A change in everyday routine adds a little spice to life so we did just that a couple weeks ago when we drove south on I-29 to Brookings, South Dakota. The annual South Dakota Festival of Books had drawn my attention, so why not go and rub shoulders with some like-minded people. It was our first year to attend and might not be the last. To satisfy book lovers at both ends of their state, the festival alternates between east and west where last year Deadwood played host.
Some popular writers were in attendance this year who spoke about their work at different sessions. One that we missed on Friday was Alice Sebold who wrote a bestseller The Lovely Bones. Saturday featured a full lineup which featured two writers that I wanted to hear speak - Leif Enger and Timothy Egan. Enger wrote one that sold hundreds of thousands of copies: Peace Like a River. He’s titled his new book, just out, Virgil Wander.
The one I most wanted to hear was Timothy Egan, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his journalism and a National Book Award winner for his book The Worst Hard Time. I’ve been reading his material for several years now after first coming into contact with opinion pieces he’d written for the New York Times which the Bismarck Tribune reprinted. He based his talk on the award winning book and reviewed how he went about gathering the information for it.
The Worst Hard Time centers on the severe drought that the Midwest suffered through in the 1930s. His take is different from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath which many consider to be the story of that time. Steinbeck’s book deals with about one-third of the residents, those who left for the West. Egan’s book deals with the other two-thirds, those who stayed to undergo the hardships. Indeed, the subtitle to the book states that it is the untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl.
Our parents and grandparents told countless stories of their experiences in the dust-blowing 30s. One of his anecdotes told of the day called Black Sunday, April 14, 1935 which was remembered as the worst dust storm of all. To quote a passage, “The storm carried twice as much dirt as was dug out of the Panama Canal. The canal took seven years to dig; the storm lasted a single afternoon.”
Some thought the Biblical Armageddon had arrived. Woody Guthrie lived in Pampa, Texas, and after he experienced Black Sunday, he wrote his famous song “So long, it’s been good to know you.” One of the verses states, “The churches was jammed, and the churches was packed - an’ that dusty old dust storm blowed so black - preacher could not read a word of his text - an’ he folded his specs, an’ he took up collection and said, “So long , it’s been good to know you.”
In Washington, DC, legislators dragged their feet on such things as a Soil Conservation Service. A man of science named Hugh Hammond Bennett knew and understood the problem with the loose soil blowing. Farming practices had to be changed. He started making noise with the people in power and made his point one day when dust could be seen in the air. He told those present that they were watching Oklahoma fly by.
Two other presentations covered the interesting topic of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Phyllis Cole-Dai has written a book of historical fiction titled Beneath the Same Stars which places the wife of a physician in the hands of her Dakota kidnappers. Gary Clayton Anderson, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma, is known for his specialization in the American Indians of the Great Plains and the Southwest. His latest book is Gabriel Renville: From the Dakota War to the Creation of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation, 1825-1892.
Both Cole-Dai and Anderson have centered their books on an individual. So, too, do I hope to continue writing the story of one I’ve identified, Nancy McClure, also known in some circles as Winona. She lived in Ransom County for some years and her experiences beg me to tell her story. Why not?
No comments:
Post a Comment