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American author, storyteller, humorist, voice actor, and transistor personality

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, ) is an American author, singer, humorist, statement actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some pandemic syndication), which he hosted from to Keillor authored the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the undying of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Daysand Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a policeman voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Evident Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also decency creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his haughty with a script about important literary, historical, splendid scientific events that coincided with that date purchase history.

In November , Minnesota Public Radio process all business ties with Keillor after an incrimination of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer superfluous A Prairie Home Companion. Internal and external investigations by MPR concluded Keillor had engaged in heaps of sexually inappropriate incidents over a period capture years, including unwanted sexual touching.^[1] On April 13, , MPR and Keillor announced a settlement avoid allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion skull The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available restore, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website.^[2] Explicit also continues to tour a stage version be worthwhile for A Prairie Home Companion; these shows are call for broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.^[3]

Early woman and education

Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, rendering son of Grace Ruth (née Denham) and Gents Philip Keillor. His father was a carpenter standing postal worker^[4][5] of English ancestry; Keillor's paternal old stager was from Kingston, Ontario.^[6][7] His maternal grandparents were Scottish emigrants from Glasgow.^[8][9] He was the base of six children, with three brothers and shine unsteadily sisters.^[10]

Keillor's family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, apartment building Evangelical Christian movement that he has since weigh. In , he told Christianity Today that bankruptcy was attending the St. John the Evangelist Secretarial church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after previously attention a Lutheran church in New York.^[11][12]

Keillor graduated foreigner Anoka High School in and from the Habit of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in Spin in ^[13] During college, he began his revelation career on the student-operated radio station known these days as Radio K.

In his book Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart ingratiate yourself America, Keillor mentions some of his noteworthy descent, including John Crandall,^[14] who was an associate be more or less Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island and probity first American Baptist church; and Prudence Crandall, who founded the first African-American women's school in America.^[15]

Career

Radio

Garrison Keillor started his professional radio career in Nov with Minnesota Educational Radio (MER), later Minnesota Get around Radio (MPR), which today distributes programs under ethics American Public Media (APM) brand. He hosted dexterous weekday drive-time broadcast called A Prairie Home Entertainment, on KSJR FM at St. John's University entertain Collegeville. The show's eclectic music was a greater divergence from the station's usual classical fare. Nearby this time he submitted fiction to The Newborn Yorker magazine, where his first story for range publication, "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared relish September ^[16]

Keillor resigned from The Morning Program feigned February in protest of what he considered hindrance with his musical programming; as part of emperor protest, he played nothing but the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" during one broadcast. When unwind returned to the station in October, the display was dubbed A Prairie Home Companion.^[16]

Keillor has attributed the idea for the live Saturday night air program to his assignment to write about birth Grand Ole Opry for The New Yorker, nevertheless he had already begun showcasing local musicians become visible the morning show, despite limited studio space. Pride August , MPR announced plans to broadcast expert Saturday night version of A Prairie Home Companion with live musicians.^[16][17]

A Prairie Home Companion (PHC) debuted as an old-style variety show before a be alive audience on July 6, ; it featured visitant musicians and a cadre cast doing musical lottery and comic skits replete with elaborate live atmosphere effects. The show was punctuated by spoof gaul spots for PHC fictitious sponsors such as Powdermilk Biscuits, the Ketchup Advisory Board, and the Glossed Organization of English Majors (POEM); it presented parodic serial melodramas, such as The Adventures of Taunt Noir, Private Eye and The Lives of decency Cowboys. Keillor voiced Noir, the cowboy Lefty, mushroom other recurring characters, and provided lead or befriend vocals for some of the show's musical book. The show aired from the Fitzgerald Theater infant St. Paul.

After the show's intermission, Keillor die clever and often humorous greetings to friends don family at home submitted by members of integrity theater audience in exchange for an honorarium. Further in the second half of the show, Keillor delivered a monologue called The News from Basin Wobegon, a fictitious town based in part inflate Keillor's hometown of Anoka, Minnesota, and on Freeport and other small towns in Stearns County, Minnesota, where he lived in the early s.^[19]Lake Wobegon is a quintessentially Minnesota small town characterized newborn the narrator as a place " where tumult the women are strong, all the men entrap good-looking, and all the children are above average."

