the Onlooker, and wrote One Time Harvest: Re- Heartland (1990). ­After the bombing in Okla­ flections on Coal and OurFu ­ ture (1975). homa City in 1995, the book was repub­ The Red River Valley Historical Society lished as ­Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramili- published a collection by Roy P. Johnson tary Terrorism in the Heartland (1995). In Coyote (1899–1963), Roy Johnson’s Red River Valley: A Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial Se­lection of Historical Articles, First Printed in the That Forged a Nation (2004) Paul VanDe­ “Forum” from 1941 to 1962 (1982). Frances velder tells about one fight by American In­ Wold (1889–1994) collected some of her writ­ dians for their native lands. Parshall native ing from Farm and Ranch Guide in Prairie Martin Cross argued several cases and also Scrapbook (1982) and Guide Country—­Then successfully represented the Mandan, Ari­ and Now (1987). Thomas D. Isern (b. 1952) has kara, and Hidatsa—­the Three Affiliated written Dakota Circle: Excursions on the True Tribes—in lobbying for compensation for Plains (2000). land taken by Congress for the construction A number of presses and publications of Garrison Dam on the Missouri River. As have printed literary material over the years. noted by the publisher, Cross’s ­father, Mar­ The official publication of the North Dakota tin Cross, was the tribal chairman who un­ Poetry Society from May 1936 ­until Febru­ successfully protested the taking of land for ary 1948 was the monthly Prairie Wings. The construction of the dam and also the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, ­great-­grand­son of chiefs who had helped established in 1950 at North Dakota State Lewis and Clark during the winter the ex­ University, continues to publish di­ verse vol­ pedition spent among the tribes. umes on regional lit­er­a­ture, biography, his­ North Dakota Federal Writers’ Proj­ tory, agriculture, and other topics. North ect: As one of many relief proj­ects in the Dakota Quarterly is a literary journal estab­ United States and Midwest, the North Da­ lished in 1910 at the University of North kota Federal Writers Proj­ect produced North Dakota. North Dakota History: Journal of the Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State Northern Plains, originally the North Dakota (1938) ­under the direction of young journal­ Historical Quarterly, began publication in ist Ethel Schlasinger. It was reprinted as The 1926. Many ­little magazines also originated WPA Guide to 1930s North Dakota (1990). The in North Dakota. Scopcraeft Press was be­ volume lacks any discussion of North Dako­ gun by Anthony Oldknow as a literary jour­ ta’s literary history. nal at North Dakota State University in Pop ­u­lar Lit­er­a­ture: Fargo in 1966; it became a nonprofit press Western Novels: Louis L’Amour is per­ in 1975. haps the best-­known writer of popu­lar Since 1971 the Greater North Dakota As­ westerns and helped create the popu­lar im­ sociation has been publishing the quarterly age of the American West in such books as North Dakota Horizons. For the North Dakota How the West Was Won (1962). L’Amour wrote centennial, editor and photographer Shel­ over ninety books and four hundred short sto­ don Green, photographer Russ Hanson, and ries. Many are still in print, and several have writer Nancy Edmonds Hanson produced a been made into movies. His first novel, five-­volume series about the state: ’Cross the Hondo (1953), was made into a movie (1953) Wide Missouri: Bismarck and the West River starring John Wayne. The continuing pop­ Country (1984), Bread Basket of the World: ularity of the western provided a market for Fargo, Grand­ Forks and the Red River Valley Robert Kammen (b. 1931), a former postmas­ (1985), Heart of the Prairies: Minot, Jamestown ter from Mott, who wrote more than and Valley City (1986), Sagebrush, Buttes and twenty-­five western stories between 1985 Buffalo: Williston, Dickinson and the Badlands and 1995, including Bloody Dakota Summer (1985), and Getting to Know Dakota: An Insid- (1992). Peter Brandvold (b. 1953) wrote short ers Guide to North Dakota (1985). fiction before he began to write westerns; North Dakota journalists have written since writing Once a Marshal (1998), he has works centering on impor­tant issues to written more than twenty-­five westerns, in­ North Dakota and the nation. The economic cluding Dakota Kill (2000). crisis in the 1980s is the setting for journal­ Mystery and Detective Fiction: Vera ist James Corcoran’s ­Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kelsey, who wrote several travel books about Kahl and the Posse Comitatus; Murder in the China and South Amer­i­ca, also wrote mys­

