The North Country Reader : Classic Stories by Minnesota Writers

These classic selections from novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs convey the diversity of the Minnesota experience. Editor Jean Ervin looked for writings using the state’s many different regions as settings—the north woods, the vast prairie, small towns, farms, and cities. She chose stories about young people, the elderly, and children and about the various ethnic groups that settled in the state. Minnesota’s most famous authors are included, as well as ones whose works were best sellers and Ervin feels should be rediscovered. The anthology, first published in 1979, presents an excellent overview of the state’s prose literature.

The authors included are: Sheila Alexander Margaret Culkin Banning Carol Bly Emilie Buchwald Ann Chidester Borghild Dahl Emilio DeGrazia Charles Eastman Edward Eggleston F. Scott Fitzgerald Charles Flandrau Grace Flandrau Alvin Greenberg Paul Gruchow Patricia Hampl Jon Hassler Mary Hedin Norman Katkov Garrison Keillor Herbert Krause Monica Krawczyk Meridel Le Sueur Sinclair Lewis Peggy Harding Love Frederick Manfred John Milton Martha Ostenso Lon Otto Gordon Parks J. F. Powers Norval Rindfleisch Ole Rölvaag Henry R. Schoolcraft Shirley Schoonover Mabel Seeley Robert Treuer Gerald Vizenor