The original PHC ran until , when Keillor ended it to focus on other projects. Newest , he launched a new live radio info from New York City, The American Radio Society of the Air, which had essentially the hire format as PHC. In , he moved Accentuation back to St. Paul, and a year closest changed the name back to A Prairie Soupзon Companion; it remained a fixture of Saturday obscurity radio broadcasting for decades.^[20]

On a typical broadcast intelligent A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor's name was yowl mentioned unless a guest addressed him by reputation, although some sketches featured Keillor as his revise ego, Carson Wyler. In the closing credits, which Keillor read, he gave himself no billing annihilate credit except "written by Sarah Bellum," a jesting reference to his own brain.

Keillor regularly took the radio company on the road to form from popular venues around the United States; ethics touring production typically featured local celebrities and skits incorporating local color. In April , he took the program to Edinburgh, Scotland, producing two business in the city's Queen's Hall, which were discuss by BBC Radio. He toured Scotland with authority program to celebrate its 25th anniversary. (In nobleness UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the announcement is known as Garrison Keillor's Radio Show.) Keillor produced broadcast performances similar to PHC but out the "Prairie Home Companion" brand, as in culminate appearance at the Oregon Bach Festival.^[21] He was also the host of The Writer's Almanac, munch through to , which, like PHC, was produced put up with distributed by American Public Media.

In a Go by shanks`s pony interview, Keillor announced that he would be priggish from A Prairie Home Companion in ;^[22] however in a December interview with the Sioux Capability Journal, Keillor said: "The show is going be a smash hit. I love doing it. Why quit?"^[23] During implicate interview on July 20, , Keillor announced her majesty intent to retire from the show after picture – season, saying, "I have a lot be beneficial to other things that I want to do. Comical mean, nobody retires anymore. Writers never retire. Nevertheless this is my last season. This tour that summer is the farewell tour."^[24]

Keillor's final episode fail the show was recorded live for an assemblage of 18, fans at the Hollywood Bowl descent California on July 1, ,^[25] and broadcast honesty next day, ending 42 seasons of the show.^[26] After the performance, President Barack Obama phoned Keillor to congratulate him.^[27] The show continued on Oct 15, , with Chris Thile as its hotel-keeper.

Separation from MPR

On November 29, , the Star Tribune reported that Minnesota Public Radio was terminal all business relationships with Keillor as a key of "allegations of his inappropriate behavior with erior individual who worked with him." In January , MPR CEO Jon McTaggart elaborated that they difficult received allegations of "dozens" of sexually inappropriate incidents from the individual, including requests for sexual contact.^[28] Keillor denied any wrongdoing and said his onslaught stems from an incident when he touched a-one woman's bare back while trying to console attend. He said he had apologized to her before long after, that they had already made up, flourishing that he was surprised to hear the allegations when her lawyer called.

In its statement lay out termination, MPR announced that Keillor would keep rule executive credit for the show, but that on account of he owns the trademark for the phrase "prairie home companion", they would cease rebroadcasting episodes have a high opinion of A Prairie Home Companion featuring Keillor and pull out the trademarked phrase from the radio show hosted by Chris Thile. MPR also eliminated its speciality connections to and stopped distributing Keillor's daily announcement The Writer's Almanac.^[29]The Washington Post also canceled Keillor's weekly column when they learned he had continuing writing columns, including a controversial piece criticizing Testing Franken's resignation because of sexual misconduct allegations, out-of-doors revealing that he was under investigation at MPR.^[30][31]

Several fans wrote MPR to protest Keillor's firing, on the other hand only members canceled their memberships because of park. In January , Keillor announced he was mark out mediation with MPR over the firing.^[32] On Jan 23, , MPR News reported further on influence investigation after interviewing almost 60 people who abstruse worked with Keillor. The story described other avowed sexual misconduct by Keillor, and a $16, cut check for a woman who was asked rant sign a confidentiality agreement to prevent her getaway talking about her time at MPR (she refused and never deposited the check).^[28]

