Here you will find our comprehensive backlist of titles published at North Dakota State University Press.
Titles that are out of print have been noted.
Aristocrat of the West: The Story of Harold Schafer
Larry Woiwode
Growing from the bare prairie of western North Dakota, Schafer created an empire as familiar to Americans as the soap on their shelves, which probably was produced by his Gold Seal Company. As a philanthropist Schafer’s enthusiasm and optimism brought Theodore Roosevelt’s old cow town of Medora from ruin to a premier tourist attraction. A wonderful story of a great American grown from the western plains.
ISBN 0-911042-60-1
Second Edition
Copyright 2001
390 pages
Hardcover
$ 24.95
Beacon Across the Prairie
William A. Hunter
A complete history of North Dakota’s Land Grant College from its founding to 1960. Numerous photos are included.
ISBN 0-911042-05-9;
Copyright 1961
309 pages
Hardcover
$ 5.50 / Out of Print
Bitter Harvest; Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus – Murder in the Heartland
James Corcoran
New Foreword by Mike Jacobs
James Corcoran tells the story of Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus, using captivating narrative with vivid imagery. Sunday, February 13, 1983, was a sunny day in Medina, North Dakota–a seemingly peaceful church-going winter day. But hate politics was broiling in secret locations and the Heartland provided cover for those who wanted to take the law into their own hands. Ever a page-turner, reflect again on this story of violence and how a group of people can construct an alternative version of the law and the truth.
ISBN 0-911042-62-8
Copyright 2005
249 pages
Hardcover
$25.00
Quentin Burdick: The Gentle Warrior
Dan Rylance
The Gentle Warrior is an insightful and warm biography of the late Senator Quentin Burdick of North Dakota.
ISBN 978-0911042-68-9
Copyright 2007
380 pages
Hardcover
$28.95
The Coach and the College: The Role of Athletics in the Financial Survival of a Small Liberal Arts College
Robert D. Sawrey
Amidst the cheers, pride, tailgating and excitement of college athletics lurks for many Americans the discomforting sense that many colleges have abandoned their academic integrity and the proper relationship between academics and athletics. Located on the rolling farmland of North Dakota sits Jamestown College, whose experience with athletics offers a stunningly different perspective of how athletics and academics can work together to promote the general well-being of the institution.
ISBN 978-0-911042-77-01
Copyright 2013
200 pages
Softcover
Price: $20.00
Common Waters – A Story of Life Along the Red River of the North
Edited by Wayne Gudmundson.
Most recent of the “Prairie Document Series;” a photographic essay that demonstrates the power of the river and its influences on the lives of all living by its shores.
ISBN 0-911042-49-0
Copyright 1997
223 pages -184 photos
Softcover
Price $18.95
Conservation of Natural Resources of North Dakota
Irvin T. Dietrich and John Hove
An early monograph on a subject increasingly important to an ecology-conscious nation. This picture-studded text is accessible to high-school students.
ISBN 0-911042-06-7
Copyright 1962
Hardcover
327 pages
Price $3.00
A Considered View: The Photographs of Wayne Gudmundson
Edited by Lucy Flint
This publication documents nearly four decades of the North Dakota artist’s work. Gudmundson, whose heritage is Icelandic, has been photographing the American prairie plains since the late 1970s with the aim of recording the marks of human intervention in this often hostile yet sublimely beautiful land.
ISBN 978-0-911042-67-2
Copyright 2007
Hardcover
104 pages
Price: $29.95
Dakota Circle: Excursions on the True Plains
Tom Isern
This is a wry, sometimes humorous description of the people and things that make up the Great Plains. Includes the notorious “You Must be from N.D.” list of regional virtues and idiosyncrasies.
ISBN 0-911042-53-9
Copyright 2000
195 pages
Hardcover
$ 19.95
Dakota, Or What’s a Heaven For
Brenda K. Marshall
The lives and schemes of frontier politicians, Northern Pacific Railroad executives, bonanza farmers, and homesteaders converge in the story of Frances Houghton Bingham, who marries the son of a Red River Valley bonanza farmer in order to remain near her new husband’s sister. Emotionally complex, willful and resourceful, Frances is seduced by the myths of opportunity driving the settlement of Dakota Territory, and dares to dream of a new world in which to realize her unconventional desires. Providing a counterpoint to the dramatic risks taken by Frances is the generous voice of Kirsten Knudson, the daughter of Norwegian homesteaders. As Kirsten grows from a voluble girl to a formidable woman, her observations (equal parts absurdity and insight) reveal the heart of the novel.
