The significance of Erdrich

Just before N. Scott Momaday won the a 1969 Pulitzer Prize for "House Made of Dawn," Marshall Sprague reviewed the book for the New York Times and began: "This first novel, subtly wrought as a piece of Navajo silverware, is the work of a young Kiowa Indian who teaches English and writes poetry at the University of California in Santa Barbara. That creates a difficulty for a reviewer right away. American Indians do not write novels and poetry as a rule, or teach English in top-ranking universities either."

By Matt Hooley

January 4, 2013