cc >> Good evening.
My name is Jason A. Smith. I
People and Ideas am the editor of Wisconsin
for the Wisconsin Academy of communications director
I'd like to welcome Scienyou to the 2011,ters.
yes, 2011 Wisconsin Book
This is the 10th year of the Festival here in Madison.
We're pretty lucky to have it. Wisconsin Book Festival.
our panel of esteemed authors. I'm proud to be here introducing
little Book Festival business. I First, I have to take care of a
Wisconsin People and wanted to thank our sponsors,
[laughter and applause] IYeah, thank you.
Madison Magazine, Friends of the Libraries
at the University of
and of course, Wisconsin Wisconsin-Madison,
for sponsoring this event. Humanities Council
Tonight, and tonight only, you It's wonderful stuff.
literary tradition through this interactive presentation of the
lives, legends, humor and surprises from some of the
state's greatest writers. From Zona Gale
to Thornton Wilder, August
he's a Wisconsin guy, well-- Derleth to John Muir,
to life Wisconsin authors Thiwho changed the world.ng
You'll also learn about acclaimed Wisconsin poet,
Lorine Niedecker, and how Margot Peters, author
of Niedecker's new
for researching the book. Let's bintroduce our presenters
for this evening. We'll start on this side
with my colleague and friend John Lehman.
John Lehman is the founder of Rosebud Magazine, and the
literary editor of Wisconsin
hold your applause, as People and Ideas,
of Zelda Wilde Publishing. well as managing partner
Wisconsin Poet Laureate position John was a finalist for the
which means in in 2004, and again in 2008,
Eh, he gave up. Dramatic 2012... [laughter]
plays have been presented in Milwaukee, Madison
and in St. Petersburg,
His collection of poetry Florida. Yes.
"Shrine of the Tooth Fairy includes "Acting Lessons,"
"Shorts: 101 Brief Poems ," "Dogs Dream of Running,"
and my personal favorite, of"The Village Poet."e,"
Every village has a poet. John is the village poet
of Cambridge. Jumping over to the
far side, we have Margot Peters.
Niedecker is called Her n"Lorine Niedecker:rine
A Poet's Life." Margot
biographer, whose many books is an accomplished
Biography of Charlotte Bronte ," "The House of Barrymore,"
"Design for Living: Alfred
"May Sarton: A Biography Lunt and Lynn Fontanne,"
and the Actresses." And "Summers: A True Love
Story," which is currently being
A Chapter A Day. read on Wisconsin Public Radio's
Good stuff. Margot Tune in for that.
Wisconsin. And finally, livmy colleague,lls,
Ronnie Hess, last but not least,
Ronnie. Her book is entitled
"Eat Smart In France."
eating in France, I Evelearned from Ronnie.out
Ronnie is an award-winning
a long and passionate interest journalist and poet who has had
She has lived and worked in food, especially French food.
for CBS News and as inan English teacher.er
Her food and travel writing has appeared in national
and regional publications.
I'm going to butcher this-- RonLiane Kuony, thank you,h--
at the Postilion Restaurant and the School of Culinary Arts
in, I'm going to butcher
[laughter] She is the thauthor of "Eat Smart!
in France," as I said, a
and a poetry chapbook, culinary travel guide;
I read from cover to called "Whole Cloth," which
Ronnie is the coordinator of cover. It's great.
statewide Academy Evenings two of the Wisconsin Academy's
and engages Wisconsinites on lecture series, which enlightens
Ronnie lives here in Madison, where she is at work on another
poetry manuscript called, I love this,
"A Woman in Vegetable ." Is that right?
Nice. Lovely.
Well, I'm going to turn the podium over to John.
Are you starting? Okay.
So please, okay, well,
Let's welcome John they're both starting.
Lehman [applause] Hess.