Details about Dakota, Or What’s a Heaven For can be found at http://www.brendamarshallauthor.com
ISBN 978-0-911042-72-6
Copyright 2010
473 pages
Hardcover
$24.95
Dakota Territory
Howard Lamar
First published some four decades ago. This political history of the Dakotas at their infancy offers readers a powerful picture of the politicians who carved a government out of a frontier and turned it into not one, but two huge states.
ISBN 0-911042-47-4
Copyright 1997
302 pages
Hardcover
$ 25.00
Dacotah Territory: A 10 Year Anthology
Edited by Mark Vinz and Grayce Ray
A collection of poems originally published in Dacotah Territory Magazine.
ISBN 0-911042-26-1
Copyright 1982
147 pages
Softcover
$ 9.75
Darkhouse Spearfishing Across North America
Jay Leitch
An introduction to darkhouse spearfishing. This unique sport of the upper-midwest comes alive on the pages of Jay Leitch’s treatment of the topic.
ISBN 0-911042-56-3
Copyright 2001
163 pages
Softcover
Price $ 14.95 / Out of Print
Depression: Minnesota in the Thirties
D. Jerome Tweton
The story of a people’s struggle to hold on against the terrible economic adversity which struck in the 1930s. The book brings to life the economic chaos which confronted farmers, workers, businessmen, and bankers.
ISBN 0-911042-25-3
Copyright 1981
Softcover
88 pages – 44 full-page photos
Price $7.50
The Downstairs Tenant
Jamie Parsley
Jamie Parsley’s first book of short fiction contains 15 stories (and one play) of Dakota at mid-Twentieth Century, a time when morals, ideals and society in general were in flux. Capturing the Prairie Gothic” genre, these stories are, at turns, tender and haunting, mystical and stoically unflinching, furtive and emotionally raw, violent and humorous. The characters in them struggle with overwhelming loss, tenuous faith, persistent doubt, nagging obsessions, haunted affection and, of course, an unpredictable natural world in which they ultimately find themselves exposed and vulnerable.
ISBN 978-0-911042-80-1
Copyright 2014
Softcover
176 pages
Price: $15.00
Fargo, 1957
Jamie Parsley
In the early evening of Thursday, June 20, 1957, a tornado struck the city of Fargo, ND. This is the story of the resilience and fortitude of the people who survived the storm and those who did not.
ISBN 978-0-911042-73-3
Copyright 2010
Softcover
156 pages
Price: $20.00 / Out of Print
Five for the Land & Its People
Bill G. Reid
The story of five pioneering agri-scientists who devoted their considerable energies and abilities to the North Dakota Agricultural College and Experiment Station. The author’s portraits of each of the five men–Clare Bailey Waldron, Henry Luke Bolley, Edwin Fremont Ladd, John Henry Shepperd, and Lawrence Root Waldron–combine personal glimpses of the five with a narrative of their professional achievements and disappointments.
ISBN 0-911042-37-7
Copyright 1989
Hardcover. 154 pages
LC 88-61399
Price $12.00
Flowers Between the Frosts: How to Grow Great Gardens in Short Seasons
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins produced about 2,800 gardening articles during a 55-year span as a journalist and editor working in the border cities of Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN. She addressed the rewards and the challenges of gardening in a climate known for hot, dry summers and cold, windswept winters. This book features some of her best practical advice for gardeners challenged by the north country seasons, along with a few sprigs of Midwestern charm and whimsy.
