Happy Birthday John Steinbeck
Monday, February 27 2023
Bismarck, N.D. — Normally I don’t observe the birthdays of my literary and historical heroes. I know Jefferson’s birthday (April 13, 1743) and Shakespeare’s (April 23, 1564), and Bertrand Russell’s (May 18, 1872), and Samuel Johnson’s (September 18, 1709), and not many more, at least by day of month.…
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Tortuous Trail to Publish Lewis and Clark’s Journals
Sunday, February 26 2023
President Thomas Jefferson entrusted Meriwether Lewis with the first great exploration of the American West. At the journey’s successful completion, both men held high expectations for a book worthy of the singular accomplishment and the Age of Enlightenment of which it was a part.
- Published in Features
Why Read Moby Dick?
Saturday, February 25 2023
Why Read Moby-Dick? By Nathaniel Philbrick, 2011.
Bismarck, N.D. — I’m reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I’ll be teaching it at one of my literary retreats come next January, but I wanted to read it anyway.…
- Published in Books
Book Review — Our Story of Eagle Woman, Sacagawea: They Got It Wrong
Thursday, February 23 2023
Out Story of Eagle Woman, Sacagawea: They Got it Wrong. By Gerard Baker, Calvin Grinnell, Bernard Fox, Carol Fredericks Newman, and Wanda Fox Sheppard. The Paragon Agency, 2021.…
- Published in Books