News and Events

Great Review by Michigan Governor Granholm:

We just received the following letter from Michigan's Governor Jennifer M. Granholm:

     "Thank you for the special copy of A Simpler Time - Stories from a Vanished Era, by Eric V. Youngquist.  It is a delightful book, and a great addition to my library.

     I especially enjoyed Chapter 2 - Growing Up Swedish.  As is a fairly well-known fact, I too, am from Swedish descent and know first-hand what an interesting lot we are.

     Thank you again for sharing this wonderful memoir with me.  Could you please forward a copy of this letter to Mr. Youngquist to let him know of my receipt of his book and the pleasure I had reading it?  Thank you."

Tennessee Festival of Books October 11, 12, 13:

Author Eric Youngquist was one of several featured speakers at the Festival and talked about his new books Think Kind Thoughts and Foreign Service Family Volume 1.  He also managed the Voyageur booth there.

Book review of A Simpler Time from Kirkus Discoveries

          A sentimental look back at the author's idyllic childhood in Dearborn, Michigan. 

 

          Youngquist, born in the 1920s into a recently emigrated Swedish family, takes us on a detailed ride through early-19th-century life in small-town America.  His parents came to Dearborn, like many others, to find work in the factories of the Ford Motor Co.   His immediate community was a complex mixture of European immigrants, yet the childhood episodes he tells are uniquely American - it's notable that his family and others like them were more interested in assimilation than in preserving the customs of their native countries.  Activities like kick-the-can, backyard football, marbles and marshmallow roasts were remembered lovingly. . . .  Upon reaching adolescence, he begins to move beyond his Mayberry-like world, working on farms in the Midwest and traveling throughout the western United States.  He eventually receives a Fulbright scholarship and works for the U.S. State Department. . . .  His story will have great appeal to members of Youngquist's generation as a moving evocation of their childhood. . . .

 

          An overall gentle and nostalgic glimpse into an extinct slice of American life.