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Ted Kooser: Items in Lincoln City Libraries’ Collections

Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:10

Throughout this listing, “Heritage” in the call number indicates the book is not a circulating copy and must be used in the “Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors” during normal operating hours. Ask your librarian for details.

Poetry Collections (or other books) by Ted Kooser

• Official Entry Blank: Poems 811 Koo [1969]
• Grass County (Chapbook) Heritage 811 Koo [1971]
• Twenty Poems 811 Koo [1973]
• A Local Habitation and a Name 811 Koo [1974]
• Shooting a Farmhouse [and] So This is Nebraska Heritage 811 Koo [1975]
• Not Coming to Be Barked At: Poems 811 Koo [1976]
• Hatcher (Graphic Novel) Kooser [1978]
• Old Marriage and New 811 Koo [1978]
• Cottonwood County 811 Klo [1979] with William Kloefkorn
• Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems 811 Koo [1980]
• Weather Central 811 Koo [1984]
• One World at a Time 811 Koo [1985]
• Blizzard Voices 811 Koo [1986]
• A Book of Things Heritage 811 Koo [1995]
• A Decade of Ted Kooser Valentines: 1987 – 1996 Heritage 811 Koo [1996]
• Journey to a Place of Work: A Poet in the World of Business 658.314 Koo [1998]
• Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison 811 Koo [2000]
• Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps 917.823 Koo [2002]
• Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry 811 Har [2003] with Jim Harrison
• Delights & Shadows: Poems 811 Koo [2004]
• The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets 808.1 Koo [2005]
• Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time Heritage B M845k [2005]
• Out of that Moment: Twenty-one Years of Valentines, 1986-2006 811 Koo [2006]
• Writing Brave and Free: Encouraging Words for People who Want to Start Writing 808.02 Koo [2006] With Steve Cox
• Valentines. With an Introduction by the Poet Illustrated by Robert Hanna. 1986-2007 811 Koo [2008]
• Bag in the Wind Illustrated by Barry Root. [2010] jKooser

Anthologies including poems or other work by Ted Kooser

• The Pushcart Prize 810.8 Pus vol IX has a Kooser poem
• The New Salt Creek Reader Heritage Periodical New [1967-75]
• A Bestiary 811 Sch [1973] Includes one Kooser poem
• Heartland II: Poets of the Midwest 811.08 Hea [1975]
• Voyages to the Inland Sea VI: Essays and Poems 811.08 Voy v.6 [1976]
• Silent Voices: Recent American Poems on Nature Heritage 811.08 Fer [1978]
• Brother Songs: A Male Anthology of Poetry 811.08 Per [1979]
• Blue Hotel Heritage Periodical Blu [Jan 1980]
• Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry 811.08 Win [1980]
• On Common Ground 811.08 San [1983]
• Poetspeak: In Their Work, About Their Work, a Selection 811.08 Jan [1983]
• Three Rivers, Ten Years 811.08 Cos [1983] Includes one Kooser poem.
• Christmas in the Midwest 813.08 And [1984] Illustration by Kooser.
• Out Here Heritage 811 Rat [1984] Cover design by Kooser.
• Strings: A Gathering of Family Poems j811.08 Jan [1984]
• Pocket Poems: Selected for a Journey j811.08 Jan [1985]
• Going Over to Your Place: Poems for Each Other j811.08 Jan [1987]
• As Far as I Can See: Contemporary Writing of the Middle Plains 810.8 Woo [1989]
• Swamp Root, vol 1 num 4, Summer 1989 Heritage 811.08 Swa [1989]
• Vital Signs: Contemporary American Poetry from the University Presses 811.08 Wal [1989]
• Dreams in Dry Places 917.82 Bru [1990] Foreword by Ted Kooser.
• Wellsprings: A Collection From Six Nebraska Poets 811.08 qGeo [1995]
• Wherever Home Begins: 100 Contemporary Poems 811.08 Jan [1995] Includes one Kooser poem.
• The Plains Sense of Things: Eight Poets from Lincoln, Nebraska 811.08 San [1997]
• A Man in Love With the Wind 811 Wel [1997] Commentary by Kooser.
• Christmas on the Great Plains 394.26 ChrYr [2004] Collection includes “Family” by Ted Kooser.
• Twentieth Century American Poetry 811.9 Twe [2004] Includes contribution by Kooser.
• The Nebraska Landscape: Images from Home 917.82 For by Michael Forsberg (photographer). [2006] Foreward by Ted Kooser.
• Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry. Greg Kosmicki  and Mary K. Stillwell, ed. 811.09 Kos [2007] Includes four Kooser poems.
• Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild by Michael Forsberg, [2009] Foreword by Ted Kooser. 917.8 qFor

