|  |  | A Long Shout: Selected Writings of Clarence Jonk
A Long Shout: Selected Writings of Clarence Jonk
Edited by Doug Wilhide (Former Journalism Professor)
Trolley Car Press, 2008
Clarence Jonk is one of the great, unheralded storytellers in American letters. Born and raised on a farm in western Minnesota, he grew up in a community of Dutch immigrants in the early 1900s. After "escaping" to the University of Minnesota he decided --in the heart of the Great Depression-- to build a houseboat and float it down the Mississippi. His adventures (and misadventures) were chronicled in River Journey, a small classic of Depression life along the river.
For more than five decades he wrote poetry, publishing a series of small, quickly forgotten books, but Jonk found his niche as a storyteller. His skill at bringing characters to life, capturing the detail of the America of his time and sustaining a narrative flow surprises, amuses and delights. Clarence Jonk's stories and poems record --through the eyes of a unique and engaging individual-- an era that has long since passed into our national mythology.
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