Frederick Feikema Manfred

This large, all-encompassing introductory reader presents excerpts from novels and short stories from the lifework of Frederick Manfred (1912-1994). For the Midwest, Manfred's work epitomizes the literature of place. He coined the name "Siouxland" to refer to the region in which most of his work is set: Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and especially where the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers join. His many books tell of the ways of the Dakota before the coming of the whites, the early intrusions of the fur traders and "mountain men," the encroachments of settlers and soldiers, the growth of farming communities, and the contemporary lifeways that developed from this history. He has the true novelist's eye for detail and ear for the language of the people. This anthology will do what no other single book has done - present Manfred's works in the context of his whole vision.

Follows three generations of the Tunis Freyling family from frontier days to city life in the 1960s, exposing murder, sibling incest, suicide, rape, and more.

During the Great Depression, many young men looking for success found themselves lucky just to survive. The Chokecherry Tree, a realistic novel of the Depression set in southern Minnesota, recounts one man's attempt to escape small-town life and find success in the world outside.