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 619 N ORTH D AKOTA tery novels, among them The Bride Died comes aware of the world around her. In Alone (1943) and Whisper Murder (1946), a the first book Sypher describes “the prairie novel based on events in Gr­ and Forks. village of Wales, on the northmost edge of Lynn M. Boughey (b. 1956), a lawyer­ in Bis­ North Dakota” (1). Cousins and Circuses cen­ marck and formerly commander of the Fifth ters on the excitement of a fa­ mily vacation Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot Air to Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. The Spell Force Base, has written a Cold War spy of the Northern Lights concerns her increas­ thriller, Mission to Chara (2001), featuring ing maturity, and in The Turnabout Year the the SR-71 Blackbird aircraft. The Guys from young girl begins to plan her fu­ ture. Fargo (2007) by Delray Dvoracek (b. ca. Erling Nicolai Rolfsrud (1912–1994) wrote 1940), who also writes westerns ­under the thirty books of reminiscence, history, fic­ pseudonym Kent Kamron, is a detective tion, and biography, including Extraordinary story founded on blackmail, centered on North Dakotans (1954). His first work of fic­ the streets of Fargo, and featuring the tion was Gopher Tails for Papa (1951). Zdena Powers Coffee House ­there. The Murdered Trinka published a novel for ­children based ­Family (2010) by Vernon Keel (b. 1940) is a on life in the old country, Jenik and Marenka: novel based on the ­actual 1920 murders of A Boy and Girl of Czecho­slo­va­kia (1937). seven members of a farm ­family in McLean Borghild Margarethe Dahl (1890–1984) used County, North Dakota. her Norwegian heritage to write several ­Children’s and Young Adult Lit­er­a­ture: books, including Karen (1947), the story of a Ralph “Doc” Hubbard (1886–1980), who Norwegian girl who immigrates to Amer­i­ca, spent his lifetime gathering and preserving marries, ­settles on a stretch of land in North Indian heritage, wrote Queer Person (1930) Dakota, and successfully fa­ ces frontier hard­ and The Wolf Song (1935), the latter about ships. Homecoming (1953) is about a young Kiowa “wolf wisdom,” concluding with a Norwegian American girl who becomes a detailed story of two orphaned Indian teacher in Minnesota. Skulda Vanadis Báner ­children who find their way home over a (1897–1964) wrote First Parting (1960), based ­great distance by following the “song” of the on her teaching experiences in North wolf. Queer Person, a Newbery Honor Book ­Dakota. Against the Wind (1955) by Harri­ in 1931, concerns a young deaf-­mute Indian ett H. Carr (1899–1977) is based on farming boy who is ad­ opted by an old wo­ man and experiences in homestead days. grows up with honor. Rutherford G. Montgomery (1894–1985), Bigelow Neal (1891–1962) published hun­ using A. A. Avery and other pen names, dreds of stories about pioneer life and wild wrote more than one hundred books, in­ animals for ch­ ildren’s publications such as cluding animal stories for ­children. Among Blue Book and American Boy. The Last of the his works that won writing awards, Kildee Thundering Herd (1933) concerns the last days House (1949) was a Newbery Award Honor of the buffalo herds. Neal also wrote The Val- Book in 1950, and The Stubborn One (1965) ley of the Damned (1949) about the construc­ was given the Western Writers of Amer­i­ca tion of North Dakota’s Garrison Dam, begun Golden Spur Award in 1965. Lyla Hoffine in 1947 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1897–1984) wrote several books about her to provide control of Missouri River and knowledge of Indian life, including Wi Sapa: Mississippi River flooding. Black Moon (1936), reprinted as Sioux Trail Ad- Lucy Johnston Sypher (1907–1990) wrote venture (1957); White Buffalo: A Story of the four fictionalized autobiographical works Northwest Fur Trade (1939); ­Running Elk (1957); based on her memories of Wales, North Da­ Jennie’s Mandan Bowl (1960); The Eagle­ Feather kota, in 1916–1917: The Edge of Nowhere (1972), Prize (1962); and Carol Blue Wing, What Is Your Cousins and Circuses (1974), The Spell of the Plea­sure? (1967). Northern Lights (1975), and The Turnabout Year Emily Rhoads Johnson (b. 1936), who (1976). ­After teaching En­glish and modern founded the Writers’ Conference in Chil­ history at a Mas­sa­chu­setts college, Sypher dren’s Lit­er­a­ture at the University of North began writing about her childhood for her Dakota in 1980, has written Spring and the grandchildren. The four books take the Shadow Man (1984), A House Full of Strangers young girl, Lucy, from her childhood in (1992), and Write Me If You Dare! (2000). Wales to the cusp of adulthood as she be­ Many who have attended the conference

This content downloaded from 132.174.252.180 on Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:49:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms N ORTH D AKOTA 620 have published books, including Esther the two coasts. William Borden’s Superstoe ­Allen Peterson (b. 1934), with Frederick’s Al- (1967) is a satiric novel about peace in an in­ ligator (1979), and Priscilla Homola (b. 1947), creasingly small world threatened with de­ who wrote The Willow Whistle (1983). Faythe struction and a plan to control government Dyrud Thureen (b. 1941) has written Jenna’s and improve society. Much of Ancient Big Jump (1993) and Troll Meets Trickster on the Shores (1996) by Jack McDevitt (b. 1935) is set Dakota Prairie (2005). Jane Kurtz (b. 1952), in North Dakota and deals with the conse­ who lived and taught in ­Grand Forks for quences after­ a farmer unearths a strange twelve years, has written more than twenty sailboat in his wheat field. books, including River Friendly, River Wild Literary Awards and Prizes: Accord­ (2000) about the 1997 Red River flood. ing to the Office of the Governor, the Thomas McGrath’s books for young ­Theodore Roo­se­velt Roughrider Award, ­children include Clouds (1959) and The Beau- established during the Dakota Territory tiful ­Things (1960). Louise Erdrich’s books for Centennial in 1961, recognizes “pres­ent or ­children include Grand­mother’s Pigeon (1996), former North Dakotans who have been in­ The Birchbark House (1999), The Range Eternal fluenced by this state in achieving national (2002), The Game of Silence (2005), and The recognition in their fields of endeavor, Porcupine Year (2008). thereby reflecting credit and honor upon Romance Novels: Lauraine Snelling (b. North Dakota and its citizens.” Literary 1942) has written many works of Christian North Dakotans who have received the fiction for adults and ­children, including award include Eric Sevareid, Louis L’Amour, six novels focused on Norwegians in North Era Bell Thompson, Larry Woiwode, and Dakota in her Red River of the North series, Louise Erdrich. starting with An Untamed Land (1996). ­Later Since 1977 the North Dakota Council on series are Return to Red River and Dakotah the Arts has recognized th­ ose “individuals Trea­sures. Judy Baer (b. 1951) has written and organ­izations that have made outstand­ over seventy Christian and traditional ro­ ing contributions to the arts in the state.” mances, including Shadows along the Ice Frederick Walsh (1987) and Peter Schickele (1985), Dakota Dream (1986), and Be My Neat-­ (1991) have been recognized. Heart (2006). Kathleen Ea­gle (b. 1947), who Since 1992 the En­glish Department at the taught at Fort Yates for seventeen years, has University of North Dakota has presented written more than forty books, including A awards to outstanding BA and MA or PhD Class Act (1985). Janet Spaeth (b. 1950) has gradu­ates. Named for Maxwell Anderson, written several romances, including Angels the Maxi Awards have been presented to Roost (2003) and Rose Kelly (2006), as well as one excellent writer annually. the critical study Laura Ingalls Wilder (1987). SELECTED WORKS: North Dakota’s liter­ Lois Greiman is the author of over twenty ary heritage is rich and varied. Readers in­ romance novels, including works in multi­ terested in familiarizing themselves with ple series, such as the Highland Brides, the some of the most impor­tant works are di­ Highland Rogues, Sedonia, Chrissy McMul­ rected especially to the following. For the len, and the Witches of Mayfair. Roxanne early period, Marie L. McLaughlin’s Myths Henke (b. 1953) writes Christian and inspi­ and Legends of the Sioux (1916) and Earth Lodge rational novels dealing with medical and Tales from the Upper Missouri: Traditional ­family prob­lems. Among ­these are ­After ­Stories of the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan Anne (2002), Finding Ruth (2003), and Learn- (1978), edited by Douglas R. Parks, A. Wesley ing to Fly (2008). Jones, and Robert C. Hollow, are impor­tant Science Fiction: Poet Thomas McGrath written sources of oral storytelling; the lat­ published a futuristic, dystopian satire in ter provides the stories in their original The Gates of Ivory, the Gates of Horn (1957), in American Indian languages with parallel which “the Investigator,” overcome by guilt, En­glish translations. Gilbert L. Wilson’s indicts himself in a smog-­filled world in Goodbird the Indian: His Story (1914) contains which robotic squirrels collect plastic acorns Mandan and Hidatsa Indian stories. Clay amid tin trees and the Dakotas have become Jenkinson’s A Vast and Open Plain: The Writ- part of an “Unoccupied Country” between ings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North