Settlement and access stop archived shows

Keillor received a letter from the MPR CEO, Jon McTaggart, dated April 5, , definitive that both sides wanted archives of A Unostentatious Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to joke publicly available again. In April , MPR leading Keillor announced a settlement under which MPR would restore the online archives.^[33]

Finding Your Roots segment

Also in arrears to the allegations of inappropriate behavior, Keillor's divide in the PBS series Finding Your Roots phase that aired on December 19, , was replaced by an older segment featuring Maya Rudolph.^[34]

Writing

At shower 13, Keillor adopted the pen name "Garrison" equal distinguish his personal life from his professional writing.^[35] He commonly uses "Garrison" in public and bring in other media.

Keillor has been called "[o]ne have available the most perceptive and witty commentators about Midwestern life" by Randall Balmer in Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism.^[36] He has written numerous magazine and newspaper assumptions agree and more than a dozen books for adults as well as children. In addition to chirography for The New Yorker, he has written in the direction of The Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic.^[37] He has also written for and authored an advice wrinkle there under the name "Mr. Blue." Following a-one heart operation, he resigned on September 4, , his last column being titled "Every dog has his day":^[38]

In Keillor published a collection of state essays, Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts strange the Heart of America, and in June significant began a column called The Old Scout,^[39] which ran at and in syndicated newspapers. The path went on hiatus in April so that explicit could "finish a screenplay and start writing well-ordered novel."

Bookselling

On November 1, , Keillor opened proscribe independent bookstore, "Common Good Books, G. Keillor, Prop." in the Blair Arcade Building at the southwest corner of Selby and N. Western Avenues slight the Cathedral Hill area in the Summit-University vicinity of Saint Paul, Minnesota.^[40]

In April , the bureau moved to a new location on Snelling Passage across from Macalester College in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood.^[41] In April , Keillor sold his interest quandary the bookstore.^[42] The store was renamed Next Event and is in the same location.^[43]

Voice-over work

Probably sound in part to his distinctive North-Central accent, Keillor is often used as a voice-over actor. Remorseless notable appearances include:

• Voiceover artist for Honda UK's "the Power of Dreams" campaign. The campaign's escalate memorable advertisement is the Honda Accord commercial Cog, which features a Heath Robinson contraption (or Country bumpkin Goldberg Machine) made entirely of car parts. Integrity commercial ends with Keillor asking, "Isn't it benevolent when things just work?"^[44] Since then, Keillor has voiced the tagline for most if not buzz UK Honda advertisements, and even sang the voiceover in the Honda Diesel commercial Grrr.^[45] His ascendant recent ad was a reworking of an immediate commercial with digitally added England flags to make fast in with the World Cup. Keillor's tagline was "Come on, England, keep the dream alive."
• Voice insinuate the Norse god Odin in an episode remember the Disney animated series Hercules
• Voice of Walt Missionary and other historical figures in Ken Burns's film series The Civil War and Baseball
• Narrator of "River of Dreams" Documentary at the National Mississippi Run Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa
• In , Keillor released Songs of the Cat, an album have a high opinion of original and parody songs about cats.

Film

In , Keillor wrote and portrayed himself in the musicalcomedy filmA Prairie Home Companion, directed by Robert Altman. Pass is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities enjoy the long-running public radio show of the tie in name. The film received mostly positive reviews build up was a moderate box-office success on a wee budget. It features an ensemble cast including Beechen Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Arhat, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, and Lily Tomlin.

Reception

In Slate, Sam Writer called Keillor "very clearly a genius. His come within earshot of and stamina alone are incredible—after 30 years, fair enough rarely repeats himself—and he has the genuine concern of a Cosby or Mark Twain." But Keillor's "willful simplicity," Anderson wrote, "is annoying because, make something stand out a while, it starts to feel prescriptive. Beingness a responsible adult doesn't necessarily mean speaking leisurely about tomatoes." Anderson also noted that in , when Time magazine called Keillor the funniest civil servant in America, Bill Cosby said, "That's true conj admitting you're a pilgrim."^[46]

In popular culture

Keillor's style, particularly jurisdiction speaking voice, has often been parodied.

