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Hamline University St. Paul, Minnesota Dec. 13, 1921
Professor O.E. Rølvaag St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota
Dear Professor Rølvaag:-
Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my short article "The Early Norwegian Press in America." I am also asking the Wisconsin Historical Society to send you copies of two articles which I published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History. One is called "The Competition of the Northwestern States for Immigrants." and the other is on "Colonel Hans Christian Heg." I presume that you have my translation of Ole Rynning's "Sandfaerdig Beretning om Amerika," as well as the article on Cleng Peerson and other articles published for the North Start. But if you wish any of these please drop me a line and I will be glad to send them.
I wish that you would give your support to the idea of making the Minnesota Historical Society a center for the study of the Scandinavian element in this country. The Society already possesses a remarkably good collection of books, pamphlets, and newspapers relating to the Norwegians in the United States, and I hope this collection will be greatly increased before long. I would like very much to see the Luther Theol. Seminary turn over to the Society its files of Nordlyset and other early newspapers. I am lecturing on Cleng Peerson at the the Seminary on Jan. 10 and at that time I am going to speak a little about my general plan for assembling at one place a large library of Norwegian-American materials.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore C. Blegen
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Hamline University St. Paul, Minnesota January 11, 1922
Professor O.E. Rølvaag St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota
Dear Professor Rølvaag:
I thank you for the copy of your Norsk Laesebok, Bind II, which I found in my mail this morning. I have already devoted a couple of hours to the book and on the basis of my examination of the selections which you have included I wish to offer you my congratulations. To prepare a book of this type is no easy task. The problem of selection must indeed be a very difficult one, particularly because, as you point out in your preface, there is a dearth of the kind of materials suitable for your purpose. Yet on the whole I think you have done very well. Your selections cover a wide range, they are exceedingly interesting, and in their arrangement you have shown skill. I hope the book will prove as popular as it deserves to be. I was glad to find that you had included a selection from Mrs. Koren's "Fra Pionertiden" a little book which I regard as one of the literary and historical jewels of our Norwegian American literature. You do not need to apologize for the inclusion of the selections from your own writings. They are among the most interesting and valuable in the whole book. You have a rare gift for visualizing and presenting in splendid fashion the homely but interesting and important phases of Norwegian American life.
I am familiar with your book "Amerika Breve," and regard it as one of our best Norwegian American works. For some time I have been wondering whether it would not be worth while to publish a
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collection of real "Amerika breve." For example, I have in my possession a complete copy of a famous letter written April 22, 1835 by Gjert Greg.Hovland from the Norwegian settlement in western New York. And I know of many other good letters that might be included in such a collection. My idea would be to translate them into English so that they could be read by non-Norwegian Americans as well as by those of our own blood who (unfortunately) can not read Norwegian. What do you think of this plan? Is it worth while? Perhaps you have seen a little article of mine in "The North Star" under the title "The America Letters." That article will give you an idea of the importance which, to my mind, these early letters from the Norse immigrants in America possessed.
I have two other plans in my head, and I am tempted to mention them to you. As you probably know I am at work on a history of Norwegian immigration to the United States. In this work I shall deal with the period from 1821 to 1921, and shall not attempt to cover the period before 1821, already dealt with by Evjen and others. This work (which will be an expansion of my doctor's thesis) will not be ready for a couple of years at least. Now I have been giving some thought to another preliminary book, and I mention it to you to get your opinion on it. Perhaps you will not think it worth while. As you know I have written and published a good many (perhaps not many, good) articles on Norwegian immigration. Would it be worth while to gather these together in a volume? Do you think I could get a publisher. The plan would be as follows:
Cleng Peerson and Other Studies in the History of Norwegian Immigration
1. Cleng Peerson, the Pathfinder.
2. Ole Rynning and the "America Book."
3. The "America Letters."
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4. Two Norse Argonauts: Ole and Aasten Nattestad.
5. The Early Emigration as viewed by a Norwegian Royal Commission in 1844.
6. Colonel Hans Christian Heg
7. The Competition of the Northwestern States for Immigrants.
8. Scandinavian Immigration and the Westward Movement.
9. Early Writings on America by Norwegian Immigrants.
10. The Problem of the Historical Records of the Scandinavians in America.
To this list of chapters I might add one or two more. Numbers 5, 8, and 9 would be new, and they have not as yet been fully written. The others have already appeared in print and would have to be revised for publication in a book. Please give me your frank opinion as to the publication of a book of this sort.
Thanking you again for the copy of your new book, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Theodore C. Blegen
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ST. OLAF COLLEGE NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA
O E. RÖLVAAG DEPARTMENT OF NORWEGIAN
Jan. 14, 1922.
My Dear Doctor Blegen:--
It was a great pleasure indeed to receive your kind and appreciative letter. Thank you very much!
We are using "Norsk Lasebok II" as a "First Reader" in one of our beginner courses in Norse, and find the book more satisfactory for creating interest and appreciation than any other book we have tried so far.
Yes, I would urge you strongly to publish a volume of real "Amerika breve". Such a volume has a mission in America, for it would prove clearer than anything else I could think of, to our yankee brother that a decent Norwegian is a good American already before he emigrates. The[?] must of necessity be so, as the ideals of the two countries are so much the same. The plan is worth while -- decidedly! Furthermore, that book, if published by an Eastern firm, would make you some money.
But I am still more anxious about your History of Immigration! I have this year forth students enrolled in my Immigration course; it may be possible in time to have one hundred and forty. -- You must make that book so simple that it can be used as a text-book! -- We are a little ahead of time at St. Olaf, but before long we shall have courses in immigration at all our schools. And surely, our own state university ought to have such a course.
It goes without saying that I am equally interested in the third book you have planned, because I am so enthusiastically interested in everything that touches on