Norton's Birthday

The other night publisher Norton Stillman was feted at the St. Paul University Club. Poetry readings take place there once a month, but the turnout for this one far exceeded the norm. It was Norton's ninetieth birthday, and fifteen of the poets he's published over the years were slated to read one poem apiece from a Nodin Press collection. 

The event was featured in both the Star-Tribune and the Pioneer Press, and the room was packed, not only with poets and poetry-lovers but also with printers, publishers reps, bookstore owners, former employees of Bookmen (Norton's book warehouse, now long defunct), Nodin Press essayists and biographers, and many of Norton's relatives and long-time friends. Not to mention poets and poetry-lovers who attend the readings regularly. Amiable poet and raconteur Tim Nolan kept the event moving, and there was plenty of time afterwards for people to mingle and chat.

The poets, one after another, expressed their gratitude toward Norton and also their appreciation of his kindness and warm personality. My favorite story—though I don't recall who told it—involved Norton calling a young poet to tell her he wouldn't be able to attend her upcoming reading, due to a veterinary emergency. Then he added, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, and I'd be happy to publish your book."

Phil Bryant

I don't remember much about the particulars of the poems themselves, but I was struck repeatedly by how pleasant it can be, in a landscape often overburdened with politics and moral harangue, to listen to a few vivid personal impressions tinged with silent emotion. Janna Knittel read a poem "about" a kingfisher; Laurie Allmann read one "about" a meadowlark. Emilio DeGrazia and Norita Dittburner-Jax read poems in which trees figure prominently. Jim Lenfestey read a boisterous poem about spring. Sharon Chmielarz read an enigmatic one, full of Biblical overtones, about scorpions turning into cabbages. (Or was it the other way around?)

Freya Manfred read a poem about one of her favorite subjects—swimming—and prefaced it with a touching story about Norton's mother, Millie, who also loved to swim. Cary Waterman reminded us, before reading her poem, of the important role played by the anthology 25 Minnesota Poets, which Norton published fifty years ago, in nurturing the state's rich poetic environment.

Poet Margaret Hasse had arranged for a sheet cake with Norton's portrait on the frosting. It's one of Norton's long-standing event traditions. (He even had one made for Rosalynn Carter when she came to the Bookmen to promote her book!)

I never got near the cake. I've been working on books with Norton for more than twenty years, and there were lots of people in the audience I hadn't seen in a long time, or had worked with but never actually met! In addition to the poets mentioned above and others, I ran into friends (and former Bookmen employees) Annie Klessig and Bill Mockler, Norton's nephew Brett  and his wife Sheila (also publishers), biographers Dale Schwie and Joy Riggs, historian Etta Fay Orkin, essayist and garden expert Steve Kelley and his wife Arla, author John Coy. The list goes on and on.

Norton with Norita

I spoke with Norton on the phone the next morning, and it was like: "Oh, was she there? I never saw her." "Gee, I wish I'd gotten a chance to talk to ...," "His wife died, but he seems to be holding up well." Mike Hazard, Don Leeper, Chuck Erickson, David Unowsky. It was old home week for the local book scene.

During her appearance at the podium poet Morgan Grace Willow mentioned that her book Between originally carried a different and more latinate title. Norton returned to that concept during his brief remarks, mentioning that his mother, returning home from shopping, perhaps, would say, "I had a good "between" with so-and-so this morning."

Good betweens: that's what Norton's career, his books, his friends, his life, has all been about.