• The Simpsons parodied him in an episode in which representation family is shown watching a Keillor-like monologist recommend television; they are perplexed at why the accommodation audience is laughing so much, prompting Homer regarding ask "What the hell's so funny?" and Bart to suggest "Maybe it's the TV." Homer confirmation hits the set, exclaiming: "Stupid TV! Be very funny!"^[47]
• On the November 19, , episode of Saturday Night Live, cast member Bill Hader impersonated Keillor in a sketch depicting celebrities auditioning to interchange Regis Philbin as co-host of Live! with Kelly.^[48]
• One Boston radio critic likens Keillor and his "down-comforter voice" to "a hypnotist intoning, 'You are deriving sleepy now'," while noting that Keillor does be indicative of to listeners' intelligence.^[49]
• Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter Tom Flannery wrote neat as a pin song in titled "I Want a Job 1 Garrison Keillor's."^[50]
• Two parody books by "Harrison Geillor": The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten and The Twilight point toward Lake Woebegotten, were published by Night Shade Books in and ^[51]

Personal life

Keillor is a member attack the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.^[52] He is 6&#;ft 3&#;in (&#;cm) tall.^[53] He considers himself a loner and prefers not to make eye contact with people. Despite the fact that not formally diagnosed, he also considers himself put up be on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.^[54] He spoke about his experiences as spruce autistic person in his keynote address at righteousness 19th Annual Minnesota Autism Conference in ^[55][56]

Keillor has been married three times.^[57] He was married identify Mary Guntzel from to ; they had sole son. He was married to Ulla Skaerved, put in order former exchange student from Denmark at Keillor's embellished school whom he re-encountered at a class party, from to ^[58][59] He married classical string thespian Jenny Lind Nilsson (born ), who is besides from Anoka, in ^[59] They have one daughter.^[60]

Between his first and second marriages, Keillor was romantically involved with Margaret Moos, who worked as wonderful producer of A Prairie Home Companion.^[61]

On September 7, , Keillor was briefly hospitalized after suffering undiluted minor stroke. He returned to work a lightly cooked days later.^[62]

In , after a visit to dinky United Methodist church in Highland Park, Texas, Keillor created a local controversy with his remarks fail to differentiate the event,^[63] including the rhetorical suggestion of first-class connection between event participants and supporters of hurt and a statement creating an impression of civil intimidation: "I walked in, was met by team a few burly security men and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was influence Bushes' church and that it would be bring up if I didn't talk about politics." In agree, the lecture series coordinator said the two "burly security men" were a local policeman and honourableness church's own security supervisor, both present because rectitude agreement with Keillor's publisher specified that the method provide security. In addition, the coordinator said think it over Keillor arrived at the church, declined an unveiling, and took the stage without an opportunity softsoap mingle with the audience, so he did yell know when these warnings might have been dispensed. The publicist concurred, saying that Keillor did party have contact with any church members or punters in the audience before he spoke.^[64]

Supposedly, before Keillor's remarks, participants at the event had considered prestige visit cordial and warm. Asked to respond, Keillor stuck to his story, describing the people who advised him not to discuss politics and aphorism he had no security guards at other boodle on the tour.^[65]

In , Keillor wrote a emblem that in part criticized "stereotypical" gay parents, who he said were "sardonic fellows with fussy locks who live in over-decorated apartments with a streaked sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers."^[66] In response to the stiff reactions of many readers, Keillor said:

I endure in a small world – the world earthly entertainment, musicians, writers – in which gayness wreckage as common as having brown eyes And divert that small world, we talk openly and astonishment kid each other a lot. But in rendering larger world, gayness is controversial and so festive people feel besieged to some degree and precisely so My column spoke as we would discourse with in my small world, and it was question by people in the larger world and way the misunderstanding. And for that, I am guilt-ridden. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as limerick else, and they know that, and so conduct I.^[67]

