True stories of the real Norwegian bachelor farmers and their Danish neighbors. A Boy from Wannaska shines light on a northern Minnesota farming community, where first-generation Scandinavian immigrants built new lives in modern America at the turn of the century. This memoir includes details of farming and household practices, plus hilarious stories of backwoods farmers in a new environment: learning to drive, hunting moose, building new social institutions-and competitive potlucks at the local Lutheran Church, made up of "37 souls and 7 Danes." Marjorie Wright Mortensen collected the heritage of tales told among the children and grandchildren of Scandinavian immigrants in Roseau County. The text includes historic photos, recipes, and an appendix with genealogy of the Danish forebears and American descendants of Jens and Ellen Mortensen, who immigrated from Odense County, Denmark in 1889.

A Girl from Sellwood, a brief memoir, provides insights into Marjorie Wright's childhood in Portland between 1921 and 1939. Taught by her grandmother to respect the endeavors and fruits of her ancestors, Marjorie Wright recorded portions of the family history, to be discovered later by family members who had in turn been taught to preserve family stories. Besides details of day-to-day life in that era, A Girl from Sellwood also includes an appendix with extensive genealogy of the historic Brewster and Barrell families of New England, as well as the author's Wright and Tozier ancestry.