Wellstone memoir a searing recollection

New Wellstone memoir a searing read.

September 1, 2012 at 11:11PM
David Wellstone.
David Wellstone. (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

"Becoming Wellstone: Healing From Tragedy and Carrying on My Father's Legacy," by Paul David Wellstone Jr., will be published in October by Hazelden Books. The memoir by Paul David Wellstone Jr. opens with a searing account of Oct. 25, 2002 -- the day that U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, died in a plane crash along with five others.

Law enforcement personnel had set up surveillance cameras to view the crash site, which was smoking and smoldering when David Wellstone arrived. "The impact of the crash had pushed everyone to the front compartment," he writes. "I could also see shadows that I knew were people, shadows that represented my father, my mother, and my sister."

The memoir carries an afterword by former GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad.

Also ...

• John Sandford's latest Virgil Flowers novel, "Mad River," will be published in October by Putnam.

• "Hawk Ridge: Minnesota's Birds of Prey" is the second collaboration between Minnesota birding writer Laura Erickson and Grand Marais artist Betsy Bowen. (The first was "Twelve Owls.") The book will be published in October by the University of Minnesota Press, in time for the annual hawk migration in Duluth. They'll sign books at 2 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Bookcase of Wayzata.

• "Minneapolis and the Age of Railways," by Don L. Hofsommer, is now out in paperback from the University of Minnesota Press. The hardcover edition was first published in 2005.

• "Minnesota's Miracle: Learning From the Government That Worked," by Tom Berg, will be published in October by the University of Minnesota Press. Berg is a former Minnesota state legislator and U.S. attorney.

• Dore Kiesselbach's first collection of poetry, "Salt Pier," winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, will be published in November by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Kiesselbach won the Bridport Prize in 2009 for his poem "Non-Invasive." He lives in Minneapolis.

• "Rift," by Andrea Cremer, has been published by Philomel. "Rift" is the prequel to Cremer's bestselling "Nightshade." Cremer recently left St. Paul, where she taught for years at Macalester College, and now lives in New York City. A publication party -- in period dress! -- will be held at the Red Balloon Bookstore, 891 Grand Av., St. Paul, at 6 p.m. Sept. 17.

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