ISBN 978-0-911042-7604
Copyright 2012
Softcover. 174 pages
LC 2012934871
Price: $14.95
From the Banat to North Dakota; A History of the German-Hungarian Pioneers in Western North Dakota
David Dreyer and Josette Hatter
From the Banat to North Dakota is the first collection of personal histories written by and about the North Dakota Banaters. The collection joins archival data about these pioneers with their individual stories; together they weave a poignant tale about ordinary people relying on their personal courage, community spirit and cultural heritage, to succeed in North Dakota.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-66-5
Copyright: 2006
Softcover
LC 2006937410
Price: $19.95
Goodbye Mike, Hello Judge: My Journey for Justice
Myron H. Bright
At age 95, Federal Judge Myron Bright looks back on a life that leaves a legacy of not only fighting for justice, but advocating, often as a lone voice, against injustice. His legal and judicial work has been highlighted by his compassion for individuals who have been treated unfairly. His personal stories begin with growing up in a northern Minnesota ethnic melting pot. Myron Bright continues to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which has ruled on cases that touch some of the most significant issues in American history. Judge Bright has provided the heart for many of those rulings through is influence on the opinion-making process and speaking out with oral and written dissent.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-78-8
LC Number 2014955187
Copyright: 2014
Hardcover
Price: $30.00 Out of Print
Greetings from North Dakota; An Address and Date Book
From the postcard collections of Lawrence Aasen and Ronald Olin
Historical information written by John Bye and John Hallberg
An address book that features historic North Dakota postcards and short historical notes regarding the towns that they represent. Greetings from North Dakota was compiled by the professionals of the Institute from the postcard collections of Lawrence Aasen and Ronald Olin. They are uniquely North Dakota.
ISBN-13: 978-0-911042-63-4
Copyright 2006
Softcover
Price: $13.95
Handbook of North Dakota Plants
O.A. Stevens
A comprehensive study of plants of North Dakota, illustrated and written in layman’s terms.
ISBN 0-911042-07-5
Copyright 1963
Hardcover. 330 pages
LC-63-14315
Price: $30.00 Out of Print
History of North Dakota
Elwyn B. Robinson
Robinson’s book has become one of America’s classic state histories. One of the state’s great professors and historians takes into account not only politics, but sociology, economics, ethnology, theology, nature studies, and geography to describe North Dakota to the world and to itself. Long out of print, this soft cover reissue includes a new preface by D. Jerome Tweton, examining the themes and the time of Robinson, and a new postscript by David B. Danbom, bringing the state’s history from the mid-1960s to the present. Also new in this edition are 41 photos and illustrations.
ISBN 0-911042-43-1
Copyright 1995
Softcover
610 pages
LC 95-068420
Price $25.00 Out of Print
Home River
Rodney Nelson
A work of fiction that captures the distinctive lilt of Norwegian-American dialect and the political and social atmosphere of the Red River Valley of the North in the Middle 1940s. The book helps us preserve our knowledge of the immigrant pioneering spirit.
ISBN 0-911042-28-8
Copyright 1984
Softcover
76 pages
LC 83-63482.
Price $4.85
I’m Thinking It Over
Jim Baccus
A collection of 80 “Spectator” columns from The Fargo Forum 1974-1984.
ISBN 0-911042-31-8
Copyright 1985
Softcover
213 pages
LC 85-61953
Price $8.95
Important Voices; North Dakota’s Women Elected State Officials Share Their Stories, 1893-2013
Susan E. Wefald
Only 17 women have been elected to statewide office in North Dakota in 125 years! Susan Wefald has pulled the stories of these fabulous women together into this one volume. IMPORTANT VOICES shares their triumphs and losses, their hopes and challenges. It shares what these North Dakota women have accomplished and the challenges still facing women who want to be elected to statewide office today. It is a “must read” for anyone who enjoys North Dakota history, real life politics, or learning how women for over one hundred years have served our state.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-79-5
Copyright 2014
357 pages
Softcover
$24.95
The Last Buffalo
Bruce Roseland
Contemporary poetry from the farms and ranches of the Dakotas. Striking insights into 21st Century rural life.
ISBN-10: 0-911042-64-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-911042-64-1
Copyright 2006
Softcover
101 pages
LC 2006924763
Price: $11.95
Magnificent Churches on the Prairie
J. Coomber and Sheldon Green
A story of pioneer optimism, abiding faith and people who longed for the kind of community they had left behind in Europe. At the turn of the century, Benedictine missionaries and homesteading immigrants still living in earthen dwellings collaborated to build awe-inspiring churches of stone and stained glass. Churches at Mandan, Devils Lake, Richardton, and Strasburg, ND and Hoven, SD are presented in detail. More than one hundred color photographs capture the magnificence of these five churches.