Thanks, Jason. And to think just six or seven
years ago, I was selling
[light laughter] t-shirts out in the lobby.
we'll get back to that. This is "Bragging Rights,"
ten past authors in whom
Most people in our state don't Wisconsin is especially proud.
a soaring literary tradition. Here's a brief introduction to
the lives, legends, humor and surprises of this state's
greatest writers, from early
playwright Thornton Wilder, from horror story writer August
Derleth to environmentalist John Muir, you'll discover
we've got a lot to be proud of. >> And the next time your son
or daughter asks you if Wisconsin has ever had
any writers, you can answer...
who have changed the world. >>Zona Gale, number one.n
She was born in Portage, in 1874.
She wrote her first novel,
and in 1920 she published the novel "Miss Lulu Bett,"
which she adapted as a play.
Prize for Drama. In Itaddition to her fictioner
writing, Zona Gale was an active supporter of the
La Follettes, both
and Philip La Follette, and progressive causes.
She was an active member of the National Women's Party, and she
lobbied extensively for the 1921
Her activism on behalf of women Wwas her way to help solve.
"a problem she returned to
women's frustration at their repeatedly in her novels:
She died in Chicago, lack of opportunities."
This is from her short story, "Friendship Village,".
published in 1908. We put new wine in old
bottles, but also we use new
For, consider the name of our b main street: is thisd Main or
Clark or Cook or Grand
of the main streets of town? Street, according to the register
village life, the plank road, macadamized ands arc-lighted,
is called Daphne Street.
I love to wonder why. Did our dear Doctor Daphne June's t!
father name it when he
s which glorify us? Or elms and oaks
way on the day of her flight. Already some of us smile did Daphne hwithlf take this
a secret nod at something when we direct a stranger, "You will
find the Telegraph and Cable
on Daphne Street." Office two blocks down,
House, the Abigail Arnold Home Bakery, the Post Office and
Armory are in the same
Or, "The Electric Light Office is at the corner of Dunn and
Daphne." Is it not
herself, at seeing these things, did not stay, e
but lifted her laurels somewhat nearer Tempe-
although there are those of us who like to fancy that she
is here all the time in our Daphne-Street magic:
the fire bell, the tulip
For how else, in all reason, beds, and the twilight bonfires.
Number two is August persisted?
He was best known for his horror stories.
After his first 40 were rejected he finally sold one,
"Bat's Belfry" to Weird Tales magazine.
But he also went on to publish
American supernatural twriter, H.P. Lovecraft,t
and the first book by science-fiction king,
Ray Bradbury. He was
the Capital Times for 20 the literary editor of
Fellowship. He used yethe funds to bind hiseim
comic book collection, most recently valued in the millions
of dollars, rather
as the award intended. than to travel abroad
was hiking the terrain of his native Sauk-Prairie.
This is from "Walden West," part of the Sac Prairie Saga.
Lolly Denham was thin and faded at fifty, a stooped woman
with pale gray eyes that stared at you
from behind her spectacles. She wore her graying hair drawn
severely back and knotted high on her neck, parted in the
middle, and on every clouded
She had strange habits. She used to come into the day, wore oposthoes.
office and industriously
e handbag. On winter ket into her
after snowfalls, she went out and shoveled snow, not nights onlyng and
before her own door,
Sometimes on autumn nights, she raked leaves as but all erratically. lock.
She stopped people on the street and asked mysteriously
what they had done
She walked alone at night, with her "divorce papers."
went through the darkness talk to lighted windows, moth-like,
and looked steadfastly
into some hunger for life to satisfy
Of what went on within her she did not have.
Her private world allowed of mind no one knew for certain.
wondered what secret drive no invasion, though I often
wastepaper and the work addiction to
Did the circulars and folders, the discarded properl newspapers and rs.
advertisements she found in the post office wastebasket assuage
some remote wish for escape?
labor so secretly assumed offer a panacea for inner torment?
The wastepaper vanished into
he stored in the basement, together with twigs
and fragments of wood, as against some need,
though there was no necessity for it to heat the house, since
there was central heating,
in which to burn the paper and there was nothing
small range in the kitchen. an The paper was nevered used; the
twigs were stacked away until the basement under the house
was filled from floor to ceiling with paper and
Number three, John Muir. twigs.
Steven J. Holmes, states that Muir has become "one of the
patron saints of 20th-century American environmental
activity," both political and recreational.
