Name Herbert Krause Role Author | Education St. Olaf College | |
Died September 22, 1976, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States Books The thresher, Wind Without Rain, The oxcart trail, Poems and essays of Herbert Krause | ||
Herbert Arthur Krause (May 25, 1905 - September 22, 1976) was an American historian, author and college professor. He was born and educated in Minnesota and South Dakota, where he taught and wrote. He was the author of novels, plays, poems, essays, and reviews. He also worked towards preservation of cultural heritage.
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Background
Herbert Arthur Krause was born on May 25, 1905 on a small farm in Friberg Township, Otter Tail County, north of Fergus Falls, Minnesota to Arthur Adolph Krause (a farmer and blacksmith) and Bertha Peters. He was educated at St. Olaf College (B.A., 1933) and the University of Iowa (M.A., 1935). Krause began his teaching career as an English Instructor at the University of Iowa in 1938. In 1939, Krause began his association with Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he taught and served as writer in residence. Starting in 1970, Krause served as the founding director of the Center for Western Studies at Augustana University.
Career as writer
Krause wrote three novels Wind Without Rain, The Thresher, and The Oxcart Trail, all of which reflect life in the harsh prairie environments of the American West. Herbert Krause won the Friends of American Writers Award in 1939 for the critically acclaimed Wind Without Rain. In June 1944 he was granted the University of Minnesota Regional Writing Fellowship in order to encourage his work on a renowned text, The Thresher which won a Book of the Month Club selection.
Center for Western Studies
The Center for Western Studies was created by the Augustana College Board of Regents in 1970. While at Augustana, Krause promoted the preserving the heritage of the American Midwest and founded the Center for Western Studies to increase the publication of important books about the Great Plains. Krause encouraged his students to write fiction and poetry about the men and women who settled in South Dakota.
Legacy
Herbert Krause died of congestive heart failure in 1976, at the age of 71, in Sioux Falls. In 1978 he was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, in the category of Education & Cultural Affairs. The Herbert A. Krause Collection at the Center for Western Studies contains his collection of papers and correspondence. The collection is a resource for anyone researching American literature or American History. His novels and essays are still in print through the university press at Augustana University in Sioux Falls.