Copyright © 1982 by the Willa Cather Pioneer ISSN 0197-663X Memorial and Educational Foundation Spring, !982 Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Newsletter VOLUME XXVI, No. 2 Editor, Mildred R. Bennett RED CLOUD, NEBRASKA FREDERICK MANFRED RETURNS TO CATHERLAND Frederick Manfred, the novelist whose heart lives in the midwest, his Siouxland, has written twenty- five novels, poetry and essays. One of his most acclaimed, Con- quering Horse, published in 1959, has much of its setting in Webster County. At home in Luverne, Minnesota, he lives in a two-room stone house, and works in a cabin not far away where he has no telephone, but all his books and reference material so that the outside world does not exist. He is also Writer-In-Resi- dence at the University of South Dakota, in Vermillion. Manfred, seventy on January 6, exudes energy, interest and charis- ma from all his six feet, nine inches. Born Feika Feikema, he began writing under that name, but so many people did not pronounce it correctly, including me when he first came into our living room. I knew him at once, from his work, but I pronounced his name wrong (a tragic insult to an author). That day, in the early ’50’s he told me about his change of name --just because people didn’t pronounce it correctly and wondered if he were a full-blooded, earthy Ameri- can. He is, however, proud of his Frisian ancestry, of Northern Hol- land. Frederick Manfred, author of SONS OF ADAM. -- Photo Credit: © !980, Larry Risser Born a farm boy with five young- influential part of his life and work. since the subject is the same, one er brothers, he first worked on the In Green Earth, he has given us could more easily compare him farm. Very early he read all he his growing up until the loss of his with O. E. Rolvaag .... Let com- could find and began to write, prac- mother. parisons go -- Frederick Man- tically educating himself. Entering Helga Sandburg in the New fred’s Green Earth is a worthy high school at twelve, he gradu- York Times review of Green Earth tale, something of a masterpiece." ated at sixteen. His mother died says: "One might compare Man- Frederick grew up a child of the when he was seventeen, but her fred’s work with the books of depression and knows all the memory has remained a vivid and Thomas Wolfe. Perhaps, struggles, sorrows, hungers that Page 9 young people of that day endured. own image in the Manfred Mirror, CONFERENCE Somehow he earned the money to but he paints as he sees it. A SCHEDULE go through college and graduated tremendous welcome awaits him from Calvin College in Grand Ra- he is One of Ours. SATURDAY, MAY 1 pids, Michigan. However, a degree Mildred R. Bennett 8:00 a.m..12:00 in depression days did not insure a REGISTRATION, coffee and kola- lucrative position and he wandered READ A LOST LADY che, Cather Center Museum, 336 We have chosen the book A across America via freight trains North Webster. and friendly motorists. While work- Lost Lady for this year’s discus- ing as a newspaper reporter, he sion panel. Over ten years ago we 8:30 a.m. stayed with a family who treated discussed this book in view of its MASS Grace E~iscopal Church, him as one of their own. Restless sources and the Garber family. 6th and Cedar. again, he quit the job and wan- This year we will emphasize the dered for a while. When he re- critical aspects of the book, its 9:45 a.m. turned, he looked up the family and merits, its weakness, its universal- MASS St. Julianna Catholic, 3rd found they had all died of tubercu- ity. Read A Lost Lady before you Avenue and South Chestnut. come for May 1 You will have the losis. Not realizing he, himself, was 10:30 a.m. desperately ill, he worked until he opportunity to ask c~uestions of the collapsed and was taken to the experts. And you will be welcomed "CATHER’S WILD FLOWERS" -- hospital. The attendants put him on to give your own critical evalua- Dr. Harold Nagel Vet’s Hall, 3rd a cot in the hall, where both his tion. and Cedar. head and his feet hung over the 12:30 p.m. ends. (Remember his height), and As some of you know. the Cather Board begins planning future BOX LUNCH Vet’s Hall, 3rd and thinking him unconscious they dis- Cedar. cussed his case, concluding that spring conferences anywhere from there was no use trying to find an eighteen months to two years 2:00-3:30 p.m. extra long bed for him because he ahead. This year, starting last May "THE PASSING SHOW’ Vet’s would not live until morning. 