As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and
journals, and he is often been
such as Ansel Adams. quoted by nature photographers
profoundly shaped the very Holmes writes, "Muir has
Americans understand and categories through which
with the natural world." envision their relationships
an ecological thinker, Muir was noted for being
and religious prophet, whose political spokesman,
into nature for countless wrindividuals, making his namede
"almost ubiquitous" in
consciousness. the modern environmental
William Anderson, Muir According to author
of our oneness with the earth," while biographer Donald Worster
says he understood his mission
soul from total surrender to be,to materialism."rican
Born in Scotland, in 1838,
to the United States, starting a Muir's family emigrated
By age 11, young Muir farmhad learned to recitesin.
by heart and by sore flesh
and most of the Old Testament. all of the New Testament
religious man, writing, "We all flow from one fountain,
Soul. All are expressions of one love.
God does not appear, and
chinks and round bored wells flow out, only from narrow
and places, but He flows in hergrand undivided currents,ces
shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and
all kinds of civilization and people and beasts, saturating
all and fountainizing all." >>
the University of AWisconsin-Madison, payingt
his own way for several years.
locust tree beside North Hall, There, under a towering black
lesson. A fellow Muir took his first botany
flower from the tree and used it student plucked a
is a member of the pea family, to explain how the grand locust
pea plant. Fifty related to the straggling
naturalist Muir described the day in his autobiography.
"This fine lesson charmed me and
meadows in wild enthusiasm sent me flying to the woods and
undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida,
which he recounted in his book, "A Thousand-Mile Walk
to the Gulf." He had no specific route, except
to go by the "wildest, leafiest,
I could find," he wrote. Upon reaching Florida, he hoped
to board a ship to South America
there. After contracting malaria
on Florida's Gulf Coast,
and instead, he sailed to New York and booked passage
to California. >> He
we can do but little more than to give a few wrote, I names, ing,
as they come to mind, beaver, squirrel, coon, fox,
marten, fisher, otter,
full descriptions of the bright-eyed furry throng,
their snug home nests, their
how they get their food, loves,
escape their enemies, and keep themselves warm and rear their young,
exquisitely clean, through well,
all And here are some personal weather.
of John Muir as a student in impressions and recollections
at the University. >> MaMy acquaintance withclassmate
John Muir began when a tutor, John D. Parkinson, took me in
tow and led me to the northeast corner room of North Hall
on the first floor. A young man was busily engaged
sawing boards and presently the tutor introduced him
as John Muir. I was much younger than he, and
was entering the preparatory
beginning of a close and dep delightful college s the
When telling me stories of friendship.
he often dropped into a rich his early life, or reading Burns,
Scotch wrote and spoke gh English perfectly.
The only books which I
the poems of Robert Burns, remember seeing him read were his Bible,
It was a very hard and dreary life which he had texbeenks.
compelled to live on
but in spite of all, he was the most cheerful, hihappy-heartedrm,
man I ever knew. Muir died of pneumonia
in California, in 1914. >> Number four,
Lorine Niedecker. >>
on Blackhawk Island near Fort Atkinson, where she lived
virtually all her life in relative obscurity and poverty.
She scrubbed floors in the Fort Atkinson Hospital and, unknown
to those who came in contact
poetry which today is included with her, wrote relentless
alongside such literary giants as Emily Dickinson
and William Carlos Williams.
I see only where >> Fog-thick morning
I carry my clarity .
with me. >> Niedecker tells us,
I had set my sights beyond
connection to that other world was Louis Zukofsky,
a young intellectual
She began a regular correspondence with him and
eventually visited
She became pregnant. Zukofsky in New York.
she terminate the pregnancy. Zukofsky insisted that
to Wisconsin where she wrote She did, and returned forever
a flooding river, in a barren cottage without electricity
or running water. And Zukofsky who thought that
she, at most, might be a
become a footnote in hers. She footnote in his life, has now
My Life by Water My liferoke.
by water- Hear
spring's
or board out first frog
ground giving cold
Muskrats gnawing
doors to
arts and letters wild green
raided my lettuce
One boat two-
pointed toward
thru birdstart my shore
weed-drift wingdrip
and serious- of the soft
At this point, we're going Water.
to Margot Peters, who has just to turn over the program
on Lorine Niedecker, to talk written this wonderful biography
Thank you, John and Ronnie. How many of you, before this
evening, had heard the
That's pretty good, nbut not good enough.?
