• by Paul Engle
    Paperback
    This book is the 12th in the U/Iowa Press's series, "Singular Lives: The Iowa Series in North American Autobiography." This particular memoir is that of Paul Engle, noted American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as ... ... more

    by Paul Engle
    Paperback
    This book is the 12th in the U/Iowa Press's series, "Singular Lives: The Iowa Series in North American Autobiography." This particular memoir is that of Paul Engle, noted American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program (IWP), both at the University of Iowa. In the dedication to his loving account, Engle writes, "I had a lucky life. Such a way will never be lived here again. It has gone with the wild buffalo skinners and the Indian fighters, with my mother's hands whose tough calluses tore the sheets as she made my bed, with that marvelous rich reek of harnesses and saddle leather, of horse manure and sweat which I happily breathed each day." The anecdotes are rich and captivating. From family holidays with lively activities, uncles, aunts, and memorable foods to his job in the neighborhood drugstore dispensing castor oil, sodas, tonics, and liniments, Engle's absorbing stories capture the characters and atmosphere of life in mid-America at the beginning of the 20th century. In reviewing his childhood in Cedar Rapids, IA, Engle found "the raw materials that shaped him" not only as a poet, but as a person as well. A worthy successor to Edgar Lee Masters, Engle recalls his boyhood years in Iowa which were so different from "the tasteless, flavorless, homogenized world" of the present.
  • by Curtiss Anderson
    Harcover
    A "robust" Norwegian-Lutheran family's summers at "The Lake" in the '30s and '40s in Northern Minnesota. Anderson, a nationally recognized editor of many magazines, unknowingly began his prestigious career writing notes and letters on a hand-me-down Underwood typewriter as a young boy. These saved letters are now compiled into a coming-of-age memoir that brings ... ... more

    by Curtiss Anderson
    Harcover
    A "robust" Norwegian-Lutheran family's summers at "The Lake" in the '30s and '40s in Northern Minnesota. Anderson, a nationally recognized editor of many magazines, unknowingly began his prestigious career writing notes and letters on a hand-me-down Underwood typewriter as a young boy. These saved letters are now compiled into a coming-of-age memoir that brings the reader back to his summers at The Lake. The funny and warm stories recall picking wild blueberries, first romances, loving neighbors, his numerous dogs, and porch chats with Dear Old Aunt Ingaborg, a heavily accented relative from the Old Country. "As a 100% Norwegian-Lutheran who lives in Northern Minnesota, the description of a "robust" family with this ethnic background rather throws me. I have yet to meet such a family, and I am not exactly young!" SN
  • by Janet Letnes Martin
    Paperback
    Don't waste precious time at night when you can't sleep because another wave of hotflashes has hit you. Get your guilt-filled, soakin' body up out of bed and do something! The handbook tells you what you can do to be productive in the middle of the night, and offers advice on what ... ... more

    by Janet Letnes Martin
    Paperback
    Don't waste precious time at night when you can't sleep because another wave of hotflashes has hit you. Get your guilt-filled, soakin' body up out of bed and do something! The handbook tells you what you can do to be productive in the middle of the night, and offers advice on what is happening with your body when you start getting brown spots on your skin so your arms start to look like lefse that's been left on the griddle too long.
  • by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
    Paperback
    According to the New York Times Book Review, this book is "one of the 10 best books of the year". A different sort of memoir that doesn't focus on the hard times, Kalish teaches the reader what life was like as a rural, rigid Methodist Iowan. She never feels sorry for herself ... ... more

    by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
    Paperback
    According to the New York Times Book Review, this book is "one of the 10 best books of the year". A different sort of memoir that doesn't focus on the hard times, Kalish teaches the reader what life was like as a rural, rigid Methodist Iowan. She never feels sorry for herself although circumstances of her childhood—including a banished father—were quite bleak. Kalish loved her childhood, and one of her most-used phrases is "it was quite a romp". Kalish took the values of her youth right on to college, became a highly respected professor, wrote this award-winning best seller, and has made the rounds on network TV programs. Ted Kooser, former U.S. Poet Laureate, compared this book to Hamlin Garland's "A Son of the Middle Border". If you lived through The Great Depression, this small book packed with joy will awaken your soul. If you didn't live through the Depression, you will glean some valuable history lessons.
  • Photographs by Everett W. Kuntz; Text by Jim Heynen
    Hardcover
    If you find yourself getting more and more interested in "recent" history as you get older, if you prefer the clarity of black and white photos, and if you are one of many fans of Jim Heynen's writing, you will truly appreciate this book of wonderful, ... ... more

