Join us at Newton Public Library to learn about Heartland Utopia, a new anthology of writings by William Allen White. For White, the ideal Midwestern community was a utopian vision of what America could be: a prosperous, happy community built on equality, opportunity, and neighborly generosity. This anthology collects White’s famous and obscure writings and presents him as the iconic voice of the Midwestern small town.

Beverley Olson Buller, an author and expert on White, will be in conversation with Jason Stacy, one of the editors of the anthology.

This is a hybrid program: Join us in person at Newton Public Library, 223 E. 7th, Newton, KS, or click here to sign up for the Zoom Webinar simulcast. Beverley will be with us in person at the library, while Jason will join remotely via Zoom.

About the Book:

William Allen White, the editor of The Emporia Gazette in Kansas, was an American institution. When he died in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt commented that America had lost one of its “wisest and most beloved editors.” White understood the value of his unique brand as “the voice of Main Street,” and would often preach his vision of the kind of nation the United States ought to be. From his view in Emporia, White’s imagined Midwestern town was a dream for the nation to strive toward. He saw himself as a pioneer sowing the seeds of a great harvest to come, and he believed that the small-town civilization he venerated exemplified what was best in America.

In Heartland Utopia, Charles Delgadillo and Jason Stacy have gathered nearly twenty-five years of White’s fiction and nonfiction focused on his idealized Midwestern community and how this utopian vision changed over time. 

About Jason Stacy:

Jason Stacy is Distinguished Research Professor of history and social science pedagogy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. His books include Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town and Walt Whitman's Selected Journalism.

About Beverley Olson Buller:

Born and raised in Winfield, Kansas, Beverley Olson Buller is a retired teacher and librarian. She is the author of four books. From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White and A Prairie Peter Pan: The Story of Mary White were both named Kansas Notable Books and chosen for the Kansas Reading Circle catalog and the William Allen White Award master lists. She is chairman emeritus of the selection committee for the William Allen White Children’s Book Awards, serves on the William Allen White Community Partnership Board and talks about William Allen White for the Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau.