LITERATURE IN ITS RELATION TO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

T'7Then the Norwegian-American Historical Association published W Clarence A. Glasrud's Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen in 1963, I announced the launching of a new Authors Series and expressed the hope that eventually it would include the American writings of such Norwegians as Bj0rnstjerne Bj0rnson, Kristofer Janson, and Knut Hamsun, together with interpretations of their activities in the New World. The statement also explained that the series was intended as an invitation to scholars to submit manuscripts dealing with Norwegian-Americans whose creative writings have become, or ought to be, an integral part of our national culture. It was and still is our hope that the Association will publish a shelf of competent studies dealing with such authors as O. E. R0lvaag, Marcus Thrane, Waldemar Ager, Simon Johnson, Julius Baumann, Johannes B. Wist, and Jon Norstog, as well as of such journalists as Svein Nilsson, Rasmus B. Anderson, N. A. Grevstad, Knud Langeland, and Kristian Prestgard. Today I should like to explain, briefly and generally, the thoughts behind the decision to begin an Authors Series in a historical society to speak to you as an editor rather than as a scholar, and to invite as many suggestions as possible for future publications. I have long been convinced that history, broadly considered, includes the whole field of literature, and, in fact, that creative writing of all kinds constitutes one of the historian's richest collections of primary sources. It is not enough that he quote an occasional line of poetry or a passage from a novel, thus providing window dressing for his expository prose. He should be thoroughly familiar with the literature of the period under consideration, and sensitive to its overtones and undertones, as well as observant of the bits and pieces of factual information that may be gleaned from the writings of the past. It follows that poems, novels, and plays should be made readily available, so that they may continue to speak to the reader of today as they once spoke