Poets and Playwrights

**Clark, Badger (Charles), 1883 -1957

Born in Iowa. First poet laureate of SD. "Cowboy poet." Moved to Dakota Territory as infant. Attended Dakota Wesleyan for one year. Adventured to Cuba, but got sick and returned to Deadwood. Later, Got TB and went to AZ, where he began writing. 1910--returned to Hot Springs to take care of parents. 1925--retired to cabin at Legion Lake (now in Custer State Park) reading, writing.

1917, Grass-grown trails

1978, Singleton

1935, Sky Lines and Wood Smoke

1925, Spike

1919, 1922, Sun and Saddle Leather (included Grass-grown Trails)

1927, When Hot Springs Was a Pup

1978, Boot and Bylines

 

**Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth, 1930-

Born in Ft. Thompson, SD. Member of Crow Creek Sioux tribe. Educated at SDSU, graduate study at New Mexico State U and Black Hills State. 1972--M. Ed. at USD. 1977-78--doctoral study at U of Neb. High school and college teacher at times. Grandfather was Gabrielle Renville, a developer of early Dakotah dictionary. Work focuses on northern plains and Lakota/Dakota people.

1983, Seek the House of Relatives

1977, Then Badger Said This (poetry)

 

**Dwyer, David, 1946

Poet, married to Kathleen Norris, poet. Lives in Lemmon, SD.

1988, Other Men and Other Women.

 

**Evans, David Allan, 1940-

Born in Sioux City, IA. Attended Augustana College, Morningside College (B.A.) M. A. U of Iowa, M. F. A. U of Ark. Associate professor in English SDSU.

1976, Train Windows. (poetry)

1982, What the Tallgrass Says (essays)

1970, Among Athletes (poetry)

1985, Real and False Alarms

1986, Remembering the Soos

Freeman, Jerome.

1994, Easing the Edges; poems.

 

**Hasselstrom, Linda M., 1943-

Born in TX. Daughter of John (rancher) and Mildred (secretary); married and divorced Daniel G. Lusk; married George R. Snell, who died in 1988. B.A. USD, 1965. M.A. Univ. of MO at Columbia, 1969. Writer, rancher, educator.

1984, Caught by One Wing (poetry)

1993, Dakota Bones: Collected poems of Linda. Hasselstrom.

 

Lee, Warren, 1908-

Born in Mr. Etna, IA. Instructor, professor, director of theatre at USD. Founder and director of Black Hills Playhouse 1946-75.

1980, Legend of Devil's Gulch (play)

1940, Shave and a Haircut, Six Bits! (play)

1976, The Showmaker and the Wolves (play)

1946, Trouble Shooter: a farce-comedy in three acts.

 

Louis, Adrian

1989, Firewater World

1992, Among the Dog Eaters

1994, Days of Obsidian, Days of Grace

1995, Skins, 1995

 

**Milton, John R., 1924-1995

Born in MN. Taught at USD 1963-95. Poet, editor, fiction writer.

1973, The Tree of Bones, and other poems

1974, The Blue Belly of the World

 

**Norris, Kathleen, 1947-

Born in Washington, D.C. Bennington College. Lives in Lemmon, SD. Married to David Dwyer, poet.

1981, The Middle of the World

1989, How I Came to Drink My Grandmother's Piano: Some Benedictine Poems

1995, Little Girls in Church.

Like Dakota, a Spiritual Geography, these poems are religious and personal reflection in poetry

1971, Falling Off.

 

Pierson, Kenn

Mountain Thunder: the Ballad of Badger Clark

Play based on poems and journals of Badger Clark, filmed by SDPB, 1997.

 

**Robinson, Ronald, 1936-

Playwright, director, novelist. Prof. Augustana College

1996, Thunder Dreamer

1990, Kitchen Dance (play)

1989, Aces and Eights (play)

Musical based on life and death of Wild Bill Hickok.

1970, Whatever Happened to Radio (play)

Musical comedy nostalgia.

1991, National Invisible (play)

1964, Mucho Gusto (Windswept), (play) Musical set in Mexico

1971, Firebringer (play) Based on R. J. Oppenheimer's controversial career as atomic scientist and opposition to development of hydrogen bomb.

1977, Words and Savages.

Collected poetry with Arthur Huseboe

 

Ruste, Rudolf G., 1892-,

Born in ND, 1901, moved to Montrose, SD farm. Student at Northern State Teachers College, where he collaborated with Lindberg to start Pasque Petals.

Day Dirt (poetry)

Daddy's Poems

 

**Visser, Audrae,1919-

Poet laureate of SD, editor of Pasque Petals

1986, Country Cousin

1991, Grass Roots Poetry

 

**Volk, Craig Francis

Poet and dramatist.

1980 , Mato come heal me; a collection of poems

1995, Porchlight

Young adult with AIDS returns to the family farm.

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The South Dakota Literary Map and this accompanying website were produced for the South Dakota Council of Teachers of English. This project is funded by a grant from the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a gift from the Karl E. Mundt Foundation.

Last update August 1, 1998 by Donna Fisher, dfisher@santel.net

Copyright by South Dakota Council of Teachers of English, 1998

SD Literary Map printed by Fenske Companies, Rapid City, SD