Go to mnhs.org Home Become a Member Give a Gift Shop
Home
Feedback
FAQ


Metronet
Minnesota Humanities Commission

Garrison Keillor

Biographical Notes

Date of birth: August 7, 1942, Anoka, Minnesota

Gary Edward Keillor. Author and radio personality. Adopted the name "Garrison" at age thirteen to separate his personal life from his professional writing. B.A. in English, University of Minnesota, 1966. Worked as an announcer on the campus radio station KUOM. Edited and wrote for the Ivory Tower, the student publication. After receiving his B.A., he pursued a career in journalism without immediate success, then returned to the university for graduate study and continued working at the radio station. Began working for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, hosted the first broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" in St. Paul. (The show ended in 1987, resumed in 1989 in New York as "The American Radio Company," returned to Minnesota, and in 1993 resumed the name "A Prairie Home Companion.") Winner of the Peabody Award, 1980, and inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, 1994. Contributor of short stories to the New Yorker magazine, 1974 on. Contributed to or starred in the following movies: A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor: The Last Show (1987); The Dakota Conflict (1992); and Rabbit Ears-Johnny Appleseed (1992).

Selected Works

When you click on the titles below, you will exit the Minnesota Historical Society web site and go to the Minnesota Statewide Project for Automated Library Systems (Web PALS) Web Database. Title searches link directly to our catalog record. Please click on your browser's back button to return.
Garrison Keillor book cover

Additional Resources

Sources used to prepare this author entry

The following bibliography may include links to Web sites that are no longer operable or have changed location. The sources are shown as they existed in the fall of 1999 when the entries were compiled.
  • The Atlantic. "It's Just Work," 8 Oct. 1997. Online. Accessed 28 Jan. 2000. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/factfict/gkint.htm
  • Barron, Ron. A Guide to Minnesota Writers: Expanded and Revised. Minnesota: Minnesota Council of Teachers of English, 1993.
  • City Pages 14 Jan. 1981, p. 1. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Music Publishing Inc., 1981.
  • Contemporary Authors. Vol. 117. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1986.
  • E! Online. "Garrison Keillor Credits." Online. Accessed 4 Jan. 2000. http://www.eonline.com/Facts/People/0,12,8310,00.html
  • Keillor, Garrison. G.K. the DJ. Minnesota: Minnesota Public Radio, 1977.
  • Minneapolis/St. Paul, Feb., 1979, p. 78.
  • Minnesota Public Radio. "A Prairie Home Companion," 1999. Online. Accessed 29 Sept. 1999. http://www.phc.mpr.org/cast/garrison_keillor.shtml
  • Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 27 Feb., 1986, Community Section, p. 1Y.
  • Minnesota Monthly. Jan. 1976, Vol. 10, no. 1, p. 30. Collegeville: Minnesota Public Radio, 1976.
  • Baenen, Jeff. Prime Time Online. "Books and Authors: Garrison Keillor Spins More Tales from Lake Wobegon," 1998. Online. Accessed 4 Jan. 2000. http://www.rny.com/pubs/pt/pt9801/leisure_keillor.html
  • Rosengren, John. "Garrison Keillor." Northwest Airlines World Traveler. Jan. 2000. Tualatin, Oreg.: Skies America Publishing Co. and Northwest Airlines.
  • St. Paul Area Downtowner, 15 May 1980, p. 14.
  • St. Paul Dispatch, 7 Sept. 1978, p. 19.
  • St. Paul Dispatch, 21 Apr. 1981, p. 11A.
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press, 19 Aug. 1978, p. 3B.
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1 July 1988, News Section, p. 1B.
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press, 25 Mar. 1997, Metro Section, p. 2B.
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press & Dispatch, 20 May 1985, p. 3C.
  • WGBH Radio. "Garrison Keillor." Online. Accessed 3 Jan. 2000. http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/radio/bios/gkeillor.html
  • WVPE Radio. "National Public Radio." Online. Accessed 3 Jan. 2000. http://www.wvpe.org/keillor.htm
This pilot database compiled and maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society.
snubnosed