In Their Own Words: Letters from Norwegian Immigrants

Zempel

ISBN 10: 0816618593 / ISBN 13: 9780816618590

Published by Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1991

About this Item

Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust jacket. Has used sticker(s) and some writing or highlighting. UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes).

Seller Inventory # 000699038U

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Their Own Words: Letters from Norwegian Immigrants
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816618593
• ISBN 13: 9780816618590
• Binding: paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

For most Norwegians in the nineteenth century, America was a remote and exotic place until the first immigrants began to write home. Their letters were among the most valuable, accessible, and reliable sources of information about the new world and the journey to it. For many immigrants, writing letters home was their most cherished opportunity to communicate their thoughts and feelings in their native language.

Through vivid translations of letters written to family and friends between 1870 and 1945, In Their Own Words traces the stories of nine Norwegian immigrants: farmer, fisherman, gold miner, politician, unmarried mother, housewife, businessman, railroad worker, contractor. Their common bond was the experience of immigration and acculturation, but their individual experiences were manifested in a wide variety of forms.

Solveig Zempel has thoughtfully selected and translated letters rich in personal description and observation to present each writer’s subjective view of historical events. Often focusing on the minutiae of daily life and the feelings of the individual immigrant, the letters form a complex, intimate, and colorful mosaic of the immigrant world.

About the Author

Solveig Zempel is chair of the Norwegian Department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.