[laughter] Can you
As John said, Lorine Niedecker hear me all right?
in a hospital in Madison, at University Hospital,
after a month-long illness
That was in 1970, of aDecember 31. 1970.ge.
Her publisher, Jonathan Williams, who was head of the
Jargon Press, was infuriated
the passing. Sure, she that nobody seemed to notice
in Fort Atkinson, because she lived close to Fort Atkinson.
But where was this broader
that he considered one of the great poets of the 20th century.
This is a letter, I'll just quote from briefly, that he
wrote to the "New York Times" in protest about ignoring
Lorine's death. "Dear Sir," and he quotes now
from the poet Basil Bunting,
Lorine. It says, "Dear Sir,
'Lorine Niedecker is the
No one is so subtle with so few words.'.
Basil Bunting." And in another quote.
"'Lorine Niedecker is the most
since Emily Dickinson absolute.' Peter Yates."language
You have to forgive the word
any better back then. [laughter]
Miss Niedecker died in
her That's wrong. She lived on Blackhawk Island.
On December 30. It was the 31st.
1970. She was 68.
She was 67. But let's forget those details,
because this man is truly a fan. Deeper than a fan.
He published Niedecker. He
most important poets in America. felt that she was one of the
on the part of thefairly dim
and what few other "New York Times,"
not one of them has managed in the intervening weeks thereto informe that
the public of this loss. During the four decades Lorine
Niedecker wrote the savory, laponic, superbly crafted
poems, she commanded
of William Carlos Williams, Louis the aZukofsky,
Basil Bunting, Edward Dahlberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Herbert Read,
James Laughlin, Robert
Dunc Hamilton Finley, Robert Creeley,
Ronald Johnson, and a Gismall audience capable
of telling real peony bushes
plants. Her work is c in print on both
sides of the Atlantic, and we propose to keep it that way
until journals, critics and readers become re-cultivated.
Well, the Times did not print Jonathan Williams' letter
to the Times. And Lorine
danger of what she feared most, and that was going to Earth,
giving her phosphorus, as she said, to the soil,
without ever being remembered as a great poet, or a poet.
She didn't think of herself as great.
So, 1970. Emily Dickinson, to whom
she's most often
It took 49 years compared, died in 1886.
was recognized as a poet. That's due to the publication
of her complete poetic works. So
Lorine, but you know, the world ihas speeded up considerablyh
since the 19th century. Let's think when Lorine started
appearing on the literary map.
lifetime by poets, chiefly other Obviously, she was known in her
who taught her, and who mimeographed her poems, because
her poems were published
They handed them in tiny editions.
She was appreciative. But the wider world,
where was that? Well, I dated it in my biography
from the '80s. That,
people start to tell me that they began to be aware
of Lorine Niedecker.
a collection of her poetry In 1985, her book,
was published posthumously called "The Granite Pail,"
That was 1985. Well, by Cid Corman.
a collection of her poetry that was published
by Jonathan Williams called "From This Condensory,"
was published in 1986. She
review in the "New York Times ." It does take the Times to
put a writer on the map. This is when the pot starts to
be stirred, when people start hearing about Lorine Niedecker.
In 1986, also a scholar named Lisa Pater Faranda publishes the
collective letters of Lorine
Cid Corman was a poet. Am NI speaking too closely.
to that mic? Yeah? Okay.
So, Corman was a poet and the publisher of a magazine
called "Origin," located
He published Lorine constantly, many, many, 45 at least,
of her poems. So he published
"The Granite Pail." I remember buying that,
walking into the University Bookstore and seeing this book.
I was always in the poetry
who Lorine Niedecker department, and wondering
So I bought "The Granite Pail," and became absolutely enchanted
with her poetry. Enchanted
right word. She grabbed iyou by the throat.
She was a tough poet. Anyway, so 1986.
Then, by let's see, 1993, Lorine Niedecker's letters
to Louis Zukofsky,
were published. So you an objectivist poet,
pot that's stirring, and you get have that added to the
of it, because Zukofsky insisted her correspondence, what's left
was personal in his that letters. She did that. that
She took scissors and cut letters to pieces.
If you go to where they are in the University of Austin's
Humanities Research Center, what
these heartbreaking fragments of you find are these fragments,
been, if they had kept the a correspondence that could've
the great, great letters, could've been one of
As it is, it's fascinating. But one mourns what's not there.
Anyway, so that got published.
interested in her, and you have a book called "Lorine Niedecker:
Woman and Poet," in 1996. "Blue Chicory," a collection of
her poetry is published in 1975.
Elizabeth Willis in 2008. Still, however, in 2003, Johny
Lehman here, could call Lorine, he titled his book on Lorine--
How would you describe
A book for high school... >> A book for high school
students. >> Because I
But it was using a context taught high school.
Zukofsky to try to get below the of the letters to Corman and
Yes, it's a really surface of some of her work.
more than an introduction to fine introduction,
John titled his book in 2003, L"America's Greatest Unknown.
Poet," so John is saying
people. I think the she'crucial breakthroughost
came, if you're not anthologized
be read. And lo and as a behold, Norton tooking to
Lorine in, and she has now
"Norton Anthology." Louis Zukofsky has one poem.
[light laughter] No, we don't dislike Louis.
We just feel that-- "Oh yes, we do,"
Ann Engelman says. [laughter]
We have the president of the
here in this audience Frtonight. Stand up, Ann.er
Yay! [applause]
So, she's in anthologies. She's taught.
And I was delighted to hear that
teaching her in a course this fall, because the drive has been
to get this woman published and in anthologies, and to be taught
and known, because she's
Her poetry can be so a magnificent poet.
My friend tree I simple. She writes,
but I must attend an older friendown
the sun That's how
and yet she can be as lyrical as the poem that Ronnie read.
You read "My Life By Water
on writing a biography ." So I didn't really plan
I had written six long of Lorine Niedecker.
burned out. But I biograwent to see a play--ittle
It keeps imploding
I'm sorry. I'm a teacher!
I always talk loudly! I'm an ex-teacher.
I went to a play about
in Fort Atkinson. It was wonderful.
I walked out and there was
with information on it a woman staffing a desk
I kind of waved at her and said, and bookmarks, etc.
a biography of Lorine Niedecker. oh, I've always wanted to write
that, because what I had meant Well, I went home and forgot
and if I hadn't already written wsix biographies, that would be,
a wonderful project. But
seriously and I was called and this woman took me very
that the Friends of Lorine told that they had a biographer,
for Lorine. So, I said Niedecker had a biographer
to think this over. I just give me a few days
I've loved her ever since sai1986 when I boughtt.
"The Granite Pail." I undertook this life.
She's different from all my other subjects, because all my
other subjects were very
At one point, there was no one famous when they lived.
George Bernard Shaw. You more famous in the world than
and say, "George Bernard Shaw, could just write a letter
Thhim. That's how famous thisto
playwright was. Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre"
was probably the most popular book in 19th century England.
The Barrymore family that I wrote about, John Barrymore,
Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, were icons of the
theater and later of film.
people who really made a splash in their lifetimes, and carried
fame with them and
With Lorine Niedecker, you have someone who is writing without
any real idea that she will ever, ever be published,
first of all. And then, if she is published,
and she is published in the most
magazines with circulations of minute magazines, small poetry
these will survive, whether 100 panything will survive.ether
Yet, nothing deters her from the lifetime, which,
as John and Ronnie said,
Nothing deterred was full of hardship.
She wrote. She had her from writing.
published during her three or four books
With no idea that she would ever lifetime, some posthumously.
poet, yet nothing could realstop her from writing.s a
She called her workplace her
a poet that distills emotion. I think with Lorine Niedecker,
what you had was ecstasy, because she calls poetry
ecstasy, "the ecstasy that
rigorous control. And canothing makes a more tenseer
and beautiful poem, to me, than that.