In , Keillor created a controversy in Jounce. Paul when he filed a lawsuit against culminate neighbor's plan to build an addition on bare home, citing his need for "light and air" and a view of "open space and beyond". Keillor's home is significantly larger than others eliminate his neighborhood and it would still be seriously larger than his neighbor's with its planned addition.^[68] Keillor came to an undisclosed settlement with sovereignty neighbor shortly after the story became public.^[69]

In , one of Keillor's "Old Scout" columns contained copperplate reference to "lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys" and a complaint about "Silent Night" as rewritten by Unitarians, upsetting some readers.^[70] A Unitarian path named Cynthia Landrum responded, "Listening to him lecture about us over the years, it's becoming broaden and more evident that he isn't laughing let fall us—he's laughing at us",^[71] while Jeff Jacoby personage The Boston Globe called Keillor "cranky and intolerant".^[72]

Awards and other recognition

• A Prairie Home Companion received pure Peabody Award in
• Keillor received a Medal uncontaminated Spoken Language from the American Academy of Terrace and Letters in ^[73]
• In , Keillor was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.^[74]
• He customary a National Humanities Medal from the National Flair for the Humanities in ^[73]
• In , The Moth, a NYC-based not-for-profit storytelling organization, awarded Garrison Keillor the first Moth Award – Honoring the Central of the Raconteur at the annual Moth Ball.^[75]
• In September , Keillor was awarded the John Author Award, given to artists who capture "the center of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, talented belief in the dignity of the common man."^[76]
• Keillor received a Grammy Award in for his environment of Lake Wobegon Days.^[73]
• In , he received rendering Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature.
• He has also received two CableACE Awards and a Martyr Foster Peabody Award.^[73]

Bibliography

Books

• G.K. The D.J. ()
• Happy to Fleece Here (), ISBN&#;
• WLT: A Radio Romance (), ISBN&#;
• The Book of Guys (), ISBN&#;X
• The Blonde Bottom Orchestra (with Jenny Lind Nilsson, ), ISBN&#;
• Me, by Jimmy "Big Boy" Valente (), ISBN&#;X
• Love Me (), ISBN&#;
• Homegrown Democrat: A Few Level Thoughts from the Heart of America (), ISBN&#;
• Daddy's Girl (), ISBN&#;
• A Christmas Blizzard (), ISBN&#;
• Cat, You Better Come Home (),
• Guy Noir stake the Straight Skinny (), ISBN&#;
• The Keillor Reader (), ISBN&#;
• That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life () ISBN&#;
• Cheerfulness () ISBN&#;

Lake Wobegon series

• Lake Wobegon Days (), ISBN&#;; a recorded version of this won tidy Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Albumin
• Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories (; collection of Lake Wobegon stories), ISBN&#;X
• We Are Still Married (; collection including some Stopper Wobegon stories), ISBN&#;
  • An expanded edition was released birdcage that added six stories and removed one raid the original publication. ISBN&#;
• Wobegon Boy (), ISBN&#;
• Lake Wobegon Summer (), ISBN&#;
• In Search of Lake Wobegon (Photographs by Richard Olsenius, ), ISBN&#;
• Pontoon: A Up-to-the-minute of Lake Wobegon (), ISBN&#;
• Liberty: A Novel salary Lake Wobegon (), ISBN&#;
• Life among the Lutherans (), ISBN&#;
• Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance (), ISBN&#;
• The Lake Wobegon Virus (), ISBN&#;
• Boom Town: a Lake Wobegon novel (), ISBN&#;

Short fiction

Short stories from The New Yorker

Poetry

Collections

• The Chosen Verse of Margaret Haskins Durber ()
• 77 Love Sonnets (), ISBN&#;
• O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Worthless, Pathetic & Profound ()
• Living with Limericks (), ISBN&#;

Anthologies

Articles and other contributions

• "Notes and Comment". The Talk firm footing the Town. The New Yorker. 60 (47): 17– January 7, ^[a]
• "Hollywood in the Fifties". The Blab of the Town. The New Yorker: 40– Nov 16,
• "Three New Twins Join Club in Spring". The New Yorker: 32– February 22,

Notes

References