With Affection, Marten

by Richard K. Hofstrand
$19.95 + S&H

Through correspondence with Bengta, his sister back in Sweden, Marten Hofstrand reveals an intimate chronicle of pioneer life as a settler and sod buster on the frontier of the Dakota Territory.  Beginning with emigration, the letters detail the uncertainties of leaving, finding his way in a new world, getting married, having children, being part of a community, acquiring land through pre-emption, homesteading, and a tree claim in North Dakota, and becoming a bonanza farmer.  The book also contains romance – meeting Ella, his future bride, at a bridge dance in Malmo; humor – building a claim shack over a gopher’s burrow; and natural beauty – appreciating the Northern Lights, stars in their heavenly orbits, and esoteric forms sculpted of wind-driven snow.  A fictionalized epistolary biography from 1880-1924.  Contains over 50 fotografiskas (photographs in Swedish), sketches, maps, and other black-&-white illustrations.

Product Details

Reprinted : July 2006

Published : August 1983

Pages : 308 pages, Glossary, Index.

Dimensions : 5½“ x 8½“ trade softback

ISBN : 978-0-961892-0-7

Library of Congress Number : 83-70820

Copyright © 1983 by Bench Mark Publications LLC.  All rights reserved

With Affection, Marten

Hear from Past Learners

"The style is unique, the characters real.  This story stands alone as a fine mosaic of an immigrant’s lifetime."

– Bernice Rabe, author of children's books

"The reader is invited into a very special time and special world.  It offers promise and delivers well.  To walk through almost half a century with Marten Hofstrand is to know far more of the man and the kind of people who came to this country."

– Joan Smutny, Director of Programs for the Gifted at the National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois

"My whole (7th grade) class thought the book would be boring. Boy, were we wrong!  I liked the part when Marten and Ella had to get married on another day because the photographer couldn’t make it.  Almost every time Marten wrote to Bengta, Ella was in to the family way. Maybe you could have a secuel (sic)."

– C. H., New Sweden, Maine