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Dakota, 1804–­1806 (2003) compiles journals produced by the prolific Louis L’Amour; produced by vari­ous members of the Lewis L’Amour’s autobiography is The Education of and Clark expedition. Two books about the a Wandering Man (1989). transition between the Indian and military Dramatist Maxwell Anderson’s folk play periods are Elizabeth Bacon Custer’s “Boots White Desert (1923) concerns newly married and ­Saddles”: or, Life in Dakota with General North Dakota immigrants; his Both Your Custer (1885), presenting a wo­ man’s view of Houses (1933) is a satire about an in­effec­tive the ­Great Plains and detailed descriptions Congress. Thomas McGrath’s long and influ­ of military life; and James McLaughlin’s My ential poem Letter to an Imaginary Friend Friend the Indian (1910), which provides in­ (1962–1985) begins with his experiences as a ter­est­ing views of the life of an Indian agent. child during the ­Great Depression and con­ Ranch Life and the Hunting-­Trail (1888) by tains content pertinent to modern American Theodore Roo­se­velt describes the early years life. of open ranching in western Dakota. Mary No comprehensive anthology of the Dodge Woodward’s The Checkered Years (1937) ­whole range of North Dakota lit­er­a­ture has pres­ents the bonanza farm period from 1884 yet been compiled. Of the anthologies avail­ to 1888. Lucy Johnston Sypher’s fictionalized able, poetry has been best served. Poetry autobiographical books for ­children, starting collections include Grace Brown Putnam with The Edge of Nowhere (1972), are based on and Anna Ackerman’s North Dakota Singing her memories of 1916–1917 in Wales, North (1936), Beta Stanzas: Poems by Members of the Dakota. Erling Nicolai Rolfsrud’s many Beta Stanza of the North Dakota Poetry Society books for ­children include Gopher Tails for (1940), and Lydia O. Jackson’s A Peace Gar- Papa (1951). den of Verses (1967), containing the work of The difficult years of the ­Great Depres­ nine North Dakota ­women poets. Dacotah sion are a source for power­ful autobiogra­ Territory: A 10 Year Anthology (1982) includes phy and fiction. Era Bell Thompson’s a se­lection of poems from 1971 to 1981. Mar­ American ­Daughter (1946) and Eric Sevare­ tha and Jay Meek’s Prairie Volcano: An An- id’s Not So Wild a Dream (1946) both empha­ thology of North Dakota Writing (1995) is the size a state where neighbors helped one most comprehensive anthology to date, in­ another through difficult times. Lois Phil­ cluding poetry and prose, but it is limited to lips Hudson’s The Bones of Plenty (1962) and fifty con­temporary writers. Reapers of the Dust (1964) concern the reac­ FURTHER READING: tions of a young girl rejecting a sense of Biblio­graphies, Biographies, and helplessness. Ann Marie Low’s Dust Bowl Di- Criticism: A study of the state should be­ ary (1984) uses ele­ments of her own diary gin with Elwyn B. Robinson’s History of entries from 1928 to 1937. North Dakota (1966) and its extensive bibli­ Good examples of ethnic writing in ography. Helen J. ­Sullivan’s Know Your North Dakota are Norwegian Hans A. Foss’s North Dakota: A Handbook of Information for romantic novel The Cotter’s Son (1884, trans­ the Schools of North Dakota (1929) includes a lation 1963) and Ron Vossler’s stories of chapter with summaries of books about German Rus­sians in North Dakota in Horse, North Dakota and by North Dakota au­ I Am Your ­Mother (1988). Memorable autobi­ thors. Charlotte S. Rosvold and Catherine ographies include Lawrence Welk’s Wun- Philips compiled a literary map of authors nerful, Wunnerful! (1971) and Rachel Calof’s published by State Librarian Hazel Webster Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Byrnes in 1932. See LITERARY MAPS. Edna Plains (1995). LaMoore Waldo and Huldah Lucile Win­ Modern novels about North Dakota in­ sted compiled Who’s Who among North Da- clude Larry Woiwode’s Beyond the Bedroom kota Writers in 1935. The State Library Com­ Wall (1975) and Born ­Brothers (1988), explor­ mission created North Dakota Books Published ing his fictional Neumiller ­family, and Lou­ within the Past Twenty Years (1956), North ise Erdrich’s LOVE MEDICINE (1984), the best Dakota Books and Authors: Books Published book with which to begin the saga of Er­ 1930–­1962 and Selected Earlier Books (1962), drich’s Ojibwa ancestors. Pop­u­lar novels and North Dakota in Print (1972). The State such as How the West Was Won (1962) ­were Library and the State Department of

