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Leonard Kniffel

Born: in Michigan
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Kniffel currently resides in Chicago.

Biography: Kniffel is the editor in chief of ''American Libraries'', the magazine of the American Library Association. Born and raised in Michigan, he holds masters degrees in English and library science from Wayne State University in Detroit. He now lives and works in Chicago.


Awards:

Primary Literary Genre(s): interviews ; memoir; Nonfiction - journalism; travel

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Blog: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs.leonard-kniffel
Email: lkniffel@polishson.com
Website: http://polishson.com/
Leonard Kniffel on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=leonard+kniffel


Selected Titles

A Polish son in the motherland :
ISBN: 1585444200 OCLC: 774385361

Texas A & M University Press, College Station : 2005.

Searching for the remnants of his family, Leonard Kniffel left Chicago in 2000 to live in Poland. A Polish Son in the Motherland is the story of a search for roots and for the reasons why one family's ties were severed more than fifty years ago. Along the way, we see what half a century of communism did to Poland and how the residue of World War II lingers. Kniffel's search for a connection to Poland is propelled by memories of the stories his grandmother told him about her emigration to Michigan in 1913. While his family eludes him, the adventure becomes an investigation into the relationship between mothers and the legacy they give their sons. Poles who emigrated to America, the author concludes, must have been particularly good at assimilating into American culture. Less than fifty years after his maternal grandparents arrived in the United States, barely a trace of their Polishness existed in their grandchildren. Through his grandparents' struggles, their children became American and created a new world for themselves and their descendants. In returning to Poland himself, Kniffel sought and found a bridge to the Great Migration that changed the lives of so many millions - and millions yet to come.--Jacket.

Reading with the stars :
ISBN: 9781626365490 OCLC: 666224052

Skyhorse ; New York : 2011, ©2011.

Collects interviews, essays, and speeches from celebrities in the fields of literature, politics, sports, and entertainment that showcase how important the reading experience is to success and happiness.

 

 

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