ISBN 0-911042-45-8
Copyright 1996
Softcover. 102 pages
Price $29.95
Mammals of North Dakota
Robert Seabloom
Contributions by John Hoganson and William Jensen
The first comprehensive work on the mammalian fauna of the state since Vernon Bailey’s early “Biological Survey of North Dakota” published in 1926. This book is intended to be used by students, professional biologists, and serious naturalists. Detailed accounts of each of the state’s 86 mammal species include common, scientific, and known Native American names, and sections on Species Description, Distribution, Habitat, Ecology and Behavior, Reproduction, Status and Conservation, and Selected References. Important introductory chapters deal with the mammalian biogeography of the state, the mammalian paleofauna of North Dakota (John Hoganson), and the principal habitats of North Dakota (Bill Jensen). Additional chapters deal with investigating mammals and taxonomic keys for species identification.
ISBN: 987-0-911042-74-0
Copyright 2011
Softcover
Color photos
Price: $36.00 / Out of Print
Nature of Eastern North Dakota: Pre-1880 Historical Ecology
Kieth Severson and Carolyn Hull Sieg
This book seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how the geologic setting of eastern North Dakota changed through time, how vegetative communities and associated wildlife responded, and how processes such as climate and fire fluctuated. The authors provide glimpses of natural communities of eastern North Dakota, beginning with the Precambrian Era, about 3.5 million years ago. They explore, in greater detail, how grasslands, herbivores, varying weather patterns, fire and indigenous people have interacted during the last 10,000 years, with most emphasis placed on the last 300 years.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-65-8
Copyright: 2006
Softcover
LC Number 2006936780
Price: $21.95
Our Purpose is to Serve: The First Century of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station
David B. Danbom
A lively and insightful account of the station’s advances in agricultural research.
ISBN 0-911042-38-5
Copyright 1990
Hardcover
225 pages
LC 89-63044
Price $24.00
Paintings in Taxicabs
Richard Lyons
A study of the characteristics of art consumers in North Dakota.
ISBN 0-911042-09-1
Copyright 1965
Softcover
160 pages
LC 64-64377
Price $3.00 / Out of Print
Palaces on the Prairie
Rod Evans
From the 1880s to the 1930s, at least 34 “prairie palaces” of one sort or another sprang up in at least 24 towns across the Midwest. Their themes ranged in scope from grasses to grains to minerals, but all sought the same goal – attention! Evans’ book attempts to tackle many unanswered questions surrounding the successes and failures of each palace and community.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-71-9
Copyright 2009
Hardcover
240 pages
LC 2009940379
Price $29.95
The Pearson Girls
Kathy L. Plotkin
The real-life story of five spunky, beautiful sisters born to the rigors of homesteading on the North Dakota prairie.
ISBN 0-911042-51-2
Copyright 1998
Softcover
260 pages
LC 98-66956
Price $16.95
Prairie Populist: The Life & Times of Usher L. Burdick
E.C. Blackorby
Usher L. Burdick was a powerful and colorful character in North Dakota’s political history. Blackorby has written a fascinating and valuable analysis of the forces at work in Usher Burdick’s public and private history.
ISBN 0-911042-57-1
Copyright 2001
Hardcover
393 pages
LC 2001097699
Price $28.95
A Prairie Prayer
Poems by Bruce Roseland
Illustrated by Marie Louise Tesch
A collection of poems that continue the ideas first introduced by South Dakotan Bruce Roseland in The Last Buffalo. Bruce’s poems are about surviving the (simple) country life in South Dakota.
ISBN 978-0-911042-70-2
Copyright 2008
Softcover
84 pages
LC 2008925298
Price: $11.95
The Promise of Water: The Garrison Diversion Project
Wayne Gudmundson and Robert Silberman
The Garrison Diversion Project has been a controversial political issue in North Dakota for decades. More than half a billion dollars already have been spent, and a comparable amount is being sought to bring the project to completion. The landscape has been transformed by pumping stations and other large-scale waterworks, along with more than one hundred twenty miles of canals.
ISBN 0-911042-58-X (softcover)
ISBN 0-911042-59-8 (hardcover)
Copyright 2002
LCCN# 2002107054
Price: $12.95 softcover
Price: $19.95 hardcover
Scanning the Land
Richard Lyons
A series of poems about North Dakota illustrated with photographs to firmly place the reader in North Dakota.
ISBN 0-911042-23-7
Copyright 1980
Hardcover
157 pages
Price $11.75 / Out of Print
Science and Policy: Interbasin Water Transfer of Aquatic Biota
Jay Leitch
This book offers a history of the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District and the role of science, in what was largely a politically based problem.