    Photographs by Everett W. Kuntz; Text by Jim Heynen
    Hardcover
    If you find yourself getting more and more interested in "recent" history as you get older, if you prefer the clarity of black and white photos, and if you are one of many fans of Jim Heynen's writing, you will truly appreciate this book of wonderful, "lost" photography by Iowan Everett W. Kuntz. I had the privilege of meeting Kuntz' greatest fans, his wife and son, and heard their stories about their husband and father. Just before graduating from Ridgeway (IA) High School in 1939, Kuntz spent his entire savings of $12.50 on a 35mm Argus AF camera and made a case for it from a worn-out boot, scraps from a tin can, and a clasp from his mother's purse. Wherever he went for the next several years, around his parents' farm or to town on Saturday night, his camera was his constant companion as he captured rural and small town life in the 40s. Kuntz, however, didn't have the money to print these photos, but in time he was able to buy bulk film used for movie reels. He then rolled his own camera film, and developed it in a closet at home. Kuntz eventually married, raised a family, and worked as an electrical engineer in the Twin Cities, while over 2000 negatives remained undeveloped in a box. When he became ill with cancer in the fall of 2002, sixty years after he had developed the last of his bulk film, he opened his "time capsule" and finally printed the images from his youth. Kuntz brought his childhood and hometown back to life, just as he was to depart from it. He died in 2003 leaving the rest of us a great treasure.
  • by Jim Heynen
    Paperback
    Through 64 short stories, readers meet a group of farm boys who possess all the trouble-making talents of most young boys, yet they recognize and are in awe of the world's tiny miracles. The boys throw tomatoes at passing cars and make coat sails to carry them down a frozen road. Yet, they ... ... more

    by Jim Heynen
    Paperback
    Through 64 short stories, readers meet a group of farm boys who possess all the trouble-making talents of most young boys, yet they recognize and are in awe of the world's tiny miracles. The boys throw tomatoes at passing cars and make coat sails to carry them down a frozen road. Yet, they feed apples to a blind pony, teach a three-legged dog to shake hands, and rescue pigs from an unexpected blizzard. They also build a house out of junk cast aside by adults, "the boys' house". In their adventures, they encounter an unforgettable cast of characters that readers soon meet: the goose lady, the girl at school with six toes, the man who kept cigars in his cap, Spitting Sally, crazy Uncle Jack, and dozens more. Critics have said Heynen's tales are as uniquely American as the writings of Mark Twain, and this book was chosen as an "Editors' Favorite Books of 2001" by The Bloomsbury Review. Nick Fauchald of Minnesota Monthly wrote, "Heynen's book is a masterful peephole into the young male psyche and the family farm culture." Heynen grew up on a farm in Iowa, but now lives in Minnesota and is a Writer-in-Residence at St. Olaf College.
  • by Eric Dregni
    Hardcover
    In this book, Dregni attempts to answer, "Who are these rather odd Scandinavians in our midst", "What does it actually mean to grow up Scandinavian-American", and what's the deeper side of living amongst Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, and Icelanders"? To answer these questions, Dregni tracked down and explored both the significant and the ... ... more

    by Eric Dregni
    Hardcover
    In this book, Dregni attempts to answer, "Who are these rather odd Scandinavians in our midst", "What does it actually mean to grow up Scandinavian-American", and what's the deeper side of living amongst Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, and Icelanders"? To answer these questions, Dregni tracked down and explored both the significant and the bizarre by looking at the historic sites, tales, foods, and traditions of Scandinavian-Americans in the Midwest. In his younger days, the author considered it normal to collect silver spoons, be suspicious of flashy clothing, and take shots of turpentine to cure the common cold. Growing up with Swedish and Norwegian grandparents with a dash of Danish thrown in, Dregni assumed everyone had these habits and that they also enjoyed a good, healthy salad (Jell-O packed with canned fruit, colored marshmallows, or pretzels) or cod soaked in drain cleaner. Only later did it dawn on him that perhaps these habits were a little strange. By then it was too late: he too was hooked. As his research progressed, Dregni learned some of the things less spoken about: poor immigrants living in sod houses while their children attended college, the births of the co-op movement and the Farmer–Labor party, and about government agents spying on Scandinavian meetings hoping to nab a socialist. And he was able to both flesh out and flush out new tales and ideas his ancestors had neglected to tell him.