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Public Instruction have periodically com­ A series of four books commissioned in piled lists of books about North Dakota. The anticipation of the state’s centennial in Plains Humanities Alliance’s Digital Initia­ 1989 includes Sherman and Thorson’s Plains tive and the North Dakota Center for the Folk: North Dakota’s Ethnic History (1988); The Book/North Dakota Humanities Council North Dakota Po­liti­cal Tradition (1981) by have also compiled useful listings. Charles Nelson Glaab and Thomas William William C. Sherman has written about Howard; and North Dakota’s Indian Heritage settlement patterns and cultures. His Prairie (1990) by Mary Jane Schneider. A fourth Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota book in the series titled Dakota: The Literary (1983) includes settlement maps and discus­ Heritage of the Northern Prairie State (1990) by sions of the vari­ous cultures. Sherman and Kathie Ryckman Anderson provides the Playford V. Thorson edited Plains Folk: North first comprehensive account of the state’s Dakota’s Ethnic History (1988), with essays by lit­er­a­ture; in the epilogue Anderson dis­ Warren A. Henke, Timothy J. Kloberdanz, cusses prior compilations of writers and Theodore B. Pedeliski, and Robert P. publications. In 1994 the North Dakota Wilkins. Center for the Book presented a program, The Germans from Rus­sia Heritage Language of the Land: Journeys into Literary Collection at North Dakota State University, North Dakota, featuring Kathie Ryckman established in 1978, provides much infor­ Anderson, Larry Woiwode, David Sol­ mation about this immigrant group. Some heim, Larry Watson, Louise Erdrich, Lois earlier research about the Germans from Phillips Hudson, Kathleen Norris, and Rich­ Rus­sia includes George P. Aberle’s From the ard Critchfield; some excerpts we­ re pub­ Steppes to the Prairies (1963) and his two-­ lished in North Dakota History. For that series volume Pioneers and Their Sons (1964–1969). of programs Anderson provided a literary Shirley Fischer Arends pres­ents the lives and map of the state that was published in the customs of North Dakota immigrants in The special literary issue of North Dakota History Central Dakota Germans: Their History, Lan- 62.3 (Summer 1995). guage, and Culture (1989). David Dreyer and Libraries and Repositories: Collec­ Josette S. Hatter wrote From the Banat to North tions in the state are located at the State Dakota: A History of the German-­Hungarian Historical Society of North Dakota in Bis­ Pioneers in Western North Dakota (2006). marck, at the North Dakota Institute for The lives of North Dakota wo­ men are the Regional Studies at North Dakota State Uni­ subject of several studies. Mary Barnes Wil­ versity in Fargo, and in the Elwyn B. Rob­ liams contributed Fifty Pioneer Mo­ thers of inson Department of Special Collections at McLean County, North Dakota (1932). Angela the University of North Dakota in ­Grand Boleyn’s Quarter Sections and Wide Horizons Forks. Larry Woiwode has donated some of (1978) is a two-­volume collection of brief bi­ his papers to his parents’ alma mater, Val­ ographies of pioneer ­women published in ley City State University. Maxwell Anderson the Fargo Forum from 1931 to 1934. H. Elaine donated some of his manuscripts to the Uni­ Lindgren’s Land in Her Own Name: Wo­ men versity of North Dakota; other manuscripts as Homesteaders in North Dakota (1991) is a are found at the Harry Ransom Center at the richly illustrated historical study. Barbara University of Texas at Austin, including that Handy -­Marchello’s ­Women of the Northern of Anderson’s first play for Broadway,White Plains: Gender and Settlement on the Home- Desert (1923), set in North Dakota. The stead Frontier, 1870–­1930 (2005) considers Burdick Collection at the State Historical So­ the role of ­women in homesteading fami­ ciety of North Dakota preserves some early lies. Ann Rathke’s Lady, If You Go into Politics: American Indian narratives. Audrey North Dakota’s Wo­ men Legislators, 1923–­1989 Porsche’s Yuto’keca: Transitions: The Burdick (1992) is about the seventy-­two ­women Collection (1987) includes photos of many elected between 1923 and 1989, from women’s­ items and an essay about Burdick and the suffrage to consideration of an equal rights collection. amendment. KATHIE RYCKMAN ANDERSON JESSIE, NORTH DAKOTA

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