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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1989)
By Connie L. Sheehan Senior Fditor For some students, the names Neihardt, Sandoz and Cather arc nothing more than buildings dotted across a sprawling university cam pus. But lucky arc the ones who know these names for their real worth; some of Nebraska’s best-known poets and authors. “Nebraska does a good job in honoring its authors,’’ said Ann Billesbach, reference specialist with the Nebraska State Historical Soci ety. Carol Miles Petersen didn’t plan to become one of the leading experts on the life of Nebraska author Bess Streeter Aldrich, “the research just snowballed that way.” Petersen currently is researching Fashion II is having a summer clearance PCome in and save 25%50% on everything in the store. M-W & T 10530 Th 107:30 <Sat 104 133rd & Pioneer ^ 483-1324 Nebraska authors preserve Old West memories : the first biography written on Ne braska author Bess Streeter Aldrich. While teaching at the University of Ncbraska-Omaha, Petersen jok ingly asked her class why everyone writes about other Nebraskan authors and not Bess Streeter Aldrich. “And the class asked why 1 didn’t write about her,” Petersen said. Petersen said she first was asked to represent Aldrich on a discussion panel, then wrote an article and even tually gave a presentation in Elmwood, Aldrich’s hometown. “Each time I had to do more re search on Aldrich’s life,” Petersen said, and it just kept growing. Petersen said she gets most of her information from Aldrich’s three surviving children and from research done in the archives of the Nebraska State Historical Society. . “The archives hold personal let ters, telegrams and clippings, most of them donated by family members,” she said. Petersen said Aldrich wrote about 160 short stories, all of which were published, and ! 1 novels. One story was illustrated by a young Norman Rockwell, she added. “Some of her books have never gone out of print,” Petersen said, “and in 1931 Aldrich was one of the top three writers in the country ac cording to sales.” Petersen said Aldrich’s stories arc historically correct. “But she weaves the history into the story so the reader isn’t even aware of it,” she said. Petersen said some of Aldrich’s historical background comes from her family’s pioneering experiences and the later adventures of her own life. Her parents, James Warren and Mary Wilson Streeter, homesteaded in northeastern Iowa and Bess was born the youngest of eight children in 1881. Bess graduated from Iowa State Teachers College in 1901 and taught severed years. Bess then married Captain Charles Aldrich, the young est U.S. captain in the Spanish American War. The Aldrich family eventually moved to Elmwood where Charles and his brother-in-law decided to purchase the American Exchange Bank, Petersen said. “She (Bess) didn’t want to move to Nebraska because she remembered how her mother used to pack old clothes for the poor people in Ne braska and she didn’t want to eat dried apples and wear old clothes,” Petersen said. But Bess changed her mind after arriving in the middle of a duststorm to find her neighbors had set the table with her china, fixed the dinner meal and were waiting for her to arrive at the new house. “She realized Nebraska would probably be a pretty good place after all,” Petersen said. Billcsbach should know how much work is dedicated toward pre serving these author’s pasts since she served as curator for the Willa Cather Historical Center in Red Cloud for 10 years. The centers don’t use a “George Washington slept here interpreta tion’’ when setting up the centers, she said. “We want to show how these places affected her writing,’’ Billcsbach said, “not that this is the house she slept in or the chair she sat in.” Many locations in the town of Red Cloud have been placed on the Na tional Register of Historic Places, she said. The center includes six buildings Theatre Tickets FREE! USHER for Neb. Repertory Theatre Call 472-2073, M-F, 12-5 p.m. Including 15 types of sandwiches and a variety of salads. Bring in this ad for a FREE large drink wifh purchase of any sandwich. Expires September 1. 1989. 43th& "O" Lincoln Square We Deliver! 474-DELI (Below Dillards) • t » * * . j J . t • t i . . I 4 | * * ■ J I . i . . , <.•«« , • • • | i | i t | • i "» « *| i *i * * *i • " • lit.. II.. . 