Frederick Manfred | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frederick Feikes Feikema VII (1912-01-06)January 6, 1912 Doon, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | September 7, 1994(1994-09-07) (aged 82) Luverne, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Pen name | Feike Feikema |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Western |
| Notable works | Lord Grizzly |
| Children | Freya Manfred |
Frederick Feikema Manfred (January 6, 1912 – September 7, 1994) was an American writer ofWesterns, very much connected to his native region: the AmericanMidwest, and the prairies of the West. He named the area where the borders of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska meet "Siouxland."
Manfred was born inDoon,Iowa. He was baptizedFrederick Feikes Feikema VII, and he used the name Feike Feikema when he published his first books. He was the oldest of six boys, all over six feet tall, and was himself six feet nine inches tall. Manfred was a third generationFrisian American, whose family originated in the village ofTzum, in the Dutch province ofFriesland.[1]
Manfred was raised in theChristian Reformed Church.James Bratt argues that Manfred rebelled against this upbringing, being filled with "religious doubts and ethical chafings."[2] Bratt goes on to discuss this influence that this upbringing had on Manfred's writing, and suggests that the qualities of his work - "earthy detail, metaphysical sweep, both set to biblical cadence - are precisely those of his native faith."[3]
In 1937, Manfred starting working as a sports reporter forThe Minneapolis Journal. He was fired a couple years later, due to his involvement in union organization. Shortly after this, Manfred developed tuberculosis and entered Glen Lake Sanatorium in Oak Terrace, Minnesota, in April 1940. It was in this sanatorium that he met his future wife Maryanna Shorba. Manfred left the sanatorium in 1942 and worked on the staff of Modern Medicine and as assistant campaign manager forHubert Humphrey, who was a candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. He fictionalized this period in his bookBoy Almighty, published under the name Feike Feikema.
Manfred publishedThe Primitive, the first novel in his World's Wanderer trilogy, in 1949. It was poorly received, and the next two books in the trilogy,The Brother (1950) andThe Giant (1951), met with mixed reviews. In 1952 Manfred decided to change his name from Frederick Feikema to Frederick Feikema Manfred, and Frederick Manfred became his publishing name.Lord Grizzly, the first of The Buckskin Man Tales, was the first work Manfred published under his new name. It was a best seller and one of the finalists for the National Book Award in 1954. The Buckskin Man Tales are the novelsLord Grizzly,Conquering Horse,Scarlet Plume,King of Spades, andRiders of Judgment.
For a time he lived in a house which is now the derelict interpretive center ofBlue Mounds State Park inRock County,Minnesota. He attendedCalvin College in Michigan. He had three children with his wife Maryanna Shorba Manfred:Freya Manfred, Frederick Manfred Jr., and Marya Manfred.
Manfred was the writer-in-residence in the English Department at theUniversity of South Dakota during the 1970s and 1980s. According to his daughter Freya Manfred, "Many of those who drank coffee with him, watched him, listened to him, learned from him, are now well-known national or regional writers:Pete Dexter, Michael Doane, Elly Welt, William Earls,Dan O'Brien, Linda Hasselstrom, Craig Volk,Bill Holm, John Calvin Rezmerski, and Joe and Nancy Paddock."
Manfred died inLuverne, Minnesota in 1994, of a brain tumor, at the age of 82.[4] In 2013, aFrisian translation was published of Manfred's autobiographical novelGreen Earth, titledDe Griene Ierde.[1]
Note: There are also a handful of non-fiction titles, notablyThe Wind Blows Free, a memoir of the Dust Bowl,Conversations with Frederick Manfred, andPrime Fathers andDuke's Mixture, anthologies of FM's essays.
