Iowa author, historian has booth at state fair – offering free magazines with new subscriptions

Thursday, August 12th, 2010 | Iowa History Journal | No Comments

Mike Chapman, a well-known Iowa author and public speaker, will be appearing Aug. 12-22 at the Iowa State Fair, in the Iowa History Journal booth in the Ralph H. Diets Historical Museum. He will have copies of the magazine Iowa History Journal and many of his 22 books for sale.

A native of Waterloo, Chapman retired from a 35-year newspaper career in 2002 to devote his time to writing books. Among his published books are Lowell Park, a novel about Ronald Reagan as a lifeguard in Dixon, Illinois, in the summer of 1932, and Gotch: An American Hero, the story of the Humboldt, Iowa, native who was world heavyweight wrestling champion from 1908 to 1915.

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Tags: Iowa State Fair

Come Visit Mike at State Fair & Cattle Congress

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 | Iowa History Journal, Speaking | No Comments

Mike Chapman is a public speaker who has appeared at dozens of events the past several years, to talk about Iowa History Journal magazine in particular and Iowa history in general.

In the past year, he has given speeches in Des Moines, Marshalltown, Newton, Osage, Waterloo, Ankeny and Stanton, drawing rave reviews every where.

In the coming months, Mike will be appearing at the Iowa State Fair on August 12-22 and at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, September 16-19. You are invited to come meet Mike and his wife, Bev, and browse over the numerous books he has written (21 to date) and see the ten issues of Iowa History Journal that have been published so far. If you buy any of the books or magazines, Mike will be happy to sign them for you.

Both the books and the magazines make tremendous gifts for Iowans who live anywhere!

Click here to read dates and times…

Tags: Iowa State Fair, National Cattle Congress

Bill’s and Bob’s Field of Dreams

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 | Columns, Iowa History Journal | 1 Comment

Publisher’s Perspective – Volume 2, Issue 4 of Iowa History Journal

Iowa is well known in some circles as the home of “Field of Dreams” because the hit movie of that name was filmed on a picturesque farm near Dyersville. The 1989 film starred Kevin Costner as an Iowa farmer who saw ghost players come out of a cornfield to play on a baseball diamond he carved out of a pasture.

But in reality, there are two fields of dream in our great state. The first one was developed in the mid 1930s near Van Meter, on a farm owned by Bill Feller.

Through the years, I’ve been to both fields of dreams several times. Shoeless Joe Jackson was the star player of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox team that the Costner film focused on, and I created a Shoeless Joe Jackson poster in 1992 that has sold very well at the gift shop at the Dyersville movie site.

On May 26, I once again visited the “original” field of dreams, the one near Van Meter. I drove there with Scott Havick, the energetic and passionate director of the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter.

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Iowa History Journal Volume 2, Issue 4 Now Available

Friday, July 9th, 2010 | Iowa History Journal | No Comments

Iowa is known for the “Field of Dreams” movie starring Kevin Costner in which the ghosts of major league baseball players emerge from an Iowa cornfield near Dyersville. But the original “field of dreams” was built near Van Meter, in central Iowa, by Bill Feller and his son, Bob – who went on to become the greatest baseball player ever produced in this state!

This issue has a long feature article – written by Buck Turnbull, retired award-winning sportswriter of the Des Moines Register – on Bob Feller’s amazing career with the Cleveland Indians. Also, publisher Mike Chapman writes about the Fellers’ field of dreams and the beautiful Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter.

There is also Part Two of the John Wayne story, based in Winterset, Iowa.

The magazine has other outstanding articles on a wide range of topics – including Glenn Miller, king of the Big Band era; a magician from Marshalltown who was so famous that even Harry Houdini listened to him, and a forgotten Utopian society named the Icarians.

All of this plus columns by John McNeer and Arvid Huisman and a book review, Iowa History Quiz and What’s In a Name, telling about the historic past of Iowa’s third largest city, Davenport.

Read more to see what’s inside this issue…

Tags: Bob Feller, Field of Dreams, Glenn Miller, John Wayne