Audio and Videotapes that include readings by Ted Kooser

• Ted Kooser: Voices of the Plains Audio 791.447 Voi [1991] Radio broadcast
• Nebraska Humor Month Heritage Video NebH4 BETA [1984]
• The Frontier in Contemporary Literature: Part I Video 810.9 Fro5 [1985]
• The Frontier in Contemporary Literature: Part II Video 810.9 Fro6 [1985]
• The Frontier in Contemporary Literature: Part III Video 810.9 Fro7 [1985]
• Hansen, Kooser, Saiser and Scheele Video 811.08 Han [1999]
• Ted Kooser Reads His Poetry, 1984 Video 811 Koo [1984]
• Poetry Nebraska: Lesson #6 Video 811 Koo [1984]
• Ted Kooser Reads His Poetry, 1986 Video 811 Koo [1986]
• Nebraska, the Individual Voice: Part 2 Video 811 Neb2 [1986]
• Blizzard Voices: A Dramatic Reading Video 812 Koo [1986]
• Poetry: Capturing the Moment with U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser & Friends Heritage DVD 811.08 Koo [2005]
• Ted Kooser: Poet DVD 811 Koo (Kooser reads a single long narrative poem about the Blackhawk War of 1832.) [2008]

Kooser Artwork, Vertical Files and Memorabilia in the Heritage Room

Artwork

• Ted Kooser, Painting with Poem, “Central,” by Kooser. Framed, on Heritage Room East wall.
• Ted Kooser, “Poem for Jane” Poem with Kooser Ink/Watercolor drawing. Signed dedication to Jane Geske, dated Feb. 27, 1982. Framed, on Heritage Room North wall.
• Ted Kooser, Poster, “White Christmas,” copyright 1983, signed. Framed on East wall of Heritage Room.
• Ted Kooser, Poster, “Quilt Show Today,” copyright 1976, signed. Framed on East wall of Heritage Room.
• Library of Congress, “Ted Kooser United States Poet Laureate 2004-2005.” Publicity Poster, framed, on Heritage Room North wall.
• University of Nebraska, “An Evening with Ted Kooser.” (The Nebraska Lectures, February 8, 2005) Publicity poster, framed, on library wall outside the Heritage Room.

Vertical Files

All files in the Heritage Room. Files are listed with brief descriptions of contents.

• Kooser, Ted Newspaper clippings and magazine articles about Kooser. Book notices and publicity, event invitations, book marks.
• Kooser, Ted U.S. Poet Laureate Newspaper clippings, book notices and publicity, event publicity, all dating from Kooser’s two terms as Poet Laureate, 2004-2006.
• Kooser, Ted (II) Post Poet Laureate events and biographical information Newspaper clippings and book and event notices.
• Kooser, Ted –Biographical Some Kooser C.V.s, some newspaper clippings.
• Kooser, Ted American Life in Poetry, Columns 1-100 Copies of the Kooser columns.
• Kooser, Ted American Life in Poetry, Columns 101-275 Copies of the Kooser columns.
• Kooser, Ted American Life in Poetry, Columns 276- Copies of the Kooser columns.
• Kooser, Ted –The Best Cellar Press (Examples of) Sample chapbooks designed and published by Kooser’s Best Cellar Press, all by/for other poets.
• Kooser, Ted Blizzard Voices Announcements, newspaper clippings of reviews, and reviews of performances based on the book.
• Kooser, Ted Lights on a Ground of Darkness Newspaper clippings.
• Kooser, Ted Reviews/Announcements of Works Newspaper clippings, publishers catalogues, advertizing.
• Kooser, Ted Valentines Kooser Valentines, mostly addressed to former Lincoln City Libraries Director Carol Connor. 15 Valentines, 1986-2007. Related newspaper clippings.
• Kooser, Ted Works Ted Kooser, “Bank Fishing For Bluegills,” typed one page manuscript on yellow paper with pencil notation “Ted Kooser’s original.” Newspaper clippings, postcards. Photocopies of Kooser poems and valentines. Kooser poem, “Automated Checkout Machine,” one printed page manuscript with Kooser signed post-it note attached. Publication notices. Copies of The Salt Creek Reader, The New Salt Creek Reader, The Last New Salt Creek Reader, Poetry East, The Oak Branch Gazette. Nebraska Repertory Theater poster. Michael Forsberg greeting card, photograph by Forsberg with poem by Ted Kooser, signed by both Forsberg and Kooser.
• Kooser, Ted Works: The Nebraska Professional Issues of newsletter, 1998-2005, with Kooser poems at the end of each issue.

