In my last entry I asked for everyone to grab the Kansas-themed book - either about Kansas or by a Kansas author - closest to them, open it to Page 56, choose the fifth sentence and then send it to me for reposting. The response has been great and the entries sent in most interesting in their variance. Here are the entries I've received so far:
Velta Ince:
“Levin concluded the supper I made for him was good enough for him to live on.” – Sod-House Days, by Howard Ruede.
Erika Nelson:
“I wish I had a rolltop desk.” Liz Knitter, The New Kid In Town - a collection of poetry and essays and articles from The New Kid in Downs, Kansas.
Connie Dougherty:
“Layer potatoes, beef, and mushroom soup in casserole and top with vegetable soup and put in oven until everything is blended (30 min at 350 degrees).” From The Muscotah Cookbook!
Sue Parker:
OK! You ready for this spell binder? “However, at various places in Kansas - especially in northeastern Stafford County and near Jamestown in Cloud County - salt flats occasionally form (see figure 32).” Kansas Geology, Edited by Rex Buchanan. Fill free to look up figure 32.
Katie Parker:
“More traditional entrepreneurs might simply locate a company such as Dessin Fournir’s in a crowded urban ‘fashion center’ and never consider a rural option.” Survival of Rural America, by Richard E. Wood.
Frank Thompson:
Sentence: “For a time she forgot herself, and only came back to reality when Henry turned in his chair to see what had happened.” Closest book: Sod and Stubble by John Ise.
Tracy:
It just so happens that I am sitting here working on the 2011 edition of the Kansas Authors Club yearbook -- www.kansasauthors.org. So this is from a book soon to be published. Unless I find major page number errors in my final edit, page 56 is a poem by Roy J. Beckemeyer titled, A Kansas Farm Wife's Snow Song. I will share the 4th sentence since the poem only has 4 stanzas:
“At last the end of fence mending is near,
we are about to end this cold day.
Your day’s work is done and now you’re a mere
quarter section of snowdrifts away.”
This poem was also the first place winner in the “Poet's Choice” category of the 2010 Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest.
Stephen Locke:
“She is suffering severely with the inflammatory rheumatism; sometimes she seems to be in perfect anguish - could not move her hands at all to-day.” Went to Kansas, by Mrs. Miriam Davis Colt, Page 56, Line 5.
Cheryl Unruh:
The first book I picked up was Ducks Across the Moon by Ken Ohm, which I am about to read, but its page 56 was blank. So . . . .
From Pam Grout’s Kansas Curiosities, 3rd Edition: “Not more than ten days after he was buried, Hillmon’s body was dug up at the bequest of the insurance company that held three life insurance policies in his name.”
Marcia Lawrence:
From William Least Heat Moon’s PrairyErth: “The land was not at all barren, and, when the immigrants of Cottonwood Falls and Council Grove and a hundred other Hills places saw their apple trees bloom and their corn and oats grow, all that remained was to get clear title and evict the inhabitants of the last ten thousand years.”
Tom Parker:
“With only the yard light for navigation, I walked across the road to where Maclura grows thickest.” Page 56, fifth sentence, Dispatches From Kansas, by Tom Parker.
Just happened to have a copy sitting beside me – but then, I wrote the book. I just learned of your blog through Cheryl Unruh on Facebook. I’ll definitely be checking for updates!
The wealth and depth of Kansas literature is truly something to behold. Let's keep them comin' in, folks!
