Keillor was once described to me as someone "with a face made for radio". The person making the comment was wearing a beard, and speaking from a pulpit. What can I say. Keillor wears his Minnesota heart on his sleeve, which makes his stories honest explorations of very human emotions - even if they are expressed by Lutherans. I truly think that Keillor is the most important contemporary humorist in the USA.
Now, here's a mystery. Since some time in 1998 I've been receiving email, phonecalls, and letters from all over the USA in reference to Garrison Keillor. All of these contacts are made with the apparent idea that I have an in to Garrison Keillor, or at least to his radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion." None of these people ever replied when I asked them why they thought I was the person to contact. (That's no longer true. I've now learned from one person that my site shows up in second place when you enter "Garrison Keillor Website" at Google.com. Curiously enough, Keillor's own site seems to be in first place, and simply entering "Garrison Keillor" leaves my site off the first page of results altogether.)
So, to anyone who finds this site while looking for Keillor's site, I do want to make the point right here: I'm not a personal acquaintance of Mr. Keillor; I've never even met the man even though he recorded one of his shows right here in Salt Lake City. I've got no way to schedule people on the show. I can't grant you permission to use Keillor's material. If you need to contact Garrison Keillor, I suggest you try going through his website for "A Prarie Home Companion".
Update: It seems my little plea here is working. That, or search engines are working better than they used to, and don't turn up this particular page in the first dozen hits when searching for Keillor's page. Now that's progress!
- Lake Wobegon Days (1985) - a collection of shortstories about life in Keillor's imaginary Minnesota town
- The Book of Guys (1993) - a wry response to books like Fire in the Belly or Iron John. Keillor doesn't seem to think that being a guy is such a big deal. Well, it's about time someone said it.
- Wobegon Boy (1997) - a sort of autobiographical story of John Tollefson - a character we first met in Wobegon Days - and how he finally grew up at age 40. Keillor's ability to tell stories truly excels in this novel.