Dreams of Fields: Memory Traces of Iowa’s Pas

This book of twenty-five essays will be of heightened interest to anyone who is eager to know about neglected people and events in the history of Iowa and the American Midwest. These essays unearth the adventures of accomplished and interesting people who are too often left out from the standard accounts of Hollywood stars, politicians, celebrities, sports heroes, and, of course, from such iconic films as Field of Dreams. Who today remembers when Salvador Dali spoke in Cedar Falls in 1952? Or when Ralph Waldo Emerson walked across the winter ice on the Mississippi River in order to speak in Iowa towns? Who knows about the Iowans from Manchester who became prominent trading post owners in New Mexico and promoted Native American arts? Who recalls what happened on the day in 1939 when Frank Lloyd Wright and Grant Wood crossed paths in Iowa City?

Until his retirement from teaching in 2018, Roy R. Behrens was Professor and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa. He had taught graphic design, illustration, and design history at UNI and other universities and art schools for more than 45 years. The author of seven books, and literally hundreds of articles in books, journals, magazines, and encyclopedias, he has appeared in broadcast interviews on NOVA, National Public Radio, 99% Invisible, Australian Public Radio, BBC, Iowa Public Television, and documentary films. He was nominated for the National Design Awards, received the Iowa Board of Regents Faculty Excellence Award, and has been described in Communication Arts magazine as ＂one of the most original thinkers in design.＂ For many years, he was art director for The North American Review, and a contributing editor for PRINT, the preeminent New York graphic design magazine.