Press Release - Eric Sevareid Biography Program November 12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brenna Daugherty (701) 255-3360
or Rick Collin (701) 328-1476
July 23, 2009

BISMARCK – The author of an acclaimed biography of the American journalist and North Dakota native Eric Sevareid (1912-92) will discuss his book Thursday, November 12 at the North Dakota Heritage Center. The program by Raymond A. Schroth, author of “The American Journey of Eric Sevareid, will begin at 7 p.m. Central Time.

His talk, sponsored by Read North Dakota, is part of the consortium’s focus on biographies of North Dakotans in 2009.

Published in 1995, Schroth’s biography details Sevareid’s upbringing in rural North Dakota and Minneapolis, his hiring by Edward R. Murrow, his long career with CBS, and his retirement years. For nearly two decades, Sevareid’s raw, High Plains voice on the CBS Evening News came close to representing a kind of national conscience. He was one of the original “Murrow Boys,” and one of the great American journalists.

Prairie Public Broadcasting will air Schroth’s program on its radio network during the Hear It Now program on Thursday, November 19 at 3 and 7 p.m. It will also be broadcast on the television network of Prairie Public that same evening of November 19 at 8 p.m. The program will be able to be viewed after this date on a videostream on Prairie Public’s website at www.prairiepublic.org.

Schroth is a professor of humanities at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey, as well as a Jesuit priest and a journalist. He has taught or served as dean at five Jesuit colleges and universities, plus New York University graduate school and Brooklyn College. He is the author of eight books, including “The American Jesuits: A History,” and “Dante to Dead Man Walking: One Reader’s Journey Through the Christian Classics.” He has also written more than 300 articles and reviews on politics, religion, and the media, which have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Newsday. He is the media columnist for the National Catholic Reporter.

The following is a selected list of the top 10 books featuring biographies of North Dakotans:

• Prairie Populist: The Life of Usher Burdick, by Edward C. Blackorby
• T. R.: The Last Romantic, by H. W. Brands
• Gall: Lakota War Chief, by Robert W. Larson
• Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat: The Story of White Coyote, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark, by Tracy Potter
• Still a Legend: The Story of Roger Maris, by Harvey Rosenfeld
• Quentin Burdick: The Gentle Warrior, by Dan Rylance
• The Life of Maxwell Anderson, by Alfred S. Shivers
• You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me: Herman Stern and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, by Terry Shoptaugh
• Honorable Warrior: General Harold K. Johnson and the Ethics of Command, by Lewis Sorley
• The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull, by Robert M. Utley

All publications are in print and available at local libraries and bookstores. Visit the website, www.readnd.org and add to the recommended reading list of biographies of North Dakotans. Readers are encourage to include comments on the website discussion board.

Read North Dakota is a consortium of members, including the State Historical Society of North Dakota, North Dakota Humanities Council, North Dakota Council on the Arts, Prairie Public Broadcasting, and the North Dakota Library Association. The group encourages readers, writers, and educators to enjoy good literature rooted in our place by identifying relevant book titles and authors on a website, in printed materials, and through public events and discussion groups. Visit www.readnd.org to learn more.

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