That's the kind of poet she is. So, anyway, it was an adventure.
I met people I never
Somebody said, oh, it must be hard to find information about
Lorine, I mean, she lived so obscure a life.
Most people in Fort Atkinson had
No idea whatsoever. She ndidn't want them to know.t.
You must have had a scramble for evidence.
I said I not only turned over every stone, I turned over
every piece of
I just researched and researched gravel. And I did.
I went to the Jefferson County and tried to find things.
birth certificates, and death Cocertificates, and marriaged
certificates, and divorce certificates, because there's so
much missing from her life. But on the other hand, here is
a book and it's about 300 pages long.
It does tell her story. It's a wonderful story.
It's full of triumph and
and the utmost courage. This is a woman I admire
almost more than any other
So that was my that I have written about.
She is a Wisconsin writer. I adventure with Lorine.
Thank you very much. [applause]
We'll come back to Margot at the end of the program.
Our number five is
a farm near Edgerton in S1906, he died in 1974.
After attending the University
a reporter, eventually of Chicago, North worked as
the "Chicago Daily News," the b"New York World-Telegram,"r
and the "New York Sun." One of North's first books,
"The Pedro Gorino," published in 1929, was a narrative
of the life of Harry Dean, an African-American sea captain.
A 1934 North novel, "Plowing
a rare dust jacket illustration by Iowa artist Grant Wood.
North's book, "Midnight and Jeremiah" was made into
a Disney movie, "So Dear
In 1957, he became the general to My Heart," in 1949.
North Star Books. North epublished his most famous's
work, "Rascal," in 1963.
of a year in his childhood The book is a remembrance
which he named Rascal. It whereceived a Newbery Honoron
in 1964, a Sequoyah Book Award
Award in 1966. It was and made into the Disneyice
movie of the same name in 1969. Subtitled "A Memoir of a Better
Era", North's book is a prose poem to adolescent angst.
"Rascal" chronicles young Sterling's loving, troubled
relationship with his father, dreamer David Willard North,
and the aching loss represented by the death of his mother,
Elizabeth Nelson North. The boy reconnects with society
through the unlikely
a "ring-tailed charmer" that intervention of his pet raccoon,
of the book. The book dominhas sold more thanpage
2.5 million copies since, and has been translated into
18 other languages. I just finished reading it
about two hours ago. Here's a critic's reaction to
Rascal. >> And I
in the women's just lost my copy
Don't everyone go! >> Skunks, woodchucks, er]
a crow named Poe, an
an eighteen foot, half-finished canoe in absthe living room,r,
welcome to the North home!
at the North residence. surprising
Sterling's pet raccoon. Not even eleven-year-old
young Sterling brings him home to join his unusual family.
The raccoon and Sterling
for a perfect year of are partners and best friends
adventure, swimming, fishing,
exploring the countryside together, until the spring day
when everything suddenly changes and Sterling
he must let Rascal go. This heartwarming memoir
of a boy's friendship with a wild animal,
and his growing awareness of the world around him,
become a treasured has
classic. >> Number six is Here are some words of Leopold.
These are from "Round River." Conservation is a state of
harmony between men and land. By land is meant all of the
things on, over,
Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; or in theyourth.
cannot cherish his right
That is to say, you cannot hand and chop off his left.
you cannot conserve the waters and waste the pranges;s;
you cannot build the
The land is one organism. Its parts, like our own parts,
compete with each other,
and co-operate with each other.
The competitions are as much
as the co-operations. workings
cautiously, but You not abolish them. ,
The outstanding scientific
is not television, or radio, discovery of the 20th century
of the land organism. Only those who know the commostity
about it can appreciate how little we know about
The last word in ignorance it.
of an animal or plant, is the man who says
If the land mechanism as a whole is good,
then every part is good, whether we understand it
or not. If the biota, in the course
of eons, has built something
we then who but a t understand,
the seemingly useless parts? fool would discard
is the first precaution wheel
He also wrote: >> Why of is it that conservation
is so rarely practiced
a living from the land? by those who must extract
in the last analysis, It is said to boil down,
Take forestry as an example: to economic obstacles.
crop his timber when stumpage th values rise highhe enough,
and when wood substitutes quit underselling him.
