Campus Units
History
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1999
Journal or Book Title
Waiting on the Bounty: The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck
First Page
xi
Last Page
28
Abstract
I first became acquainted with Mary Knackstedt Dyck's diary in the spring of I989, when I interviewed her elder daughter, Thelma Warner, of Syracuse, Kansas. I was working on my doctoral dissertation and listening to the oral histories of dozens of residents of southwestern Kansas, asking them about their experiences during the dust bowl era. I also would ask my subject if he or she had saved any materials from that era that might be useful to me, such as letters, photographs, and diaries. At the end of my interview with Thelma Warner, she turned to me and said, ''You know, I have my mother's diary." She walked into her living room, pulled out a large potato chip tin, and opened it. Inside were hundreds of pages of lined notebook paper, covered with faded entries, written in pencil. At the conclusion of my visit, Mrs. Warner loaned me several large chunks of the diary dating to the I93os. It was a very generous act that greatly improved the quality of the dissertation and subsequent book, Rooted in Dust: Surviving Drought and Depression in Southwestern Kansas.
Copyright Owner
University of Iowa Press
Copyright Date
1999
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela, "Waiting on the Bounty: The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck" (1999). History Publications. 62.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs/62
Comments
This material was excerpted from the book Waiting on the Bounty: The Dust Bowl Diary of Mary Knackstedt Dyck, written by Dr. Pamela Riney-Kehrberg and published by the University of Iowa Press. Copyright © 1999 by University of Iowa Press. Archived with permission. All rights reserved.