There are several Kooser items in vertical files devoted to other authors, an example would be the manuscript “Remarks for Ruth Rosekrans Hoffman’s memorial service, December 2, 2007” by Ted Kooser in the Hoffman biography file. Items of this type, and Kooser letters in NLHA and library business files have never been inventoried. Ask Heritage Room staff for assistance in finding such items.

Ted Kooser: Nebraska Poet

Thursday, 18 September 2014 18:56

Ted Kooser (on the right) with friends of the Heritage Room, the late Dr. Norman Geske and former Library Director Carol Connor.

Nebraska poet Ted Kooser served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States, 2004-2006. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced Ted Kooser’s initial appointment as Poet Laureate of the United States in August 12, 2004 with this comment: “Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America and the first Poet Laureate to be chosen from the Great Plains. His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways.” Soon after Kooser’s term began, Billington and other observers were acknowledging Kooser as the hardest working Poet Laureate in recent memory. Kooser’s weekly American Life in Poetry newspaper column, begun as his “Poet Laureate” project, has been described as the most successful effort in a generation to introduce the public to new poets and poetry. The success of the column has led Kooser to continue it to the present time (2010). It runs in newspapers nation-wide. Kooser completed his second term as Poet Laureate in May 2006.

Reviewers note that Kooser’s intense focus on his local and regional subject matter lends a special clarity and force to his articulation of universal concerns. Kooser’s disciplined striving to create poetry that reaches out to the widest possible audience has fueled demand for him to give readings, lectures and interviews.

Ted Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa in 1939. He attended public schools there and graduated from Iowa State University in 1962 with a major in English Education. He taught high school for a year, and then entered the University of Nebraska. After one year as a full time graduate student in the English Department he went to work for Lincoln Benefit Life, an insurance company. He completed his M.A. in English at UNL by attending night classes. He remained in Lincoln and continued at Lincoln Benefit Life, working as an underwriter and then in several executive positions, including Second Vice-President-New Business and Vice President-Public Relations. He has lived in Lincoln and on an acreage near Garland.

Kooser is a writer, an editor, and a publisher. Best known as a poet, he has also published fiction, essays, book reviews and a graphic novel. (See Ted Kooser: Items in Lincoln City Libraries’ Collections)

Kooser’s work has been reviewed in Saturday Review, The Hudson Review, and The New York Times Book Review. Writing in 1985, the critic William Cole noted that Kooser had “won just about all the honors given to poets.” These honors include two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, The Society for Midland Authors Poetry Prize, two Prairie Schooner Prizes, the Stanley Kunitz Poetry Prize and the James Boatwright Prize, among others. His Delights and Shadows won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Reviewers describe Kooser as a poet who possesses a distinctive conversational voice that ordinary Americans understand and appreciate. Dana Gioia describes him as a specialist in short imagistic poems who has perfected “a highly charged kind of simplicity.” Gioia finds that as Kooser focused his efforts on recreating the rural culture of the Great Plains, his work has grown in intensity and integrity. Directness and honesty are essential to conversation in the places he writes about, and Kooser has refused to “bully or impress his audience” with verbal play. Working on the ground he has chosen, Gioia says, “Kooser has written more perfect poems than any poet of his generation….[and] in a quiet way, he is also one of its most original poets.” William Coleman says that Kooser “knows more about small town people” than any of his contemporaries.