He said this decades ago. In the interim, stumpage
values have gone down, not
not decreased. Forest ve devastation goes on
as before. I admit
of this predicament. I the reality
inherent in unguided suspect that the forces
are not all beneficent. economic evolution
Like the forces inside our
own bodies, they may become malignant, pathogenic.
I believe that many of
the modern body-politic inside
to harmony with land. >> are pathogenic in respect
in Burlington, Iowa, in 1887. As a boy, he developed a lively
interest in field ornithology and natural history.
In 1924, he accepted the
of the U.S. Forest Products poLaboratory in Madison, theor
principal research institution
at that time. In 1933, of the Forest Service
the newly created chair hin Game Management
at the University of Wisconsin, a position he held
until his death.
of The Wilderness Society. He was co-founder
at the forefront of the Leopoconservation movement.life
He is widely acknowledged as the father of wildlife
conservation in America.
"A Sand County Almanac," he Twas also an internationallyr
respected scientist and was an advisor on conservation
to the United Nations. He died of a heart attack
on April 21, 1948, while
fight a grass fire. >> helping his neighbors
What? Edna Ferber Numberwas a WisconsinFerber.
writer? Ferber was
in 1885. At the age 12, she moved
with her family to
where she graduated from Appleton, Wisconsin,
attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs
at the "Appleton Daily Crescent"
before publishing and thher first novel.rnal"
Due to her skill in crafting
and plot, several theatrical scene, characterization
based on her works, and including "Show Boat,"been
"Giant," "Ice Palace," "Saratoga
which won an Oscar. TFerber was a member,"
of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met
for lunch every day at the
She died in New York Algonquin Hotel in New York.
at the age of 82. >> City of stomach cancer,
"A closed mind is a dying mind Edna Ferber said,
and exciting... if she ." "A woman can look both moral
quite a struggle." [laughter]
"Big doesn't necessarily
Sunflowers aren't better than violets."
"If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in,
there's something wrong with American politics."
"Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing,
for life itself is
until death." >> Number eight
is Hamlin Garland. >> Hannibal Hamlin Garland
was born in 1860 on a farm near West Salem.
A prolific writer, he published novels, short fiction,
and essays. In 1917,
popular autobiography, "A Son of the Middle Border."
After moving to Hollywood,
his remaining years to California, in 1929, he devoted
In his final book, "The Mystery of the Buried Crosses," in 1939,
he tried to defend such phenomena and prove the
legitimacy of psychic mediums.
his ashes were buried in After he died in 1940,
The Hamlin Garland House in that town is now honored
as an historic site.
"Boy Life on the Prairie >> This is from
Life on a Wisconsin farm, even for the older ," pub lads, d in 1899.
has its compensations. There were times when
the daily routine of
to an agreeable bustle life gave place
intercourse lightened the toil. In the midst of for a few the dull, d human
slow progress of fall's
of the threshing crew was a most dramatic ploughing, event. thering
All through the months of October and November, the
ceaseless ringing hum and the bow-ouw, ouw-woo
of the great balance wheel booee-oom
and the deep bass hum of the whirling cylinder,
as the motion rose and
on every side like the fell, could be heard
autumnal insect. The len and gigantic
boys, having taken off their air was sharp, and the
window and watch their father as he went out to show the men
where to the power was,
fantastic shadows here the dim light throwing
a face now and then, and there, lighting up
and bringing out the thresher,
which seemed a silent monster to the children,
who flattened their noses against the window-panes
to be sure that nothing should escape them.
The men's voices sounded cheerfully in the still night,
and the roused turkeys in the oaks peered about on their
perches, black silhouettes
Number nine, Laura against the sky.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was the Ingalls Wilder
children's series cre"Little House" booksed
that recounted her life as a
frontier during the late 1800s. y>> She was born in 1867,
near Pepin, the second
As a child, Laura moved with of four children.
across America's heartland. her fIn 1879, the family place
finally settled in what would become De Smet, South Dakota,
which remained her parent's home until they died.