1, we invited Madame L. C. Chang Hall, 3rd and Cedar; panel discus- from China to be our 1982 guest. Manfred determined he would sion of A Lost Lady. She has not, however, been able to live to see another sun rise. He 3:45-4:45 p.m. gasped his way through the long, obtain proper papers from her dark hours of the night and the next government to travel to the United FREDERICK MANFRED AUTO- dawn staggered to a window in the States. Months yet may be re- GRAPH SESSION -- Foundation hall to greet the sun. After a long quired. Therefore, we have Building, 326 North Webster. recovery at the sanitarium, he de- switched our 1983 plans and vice versa. You will not be disappointed 8:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. and voted his life to writing, a calling to 3:30-5:00 p.m. which he has been faithful. Man- in either of our programs. GIFT SHOP-GALLERY, OPEN -- fred, a realist, writes life as he sees M. Bennett Foundation Building. it -- nothing of Pollyanna about John Mar(~h keeps our card file him, but his work always contains index on the Newsletter up to date 7:00 p.m. that upbeat of hope. with cards mailed every quarter BANQUET, GUEST SPEAKER, In Scarlet Plume, 1964, he immediately after he receives the FREDERICK MANFRED -- Ele- looks straight at racism -- this Newsletter. mentary School, multi-purpose time the Whites against the Indi- room, 3rd and Cherry Streets. ans. He comes up with questions On her recent trip to California, 10:30 a.m..2:00 p.m. and that should cause any thinking per- Mildred R. Bennett spoke to the 3:30-5:00 p.m. son to do some self-examination. high school literature and writing OPEN HOUSE -- all Cather Center students of the classes in Downey Frederick Manfred, whom I Buildings, Nagel Photographic Ex- would call the Compassionate High School, California, which Don hibit at Burlington Depot, 1st Ave- Giant, loves the people of his E. Connors teaches. As usual on nue and South Seward; refresh- world, but he does not hesitate to such visits Mrs. Bennett and Mr. ments at Depot from 3:30-5:00 say what he believes about life, Connors visited the section of p.m. love, and one’s ethical responsi- Downey High School which spe- bilities. Particularly poignant to us cializes in teaching the Deaf, and of the Middle West is the fact that Mrs. Bennett talked to the students charge of this division of the he had lived here, observed here, about Willa Cather. Formerly, one Downey School system. Now, how- written here about people just like of Mrs. Bennett’s students from ever, he has his own T.V. Comedy us. One may not always like his Omaha School for the Deaf had talk show for the Deaf. Page 10 WILLA CATHER’S teen to Lincoln to the Landis family The OMAHA WORLD HERALD PRAIRIE: THROUGH THE as an exchange student. Now, for is sponsoring a photographic art CAMERA’S EYE the 1981 holidays they had brought contest wherein the contestants fit her and her little Momoko to Ne- their photos to the words of Ne- Harold G. "Hal" Nagel grew up braska again. She had enjoyed a braska authors such as Willa on a farm in central Kansas and his delightful visit with her Nebraska Cather, Marl Sandoz, and John experiences there became the family. I remarked that so many Neihardt. For further details write foundation for his love and respect girls’ name in Japanese ended in Omaha World Herald, World Her- for the prairie. Since his youth, he "ko" an~ she told me it was an af- ald Square, Omaha, Nebraska has studied and photographed fectionate diminutive. I mentioned 68102. prairie plants and insects. Today, that Maya Angelou had been our he combines scientific and photo- The contest does not close until speaker last spring, 1981. and she December of 1982, so that you graphic studies. The result of his immediately knew of whom I spoke have plenty of time to choose your photographic studies may be seen and said that a rival publisher was subjects and your seasons. in a photo show in April and May at translating Ms. Angelou’s work into the Red Cloud Depot. Japanese. Greetings from Mieko Hamaya The show, entitled "Willa Ca- M Bennett Kawagoe who tells us that her hus- ther’s Prairie: Through the Cam- era’s Eye," will feature twenty- band, Shunsuke Kawagoe, is nomi- HAM RADIO OPERATORS nated to be a delegate to Rotary In- eight color photographs, all taken COMING FOR SPRING of plants and insects described by ternational in Dallas in June of 1982.