The Nebraska Legislature has passed the bill declaring me laureate, and the Governor has signed. Here is the text of the resolution:
WHEREAS, there is the closest connection between the growth of civilization and the development of literature, and
WHEREAS, wise commonwealths, in all ages, have recognized this relation by lifting the poet to the same plane as the statesman and military chieftain, and
WHEREAS, John G. Neihardt, a citizen of Nebraska, has written a national epic wherein he has developed the mood of courage with which our pioneers explored and subdued our plains, and thus has inspired in Americans that love of the land and its heroes whereby great national traditions are built and perpetuated, and
WHEREAS, our people wish to exalt such gifts of the human spirit, therefore be it
RESOLVED AND ENACTED, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that John G. Neihardt be, and hereby is, declared poet laureate of Nebraska and the prairies."
If you can do anything to aid in circulating this, all of us will be grateful.
Jno. N.
The chief point to be emphasized is that no other legislative body in America has ever done this before.
This is House Roll 467