The scope of Ted Kooser’s interests and activities is striking. Kooser is a visual artist with paintings and drawings in private and public collections. Kooser was editor, publisher, book designer and illustrator for his own Windflower Press, a one-man operation that specialized in contemporary poetry. Windflower Press (now inactive) garnered international recognition and awards for bringing new poetry to a broader audience and for promoting the work of younger poets.

Whether promoting the work of younger poets or serving on the Nebraska State Economic Development Commission, Kooser has made the most of every opportunity to sustain and improve the communities to which he belongs. He has served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Nebraska Arts Council and the Certificate of Need Review Board of the State Department of Health. He has been a good friend of Lincoln City Libraries. He has served as a City Council appointee to the Lincoln City Library Board, and on the Board of the Lincoln City Libraries Foundation. He was a founder and elected President of the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association, which has helped to support the collections and activities of the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors here at Bennett Martin Public Library.

A Kooser fan’s Ted Head tee shirt, Heritage Room memorabilia.

Many contemporary poets make their livings in the teaching profession, but Kooser, after what he refers to as “one disastrous year” in graduate school, made his career as a businessman. Kooser has a deep respect for ordinary people and useful labor. Speaking of his career with the insurer, Lincoln Benefit Life, Kooser says he enjoyed doing socially useful work there. He did however, at the same time, find the “immersion in abstraction” of the commercial world forbidding, and in his essay “Journey to a Place of Work” he describes how he sought to counter this by focusing on people and their stories. Some of his poetry focuses biting humor on what Kooser sees as the hazardous distance between the modern commercial world and the human soul.

Kooser’s poetry has always had a playful side. For many years he has composed and sent annual valentine poems. Although he honors the tradition by including a heart or something red somewhere, the focus and sentiment of his cards are very different from those of commercial valentines. In Lincoln and around this part of the state, women are quite flattered to receive a Kooser valentine. (Their husbands sometimes respond by sending Kooser’s wife a valentine, too.)

Kooser has been an avid promoter of local and regional literary communities, and has collaborated frequently with other Nebraska and Great Plains poets and writers. Kooser published a variety of little magazines over the years, an effort that lent a characteristic liveliness and humor to the local literary community. These magazines included The Salt Creek Reader (1967-1975), The Blue Hotel (1980-1981), and The Oak Branch Gazette (in the 1980s) among others. His Windflower Press pursues the same goals. He has collaborated on books with his friend Jim Harrison, with Bill Kloefkorn, and has contributed to many local and regional collections. Kooser and Harrison’s Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003) won the 2003 Award for Poetry of the Society of Midland Authors. He has designed and illustrated books for other poets.

Out of his love for the land, the rural people, the quiet and sometimes forlorn places of southeastern Nebraska, and his gift for striking observation and intense imagery, Ted Kooser has created poetry that reaches and moves people who have never visited the Great Plains. Does his work trace the gradual disappearance of American rural culture, or celebrate its endurance? Or does Kooser focus entirely on more modest themes: a particular landscape, the presence of the past, the hidden life of natural and human worlds, or our connection to things we seem too busy to notice? Readers will have to decide for themselves.

© Lincoln City Libraries, 2010

NLHA’s Lunch at the Library

Wednesday, 10 September 2014 16:40

Sponsored by the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association

All lunch talks will be held on the 4th floor of Bennett Martin Public Library during the months of October, November, December, February, March, and April. Except as noted, the 30-minute programs start at 12:10 p.m. Tours of the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors on the 3rd floor will be available after the programs. Bring your lunch; coffee provided courtesy of The Mill.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024
12:10 p.m.
Theodore Wheeler will discuss his latest book, The War Begins in Paris.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024
12:10 p.m.
Carla Ketner will discuss her latest book, Ted Kooser: More Than A Local Wonder.

Wednesday, April 3, 2024
12:10 p.m.
Gail Shaffer Blankenau will discuss her latest book, Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters’ Escape from Nebraska Territory.

Videos from the 2023 Lunch at the Library series are available here.

Videos from earlier Lunch at the Library presentations are available in this YouTube playlist.

Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors

Friday, 15 August 2014 21:40

Preserving the Literary Tradition

From a single shelf of books . . .

