Jesse James at Northfield MN

On our recent trip into Minnesota and Wisconsin, we stopped in Northfield MN to visit the site of the Jesse James gang bank robbery of its First National Bank. The city likes to celebrate its victory of good over evil with its annual “The Defeat of Jesse James Days.” When some of the robbers entered the bank local citizens realized what was happening and armed themselves, something noticed by the robbers standing guard outside. Shooting started, men were killed or wounded, some robbers escaped only to be hunted down. The original bank building still bears scars of bullets, one of which I’m pointing at. Dad told the story of how his grandfather visited Northfield the day after the robbery, and the town was abuzz with news and gossip.

Wilder at Pepin

As we drove into Wisconsin, we came upon the town of Pepin where we realized it has some literary significance - it was the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Even though we weren’t looking for it, there it was, and it made for an enjoyable stop with a few photo ops.

Shakespeare Festival

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL. Winona State University. Mary and I traveled to Winona this past weekend to attend the Shakespeare Festival where our thirteen-year-old grandson acted in the play THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Lucas played the relatively minor parts of Pantino and Outlaw. Even so, he had a lot of stage-time and played the parts well. At the outset he was talked into participating, but I think he ended up enjoying it. This cast was made up of “beginner” teens and later that day they watched several other Shakespeare plays, this time with adult and professional actors where they should’ve learned much. Next year?

Thoughts on Deep River

My daily visit to the Literary Hub (lithub.com) turned up a piece written by Karl Marlantes who wrote in support of his new book DEEP RIVER. The book tells the Finnish-American immigrant story, particularly those who settled along the Columbia River in Washington and worked as loggers. We’ve purchased this book, and I will read it shortly. It was the following quote in the lithub article dealing with the women who accompanied the men that jumped out at me. I’ve often had these thoughts but have never been able to express them so clearly.

“They worked cattle, tended gardens, harvested rye and alfalfa, planted potatoes, milked cows, knitted sweaters, made dresses, shirts, and trousers by kerosene lamplight. My grandmother would be baffled by the lack of skills we have today to do such things and amazed by how easy it is to buy such things. These women fed their families and raised their children, with no doctors, no medicine, and no money. This was hardship.”

The Tennyson quote hangs on my office wall and seems to be appropriate.

Clean, New Desk

I am posting a picture of my new writing area complete with new desk because in a short time it will be cluttered. The scientist Michio Kaku says, “It's pointless to have a nice clean desk, because it means you're not doing anything.”

Importance of Reading

The importance of reading good nonfiction books which are backed by facts and filtered through the mind of clear-thinking writers becomes ever more obvious. A case in point jumped out of Robert A. Caro’s THE PASSAGE OF POWER, a biography about the life of Lyndon B. Johnson. While paging through it I came upon the passage dealing with the Cuban missile crisis.  JFK was president while LBJ stood by, mostly ignored as the vice president. As tensions increased, JFK’s advisors urged him to take military action, either bomb or invade. Caro says the President remembered reading Barbara Tuchman’s THE GUNS OF AUGUST and saw in her writing how miscalculations among European countries had exploded to cause the First World War. JFK was determined to avoid war and instead went with blockading Russian ships from reaching Cuba.

Robert Caro is writing this monumental biography of LBJ; the one referenced above is the fourth in a series of five. Presently he is writing the fifth and final volume. Our present leadership might find enlightenment in the lessons of history brought through books like JFK did.

 

Reading About Ladies

I’m on a bit of a kick reading about ladies recently. I haven’t finished any of these three but read some in each one, then set it aside, pick up another, and read it for awhile. They represent a memoir, a biography, and an autobiography.

The memoir, EDUCATED, relates the author’s personal story of being raised in a home where the father would not enroll his children in public schools for fear of them being indoctrinated. Their mother could teach them only a little. Tara Westover began learning life lessons painfully about how to cope in society. She succeeded in getting an education in spite of it all and attended both Harvard and Cambridge University where she earned a Ph. D. in history. She still struggles with psychological wounds, but one thing - she certainly learned how to write.

Michelle Obama’s autobiography BECOMING shows that she knows how to write well, too. So often books like these two often use the expertise of a professional writer helping them write, but not these two. Mrs. Obama was born into a working class family who lived in crowded conditions in a two bedroom apartment in Chicago. Even with her humble beginnings she rose to graduate from Princeton University and followed with a law degree from Harvard Law School. We all know she became a gracious First Lady who outlines her life well in this volume.

The biography A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE closely details the life of a lady spy in WWII. The spy - Virginia Hall - did not seem the spy type what with her being a female, wearing a prosthetic leg due to a teenage hunting accident, and having the persona of a working journalist reporting for American newspapers. Her handlers in England could hardly believe the success she was having establishing networks of resistance in France, blowing bridges, furnishing itching powder to prostitutes to sprinkle in Nazi uniforms. Whether or not she survived, I haven’t discovered yet.