(Radio Iowa) – A new book from a retired University of Northern Iowa professor is dedicated to preserving more than two dozen historic tidbits from Iowa history, oddities and encounters most people have forgotten. Author Roy Behrens’ seventh book is called, “Dreams of Fields: Memory Traces of Iowa’s Past.” It’s a collection of essays which he says zeroes in on the accomplished and interesting people who -aren’t- John Wayne, Glenn Miller or Ashton Kutcher.

“I think that there are subjects that we, as Iowans, don’t usually associate with Iowa,” Behrens says. “If you read common accounts of Iowa history, there are certain people who were born here and then left, and we tend to play those up. Johnny Carson being one, Donna Reed being another, and so forth.” The book contains an account of a long-ago visit to Iowa by famed poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who walked across the winter ice on the Mississippi River to speak in Iowa towns.

“One of the things that I found as I was researching a lot of different topics that have nothing to do with Iowa, I would be looking around and reading and I’d suddenly run into a reference to Iowa or to someone having done something extraordinary in another state, but they were originally from Iowa,” Behrens says, “and then over the years, I’ve hunted them down to find the details.” There’s also the story of renowned surrealist painter Salvador Dali who once made the journey to Iowa from Spain.

“He actually visited Cedar Falls. He spoke on campus in 1952 and surprisingly few people know about that because it was widely publicized at the time,” Behrens says. “He was very controversial, and of course, he was considered to be terribly eccentric.” The book also tells how celebrated painter and Iowa native Grant Wood, best known for the American Gothic, was a featured speaker at a 1939 event in Iowa City that also featured esteemed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

“During his talk, Wright referred to paintings in the prairie style and in the style of the regional style, and he made fun of them,” Behrens says. “He talked very negatively about them and people came away with the impression that he was, no doubt, talking about Grant Wood.” Behrens, who lives near the northeast Iowa town of Dysart, retired in 2018 after more than 45 years of teaching graphic design, illustration, and design history. His book is now available for pre-order through the North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press, while Behrens will be formally launching the book August 17th in an event at the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls.