Mark your calendars! On Saturday, April 15, the Friends of the Karl Oskar House invite you to join them at the Chisago Lakes Area Library, 11754 302nd St., Chisago City, for their annual meeting where Professor Roger McKnight will speak on “Vilhelm Moberg and Me. What the Swede taught me about Minnesota.”

The event begins with Fika (coffee and treats) and music by the Nya Duvemala Folkmusiklag at 9:30 a.m. McKnight will speak at 10 a.m. followed by the annual meeting showcasing highlights of the 2022 Karl Oskar House season.

McKnight, professor emeritus in Scandinavian studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St Peter, has written extensively about Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg and Swedish-American social history and literature. A native of Illinois, McKnight first learned of Moberg while he was living in Sweden as a Fulbright scholar during the 1970s. After studying at Lund College in Sweden, McKnight completed graduate studies at the University of Minnesota before beginning his teaching career at Gustavus.
Moberg visited the Chisago Lakes area in the late 1940s while researching fictional characters Karl Oskar and Kristina for his novels The Emigrants, Unto a New Land, The Settlers and The Last Letter Home.

The Karl Oskar House on Glader Blvd in Lindstrom was identified by Moberg while he was here, and has been maintained by volunteers for over 26 years.