ISBN 0-911042-54-7
Copyright 2001
Softcover
145 pages
Price $19.95
Spectacular North Dakota Hikes, Bring the Dog
Susan Wefald
Two of North Dakota’s most avid hikers, Susan Wefald and her dog Sandy, share their notes on 50 of North Dakota’s best day hikes. Armchair and seasoned hikers alike will enjoy exploring North Dakota’s diverse landscape with Susan and Sandy. Learn the locations of spectacular vistas. Try one of Susan’s picnic lunches. Expand neighborhood strolls into the great outdoors. Bring your dog!
ISBN 978-0-911042-75-7
Copyright 2011
Softcover
168 pages
Price: $24.95
The Third Rib Knife
Philip Kienholz
A collection of 17 poems.
ISBN 0-911042-12-1
Copyright 1966
Softcover
32 pages
Price $1.50 / Out of Print
Tori and the Sleigh of Midnight Blue
Margo Sorenson
A work of fiction for young readers. Set in North Dakota in the 1930s, its protagonist is a Norwegian farm girl, Tori, whose mother is a widow. When a Norwegian bachelor-farmer begins courting Mama, Tori writes in her journal that her life is about to be ruined.
ISBN: 0-911042-61-X
Copyright 2002
Softcover
121 pages
Price: $6.95
Unwanted Bread: The Challenge of Farming and Ranching
Sheldon Green and Jim Coomber
Farmers talk of their frustrations and opportunities in this personal glimpse into rural life today. Readers will discover insights into the expensive, complicated and often emotional business of farming and ranching. “One way to understand what is happening in farming today is to listen to those who are involved in it,” write Green and Coomber. That is what they do, and invite their readers to do, in Unwanted Bread. Here is the story of farming and ranching today as told by farmers and ranchers, along with astute commentators who know the country well. Visually striking, thought-provoking photographs accompany the interviews and essays. “If we could sit down with a farmer over coffee and listen to his or her story,” Green and Coomber say, “we’d begin to understand the challenge farmers are facing today.” So pour yourself some coffee, and help yourself to Unwanted Bread.
ISBN 0-911042-55-5
Copyright 2000
Softcover
160 pages-over 70 color photos
Price $ 24.95
Voices on the Prairie: Bringing Speech and Theatre to North Dakota
Robert S. Littlefield
A powerful testament to one of the most important cultural tools drawing North Dakotans together into one community: the spoken word. In this vast prairie of immigrants huddled into villages and farms many miles apart, settlers and their children relied on speeches, on pageants and drama, on forensics and declamation to build a sense of commuity, a unique cultural heritage in one of America’s last frontiers.
ISBN 0-911042-50-4
Copyright 1998
341 pages
Softcover – $ 29.95
Hardcover – $ 45.00 / Out of Print
Wall of Flames: The Minnesota Forest Fire of 1894
Lawrence Larsen
The story of the Hinckley, Minnesota forest fire shows the impact of the catastrophe on victims, survivors, rescuers, and policy makers. Sheds light on the reasons why such tragedies happened all too frequently in the United States of the Gilded Age and helps us to understand the origins of the Minnesota conservation movement.
ISBN 0-911042-29-6
Copyright 1984
Hardcover. 187 pages
LC 84-61133
Price $9.85 / Out of Print
Where Seldom Was Heard a Discouraging Word…Bill Guy Remembers
William L. Guy
The autobiography of Bill Guy, Governor of North Dakota from 1961 to 1973. Governor Guy captures the events and personalities of politics in North Dakota and the nation.
ISBN 0-911-042-42-3
Copyright 1992
Hardcover
275 pages
LC 92-6056
Price $25.00 / Out of Print
“You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me”: Herman Stern and the Jewish Refugee Crisis
Terry Shoptaugh
The story about how one man managed to pluck more than a hundred German Jews away from the clutches of the Nazis. Close to one hundred thousand European Jews found refuge in the United States before the onset of the Second World War. This story is about how one man living in a small town in North Dakota, by dint of his energy, determination, refusal to be discouraged, help at critical moments (for he well knew that he could never have succeeded as he did without the help of a special friend in Washington), he managed to pluck more than a hundred German Jews away from the clutches of the Nazis. It was a remarkable achievement. Then when, after the Holocaust, historians argued, with justice, that America could have done more, this man was content to express his gratitude that with help he was able to do something.
ISBN 978-0-911042-69-6
Copyright 2008
Hardcover
375 pages
LC 2007937543
Price: $24.95 / Out of Print / Available as Kindle