Chimney Rock – from Fremont’s Report of 1845

As long ago as 1949, the Reference Department at the Bennett Martin Public Library recognized the importance of gathering information about Nebraska authors. Over the years, what was once a single shelf of books has now grown into a room-sized collection, known as the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors.

Our mission is to preserve and promote works by and about Nebraska authors, past and present. The collection strives to gather in one location a representative sample of written works by all Nebraska authors. Today, the Heritage Room contains more than books alone. One can also find archives of unpublished correspondence and manuscripts by and about Nebraska authors, and information files that trace author careers in clippings from newspapers, magazines, and literary journals. The Heritage Room preserves photographs, audio and video cassettes, compact discs, original artwork by authors and their illustrators, and other memorabilia that document the lives and work of Nebraska authors.

The Living Literary Tradition

Nebraska possesses a literary tradition of striking quality. The fiction of Willa Cather and the histories of Mari Sandoz are recognized as among the most knowledgeable and detailed explorations of the settlement of the last American frontier. Native Americans have found Nebraska poet John Neihardt’s record of his encounter with Black Elk crucial in preserving their own spiritual traditions and history. Nebraska has produced some of the English language’s most widely published and influential nature writers. Nebraska poets and mystery writers, social critics and romance novelists, historians and journalists have achieved regional, national and international recognition.

Though writing is a solitary pursuit, few writers have learned their craft or found their calling without the encouragement and constructive criticism of teachers and peers. Nebraska’s literary community has been lively and ambitious ever since the first days of European settlement. The state sustains a surprising number of active literary organizations, formal and informal writer’s groups, and local and regional publications.

With the support of the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association, the Heritage Room seeks to document and promote the work of today’s Nebraska authors. Our efforts include:

John H. Ames Reading Series — This series showcases Nebraska authors reading their own works. Videos of these readings are available to view on YouTube both from the Ames Reading Series page on the Library’s website and from NebraskaAuthors.org.

Nebraska Authors — NebraskaAuthors.org is a collaborative project of the UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors. The website includes information on more than 4,000 Nebraska Writers, past and present. Authors who have published original work and have significant ties to Nebraska are encouraged help preserve Nebraska’s Literary History by contributing at nebraskaauthors.org/contribute

The Heritage Room Vertical Files — The Heritage Room maintains over 600 information files on Nebraska authors and related subjects which are updated regularly. These files are a window on the careers, connections, publications, and public and peer reception of Nebraska’s writers.

Sustaining a Conversation

The Heritage Room staff works to promote Nebraska’s literary tradition through a number of outreach efforts:

Heritage Room Tours/Talks — Many civic groups and school classes come to the Heritage Room for guided tours. Staff are also available to provide programs.

Writers Write Workshops — In this popular program for 8th graders, students spend a morning writing and reading their work under the direction and encouragement of several local authors. This program is sponsored by the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association.

Writers on the Plains — This 14 minute video provides a tour of the Heritage Room collection and describes the role of the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association in celebrating, preserving and promoting the work of Nebraska authors. Viewers will appreciate the richness of Nebraska’s Literary culture through the voices of our celebrated writers.

The Nebraska Literary Heritage Association — The NLHA supports the Heritage Room through the Heritage Room Endowment Fund and volunteer projects. It is only through NLHA’s efforts that we can work toward preserving and promoting Nebraska’s literary tradition. A history of the NLHA is available on their site. For more information about NLHA’s activities or to become a member, please call 402-441-0164.

Using the Collections

Carte de Visite of Willa Cather from the Heritage Room Archives

The Heritage Room is located on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln, Nebraska. The books do not circulate and special care and preservation measures help ensure their longevity. The Heritage Room collection is a multifaceted reflection of the history and literary culture of the state. We have more than pioneer stories. There are books on every topic, including philosophy, poetry, nature, psychology, politics, and pop culture. Our shelves contain many entertaining and thought provoking books for children by Nebraska authors. Our fiction collection includes romance, fantasy, contemporary, western, and mystery novels to suit every taste. Heritage Room staff will be glad to assist you with any questions you may have about Nebraska authors.

Web Exhibit

The Nebraska Federal Writers’ Project: Remembering Writers of the 1930s — This project was supported in part by the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered through the Nebraska Library Commission.

Heritage

Tuesday, 12 August 2014 18:24

Heritage landing page