This spring, I once again had the privilege of packing the North Dakota Quarterly office into boxes in preparation for a move to another new office. This is always a treat because I get to learn how much NDQ’s archive weighs and how many reasonably sized boxes it takes to accommodate our small cache of back issues. It also reminds me that most of editing and publishing is putting books into boxes.

As if that wasn’t enough, I also started the process of going through various file cabinets that contain at least part of the NDQ document archive. One of the first documents that I found while going through an oak typing desk was a letter written in 1911 to NDQ readers. It promises readers: “vital, vigorous, original matter by far-sighted, broad-visioned, human-sympathied, scholarly men.”

The letter concludes with something of an exhortation: “We can be actually helpful. Shall you not cooperate? Will you not join us in making the Quarterly Journal a success — a worthy representative of the vigorous thought life of our great and promising Northwest.”