The Wapsipinicon Almanac: Selections from Thirty Years

by Timothy Fay (Editor)

Overview

In 1988, Timothy Fay published the very first issue of the Wapsipinicon Almanac at his Route 3 Press in Anamosa, Iowa. Fay’s goal was to offer a journal somewhat outside of mainstream Iowa journalism. For thirty years, the annual Wapsipinicon Almanac entertained midwestern readers with timely essays, works of fiction, news notes, art, poetry, and so much more. This book celebrates selections from three decades of the WapsipiniconAlmanac, so that readers can enjoy this important regional publication for years to come.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609388881
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	04/19/2023
Series:	Bur Oak Book
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	268
File size:	55 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Timothy Fay has operated Route 3 Press, a letterpress printing business, on his family farm near Anamosa in Jones County, Iowa, since 1977. Fay published the Wapsipinicon Almanac from 1988 through 2018.
 

Read an Excerpt

From “Wapsipinicon” by John Peterson
Who remembers when the Wapsipinicon ran wild over
glacial rubble,
The genius of its continent,
And the deep pools simmered with pike
Even through farm country,
Before marginal land was planted,
And fields sprouted stand pipes,
And a tile line ran to every ditch?

From “Talk of the Township”
Our friend Jim Walters of rural Johnson County, writing in a publication for Iowa bird enthusiasts on middle America’s hunger for new, habitat-removing housing developments, notes: “Our modern place names tell us less about what’s there than what’s lost—Pheasant Ridge (no pheasants), Walden Woods (no woods), Apple Ridge (no apples), Willowbrooke Pointe (no willows, no brook, no point).”

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction Talk of the Township, 1992–2010 Mel Peet | A Thinking Man’s Look at the “Good Old Days”: A Conversation with Mel Peet Osha Davidson | The Last Days of the Schultz Brothers Variety Store Rachel Faldet | Sit for Awhile and Rock Norman Sage | About Tadpoles, Disasters, and Billy Sunday Carmen Kraemer Clark | Rose Michael Carey | The Letter from New York David Manning | Greener Than Green Raymond M. Tinnian | The Would-Be Caesars of Millard Robert Neymeyer | Diamonds Are Not Forever: The Changing Role of Baseball in Small-Town Iowa Dan Brawner | Local Ghosts Winston Barclay | Welcome to Engle Country: A Review and an Appreciation Gary Eller | Interstate Steve Maravetz | Wadena! Melvin Corson | My Two Years in a Box Mike Kilen | The Iowa Sky Annie Grieshop | Driving across Iowa Betty Moffett | Lucy’s Scarf Larry Stone | Houses on the Hills Verl Lekwa | Is This Heaven? Then It’s Not Iowa Beth Chacey DeBoom | Demolition: The Sixth Season in the City of Five Michael Rosmann | A Peaceful Jog in the Country Steve Hanken | Rest in Peace J. Harley McIlrath | Memo...from the Director of the Center for Prairie Studies Dee Ann Rexroat | Rockin’ the Corridor: A Music Critic Remembers Marian Matthews Clark | Just in Case: Alone at Christmas Rebecca Sullivan | A Common Thread Dan Ehl | Night Moves at the Riverside Show Lounge Leslie Caton | I Due Shirley McDermott | The Judge vs. God, Television, and Fashion Ann Struthers | Women Who Wore Aprons Rustin Larson | The Third King Jonna Higgins-Freese | Things I Didn’t Learn in School Glenn Freeman | The Naming of Birds Jane Purcell | Seeking Asylums Kelley Jon Donham | Christmas Found on a Trailways Bus Douglas McReynolds | County Fair John Peterson | Wapsipinicon Floyd Pearce | Filling the Cumberland Gap Talk of the Township, 2010–2018 Contributors

Editorial Reviews

I looked forward to each issue of the Wapsipinicon Almanac as a work of art, not only for the talented writers included but for the layout, design, and the ads. And you will look forward to the turn of every page in this book, a collector’s item of a rich and varied literary history in the Midwest.”—Mary Swander, former Poet Laureate of Iowa
 

“Don’t have a stack of issues containing Tim Fay’s thirty years of essays, art, and advertisements, printed on the original Wapsipinicon Almanac letterpress? Read some of the best here. They show you a bit of Tim Fay’s gift to us.”—David Osterberg, University of Iowa
 

From the Publisher