What do Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, and Oscar Wilde have in common?
They, and authors Edward Eggleston, Hamlin Garland, Bayard Taylor, Knut
Hamsun, Fredrika Bremer, Max O'Rell, and Frederick Marryat all visited
Minnesota between 1838 and 1890. Each of these authors, and Minnesota's
Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning author, Sinclair Lewis, plumbed their
Minnesota experiences in later prose and fiction. Reprinted here are
eleven essays by John T. Flanagan, originally published in Minnesota
History, the journal of the Minnesota Historical Society, which describe
the sojourn of these authors and the literary results.