Their second winter in De Smet
Numerous blizzards prevented was one of the worst on record.
supplies, essentially cutting off the town from December
until May. Years later, Laura wrote about
her experiences as a young
the cold temperatures and tlack of food, firewood,ve
and other necessities. >> Wilder completed her first
autobiographical work in the late 1920s.
Entitled "Pioneer Girl," it was a first-person account
of her childhood on the frontier
until she reached the from tage of eighteen.three
Wilder submitted it to various
Laura Ingalls Wilder. But no publishers under the name
chronicle, which contained one was interested in her
her childhood, but little in the plenty of historical facts about
But refusing to become way of character development.
her approach. The dis"I" in her storiesged
became "Laura," and the focus moved from the story
of one little girl to the experiences of an entire
family on the new frontier. Wilder also decided to direct
her writing specifically
In 1931, at the age of 65, to children.
her eight "Little House" books, "Little House in the Big Woods."
It was a huge hit with readers. Ten years later, she finished
the final book in her "Little House" series.
She was 90 when she died in 1957.
This is from "Little
published in 1935. House on the Prairie,"
and wildly screaming... Thousands of rabbits g
were running...
the yard. Prairie Sna hens ran silently,
their necks outstretched and their wings spread.
Birds screamed in the screaming wind...
Great flames came roaring,
Twists of flame broke loose and came down on the hwind
to blaze up in the
of the roaring wall of grasses far ahead
from the rolling black fire. A red light came
c And finally there's 10, Thornton Wilder
Playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder
was born in Madison, in 1897. As a youth, Wilder was teased
by others as being
A classmate said, "We left him overly intellectual.
the library, his hideaway, alone, and he would retire to
from humiliation learning to distance himself
Among Wilder's best-known novels, he wrote seven,
is "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."
In it, Wilder explored the
happen to people who seem questiundeserving of them.vents
It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.
And in 1998, it was selected
American Modern Library as by the editorial board of the
of the twentieth century. onBritish Prime Ministerls
Tony Blair quoted from the book,
at a memorial service for abvictims of the September 11ru,
attacks in 2001.
"But soon we will die, and Here's the quote.
will have left earth, and we ourselves shall be loved
for a while and forgotten. But the love
will have been enough; all
return to the love those impulses of love
Even memory is not that made them.
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead,
and the bridge is love. The only survival,
the only meaning." >> Two of Wilder's plays
also won Pulitzers, including "Our Town" in 1938.
The play employs a narrator called the "Stage Manager,"
a role Wilder played himself
His other Pulitzer-prize winning on Broadway for several weeks.
opened in New York on play, November 18, 1942,eeth,"
with Fredric March and
in the leading roles. In 1955, Tyrone Guthrie
encouraged Wilder to rework "The Merchant of Yonkers"
into "The Matchmaker," which
for the hit 1964 musical later became the basis
Wilder continues to be read and performed around the world.
And it is estimated that
at least once each day "Our Town" is performed
Wilder died in 1975. somewhere in around country.
We all know that Here's from "Our Town."
And it ain't houses and it ain't names,.
and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars...
Everybody knows in their
and that something has is eternal,
All the greatest people ever lived have beenings.
telling us that for five thousand years,
and yet you'd be surprised
losing hold of it. always
way down deep that's eternal There's something
abou >> Good-bye. n being.
Good-bye, Grover's Corners.. Good-bye, world.
Good-bye to clocks ticking.. . Mama and Papa.
And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses
and hot baths... And
Oh, earth, you're sleeptoo wonderfulg up.
for anybody to realize you. >> Wisconsin People & Ideas
has decided to highlight essays and excerpts from these ten
authors over the next few years,
contemporary Wisconsin writers. >> We're going to call it ABC,
the Academy Book Club.
I'm John Lehman. I'm Ronnie Hess.
will be held in April. Check The first meeting
website or for details: wisconsinacademy.org/bookclub.
Wisconsin has a rich
It's not only a great place to live, but a state that
appreciates writers and artists who bring cultural depth
to all of our lives.
and celebrating these wonderful writers with us.
Good night. [applause]