Theodore C. Blegen Correspondence

Lutheraneren

Familiens Magasin

Mpls. Tidende

Duluth Skandinav

Nordmanden

Washington Posten

Swedish Hist. Society Yearbook.

Are there others who ought to get review copies? It is important to get all review copies sent out as soon as possible.

I assume that you are going to take care of all the Norway review copies.

A record card ought to be kept in the secretary's office showing just what publications are sent to each member. I enclose a sample of the card kept for the members of the Minnesota Historical Society.

I presume that you will get out some kind of leaflet touching on the first publication. It will be a good plan to try to get copies of all the reviews that come out. Now and then we may be to make use of extracts from these reviews.

Hope you will like the book.

Hastily yours,

Theodore C. Blegen

Norsk-Amerikanske Aviser

1. "Washington Posten", Seabord Bldg. Seattle, Wash.

2. "Nordmanden", Grand Forks, N. Dak.

3. "Duluth Skandinav", Christie Bldg. Duluth, Minn.

4. "Minneapolis Tidende", South Sixth Street, Minneapolis, Minn.

5. "Familiens Magasin", 416-8 Ave. S. Minneapolis, Minn.

6. "Lutheraneren", 425-4 St. S. Minneapolis, Minn.

7. "Lutheran Church Herald", 425-4th St. S. Minneapolis, Minn.

8. "Folkebladet", c/o The Free Church Book Concern Cedar Ave. Minneapolis, Minn.

9. "Visergutten", Canton, S. Dak.

10. "Fremad", Sioux Falls, S. Dak.

11. "Decorah Posten", Decorah, Iowa.

12. "Reform", Fremad Publishing Co., Eau Claire, Wis.

13. "Skandinaven", 511 North Peoria Str. Chicago, Ill.

14. "Scandia", 2218 N. California Ave., Chicago, Ill.

15. "Norgesposten", 5111-4th Ave. Brooklyn, N.Y.

16. "Nordisk Tidende", 4808-4th Ave. " " "

Minnesota Historical Society SAINT PAUL

SOLON J. BUCK Superintendent

THEODORE C. BLEGEN Assistant Superintendent

July 16, 1926

Prof. O. E. Rölvaag St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota

My dear Professor Rölvaag:--

I am having our mailing list attended to in Minneapolis and the balance of the books will be shipped to you by freight. I let you know this so that you may be on the lookout for them in the next few days.

I suppose that it may be desirable to send some extra copies to the contributors of special articles. I think all of them are members except Mr. Cadbury. I am writing to Mr. Cadbury and sending him one copy of the book. At the same time I am telling him that we can send him some extra copies if he will let us know how many he wants. When I hear from him I shall communicate with you and you can send out the copies. I am also writing to Dr. Hektoen and to some of the others but I do not care to undertake sending out the extra copies. In fact had I known how much work there would be simply in attending to the mailing out of the book I should have refused to do it. I think that with the next volume we publish some one else had better look after the mailing. After all, having edited the volume, I feel that it would be only fair if some one else took over the much smaller burden of attending to the mailing. Please understand that this is in no sense a complaint. When we made the arrangements about mailing, frankly I had not the slightest conception of what was involved. Among the things that I had to look after were the printing of a label and of an insert card containing informatino about price, copies of which I enclose. I also had to get in touch with the Minneapolis Post Office and arrange to have every parcel zoned. I had to make arrangements for getting the postage, the typing of the addresses and various other matters. Now I have come to the conclusion that it will be just as efficient to ship the complete edition of a work that we publish to the secretary and have all that handled by the secretary, who of course wants to know exactly what names are on the mailing list used and must keep in close touch with the whole situation. Will you think over this matter? Once again let me say that I am not writing this in the spirit of complaint but rather with a view to getting a little more division of labor and of saving my own strength as much as I can. My only reason for wanting to do this is that I spend my strength so fully on other things.

I sent you a copy of the book about a week ago and I have been waiting very anxiously to hear that you received it and to know your opinion of it. I am as yet completely in the dark with reference

O. E. Rölvaag, 7/16/26, 2

to the reactions of other people to the book and I am waiting with some anxiety for the first reviews. I showed a copy of the book to a group of University of Minnesota professors at a little party the other evening and they were all very complimentary about the book. Most of the people who have seen it seem to think that it is a good-looking publication.

I imagine that the bulk of the copies will go to the mail today. They were about ready to be mailed out yesterday. I think the matter of putting on the postage remained to be attended to.

With best wishes, I am,

Sincerely yours

Theodore C. Blegen Acting Superintendent

TCB/H

July 21, 1926

Professor O. E. Rölvaag Grand Rapids, Minnesota

My dear Professor Rölvaag:--

I am awfully sorry to hear that you have had an attack of pleurisy and I sincerely hope that the progress of your recovery will gain momentum.

The freight shipment has gone to you in Northfield. When I wrote to you a few days ago I also dropped a note to Professor Thompson, feeling that you might possibly be out of town.

I am getting some nice comments on our publication. Professor Stomberg writes me as follows: "I wish to congratulate you on the first number of the publications of the NorwegianAmerican Historical Association. You have given us a publication that takes high rank in the field and have set a standard that others will have to strive very hard if they are to approach it. I have read all the articles with great interest." Torkel Oftelie writes very pleasantly that we have made an excellent beginning. A. O. Barton of Madison writes: "Congratulations on the first number....Much valuable historical material. R. B. A. is greatly pleased with the volume, he told me over the phone." The book is reviewed in the Decorah Posten for July 16.

I believe that there is a copyright fee due to the Library of Congress. I shall look into this and let you know later about it.

Barton suggests J. J. Nelson of Amherst, Wisconsin, for membership in the Society. He wants to know if new members can hereafter get this number up to a certain date. The answer is that if they pay their dues for this year they can get the number without further cost. Is not that correct?

Sincerely yours

Acting Superintendent

TCB/H