11 • 11 .»i I i 11 • ( ■ 11 i . /. * y 'fj’tili • I ' '' • •; 1 1.11 and a variety of tours have been de veloped for Cather fans who stop to visit. Visitors may take a town tour that includes her home and the Red Cloud depot, but this tour is held only twice a day, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, Billesbach said. Tours are given throughout the day of Cather’s childhood home, which was detailed in her story “Old Mrs. Harris.” Visitors also may hike through the “Willa Cather Prairie,” 610 acres of native prairie developed by the Na ture Conservancy, named in honor ol the author. “There is also a self-guided coun tryside lour which directs drivers through 40 mikjs of southern Webster county,” Billesbach said. Billesbach said that even though Cather traveled extensively, the au thor always thought of Nebraska as home. “She was tom between her travels and her life in Nebraska,” she said. But some Red Cloud residents still remember when she lived in town and it’s good that the information sur rounding the author’s life is being collected now before it’s forgotten, Billesbach said. Caroline Sandoz Pifer, sister of author Mari Sandoz, says her family wasn’t the visiting kind; everyone always ended up at the Sandoz home instead. “And I’m still waiting for the phone to ring,’’ Pifer said, referring to the tours and individuals who visit her Sandhills home to tour the memo rabilia of her sister. Pifer said between the tours of college classes and elementary chil dren, she works in her garden or on the new collection of unpublished Sandoz stories she hopes to publish. “People arc always calling to ask what these unpublished stories arc about,” Pifer said, “and it would just be easier to have the stories published than to retell them every time some one calls.” Pifer said her sister’s stories arc based on her life in the Sandhills and the surrounding community. Their parents were homesteaders, she said, and the two adults and six children lived in a three-room frame house set in the Sandhills near Gor don. Pifer said Mari graduated from eighth grade and passed her teaching certificate exam. “So, she was my teacher for a couple years at the local grade school,” Pifer said. Pifer said her sister moved in 1919 to Lincoln and eventually ended up at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to work on credit hours for another teaching certificate. Louise Pound influenced her writ ing while at UNL and even took Mari around town to read at poetry meet ings, she said. Her most popular book, “Old Jules,” was published in 1935, Pifer said. “'Old Jules’ is a family story and 249 people from the area arc men * • f. i,■ 1111»11»f t i Minimi i • i.' i *, i. i tioned in the story,” she said. ‘‘Old Jules” portrayed the life of her father, Pifer said, and even though he seemed a little extreme in his actions, everyone gets a little ornery sometimes in life. J^G J^eihardt Hilda Ncihardt says her father, author John G. Ncihardt, loved young people and included his children on many of his adventures. ‘‘ He said that people his aue were n’t enthusiastic enough,” Hilda said. "They had lost their sense of won der.” She speaks of growing up in the West her father knew and one can sec her sense of wonderment for that period still runs strong. “It’s incredible to talk to someone who knew all these people,” Hilda said as she ran over the list of famous old-timers her father often visited. His appearance on the Dick Cavctl Show in the early ’70s impressed the host to a point where his “mouth would just fall open” when her father began to speak of his famous Old West acquaintances, she said. “ He made it a point to know all the old-timers who were still alive at the time.” Hilda said her father did a lot ol research for his writings and then filled in this research with the first hand information from these old timers. “A good example is the story of Crazy Horse’s death, which was got ten from an army officer present at the lime,' ’ she said. “The officer was so upset about the death that he asked to be transferred out of the Indian Services.’’ The author also used many of his own childhood experiences in his works, she said. Born in 1881, her father spent his childhood living in a sod house on the Kansas plains, Hilda said. But even tually the family moved to Nebraska to join other family members. After graduation, Ncihardt held a variety of jobs but a highlight in his life was his job as clerk with J.J. Elkin, an Indian agent, she said. “Here he got to know the Omaha tribe very well,” Hilda said. “He thought of them as fine people and appreciated their way of life.” John G. Ncihardt was appointed Nebraska Poet Laureate in 1921, she said, and remained so for 52 years, as long as any Poet Laureate in history. “Nebraska was always important to father,” Hilda said. Hilda said she currently is writing her own memoirs about her father’s trips. “He didn’t write any personal references, just the information ob tained for his stories,” she said. During the writing of “Black Elk Speaks,” Hilda accompanied her father three times during his meetings with the medicine man, Black Elk. Ncihardt said she was 14 years old, old enough to remember, and the memories are still very clear. “Now everyone is dead - father, Black Elk, the Indian agent and Black Elk’s daughter - and if 1 don’t do it, the memories will be lost,” she said! • ; j • -> l* ' ’4 , ,