Details

Collection Summary
Collection: 00931 - North Dakota Authors
Folder: 0000.000
Item: 00002
Title: Thomas Matthew McGrath
Date: 1987
Summary: Copy from book of portrait of Thomas Matthew McGrath, celebrated American poet and screen writer of documentary films. Portrait was taken by Kathleen M. Reyes. [biography]Thomas Matthew McGrath, (November 20, 1916 near Sheldon, North Dakota – September 20, 1990, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was a celebrated American poet and screen writer of documentary films. McGrath grew up on a farm in Ransom County, North Dakota. He earned a B.A. from the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. He served in the Aleutian Islands with the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, at Oxford. McGrath also pursued postgraduate studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He taught at Colby College in Maine and at Los Angeles State College, from which he was dismissed in connection with his appearance, as an unfriendly witness, before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1953. Later he taught at North Dakota State University, and Minnesota State University, Moorhead. McGrath was married three times and had one son, Tomasito, to whom much of the poet’s later work was dedicated. McGrath wrote mainly about his own life and social concerns. His best-known work, Letter to an Imaginary Friend, was published in sections between 1957 and 1985 and as a single poem in 1997 by Copper Canyon Press.
Red ID: PH_I_193249 Image ID: 172733 Image Notes: 00931-00002

Collection: 00931 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: North Dakota Authors
Date: 1970-1996

Summary: Collection of photographs of North Dakota authors used in exhibit on North Dakota authors or taken during the opening of the Language of the Land: Journey into Literary North Dakota presentation at the ND Heritage Center. The "Language of the Land" traveling exhibition was seen at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck from Feb. 4 to March 27, 1994. It was sponsored by the North Dakota Center for the Book and the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Using funds from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and additional funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council, the North Dakota Community Foundation and Maxwell's Books, the sponsors presented weekly lectures by North Dakota authors. The speakers were Kathie Ryckman Anderson, Larry Woiwode, David Solheim, Larry Watson, Louise Erdrich, Lois Phillips Hudson, Kathleen Norris and Richard Critchfield. Each lecture was taped for broadcast on both radio and television, and interviews with the authors were aired on Prairie Public Radio and community access television. A state literary map depicting 10 North Dakota writers and listing more than 100 writers who have either lived in North Dakota or written about the state was compiled and made available. A bibliography of North Dakota authors was also compiled and made available. For information, write the North Dakota Center for the Book, North Dakota State Library, 604 E. Boulevard, Bismarck, ND 58505-0800.

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