Minnesota Authors: Reading Like a Writer (Margaret D. Kennedy and Winnifred Elliott)

David Beard Jun 09, 2025 3 Comments

This Fall, I’m teaching Minnesota Authors: Reading Like a Writer (a subtitle I stole from my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Superior). The goal of the class is to read like a writer, which is to say to be less interested in “what a text means” (that’s reading like a reader), but instead “how a text works” (that’s reading like a writer).

We also look at the mechanics of writing and publishing. The works of Michael Fedo are a gift in this. He has written extensively about being a writer.

I’m using this class as a way to boost work on a literary history of Duluth. This is a page from an anthology printed by the League of Minnesota Poets. It sold 20,000 copies, which for a poetry book, is amazing.

The poets on this page, though, may be lost to time.

Margaret D. Kennedy and Winnifred Elliott have zero information available on them online through Google. Nothing. Maybe some genealogy, but I’m not willing to pay for genealogical information. Any help the readers here could offer would be welcome.

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3 Comments

Gina Temple-Rhodes

about 2 weeks ago 

Many of these people passed away long before their names would have ended up on the internet. Genealogical information (?) can include things like census records and their professions. Most of these people were probably not full-time writers; they likely had other jobs and families and writing was a side hobby. Also, Ancestry often has that kind of information -- access is free at any Duluth Public Library computer. It's not accessible for free online through the library, but any computer at any branch will get you into those magical census and other records!

Gina Temple-Rhodes

about 2 weeks ago 

Miss Winnifred Elliot appeared quite a few times in the Duluth Herald from the 1920s to the 1940s. She was on the honor roll at Two Harbors high school, and was active with the Red Cross and various church and music activities. Here she is in 1941 with some fellow chorus members. I haven't checked Ancestry yet; perhaps she did marry after the 1940s and then would no longer be listed in the paper with her first name, but would take the name of her husband. Mrs. (Male name) Lastname. It's maddening for researchers.

Gina Temple-Rhodes

about 2 weeks ago 

But saying someone alive in the 1900s is "lost to time" is just a throw-down challenge for history nerds. Most people are findable in some regard, if you know where to look.

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