On Second Thought was first published in 1946.NOW book editor of the Chicago Daily News, James Gray has during the past two decades interpreted the literary scene for Midwest readers in entertaining daily columns for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch.ON SECOND THOUGHT rescues much of his best work from the oblivion of newsprint. It combines the opinions thrown off at white heat to meet five o’clock deadlines and those born of quiet contemplation and reflection over the years. The result is a book in which the critic emerges as a creative artist and the journalist as a discerning historian of literature.James Gray’s writing is good reading and no matter how seriously and energetically he may be tracing the course of a writer’s universality and talent, he cannot resist the delight of an apt, sparkling, or sagacious phrase. Nor can the reader resist a chuckle of appreciation and pleasure in the author’s own poised prose.The reader gets a sense of immediacy from James Gray’s compact style, but also feels that here is a critic we can trust - one who probes keenly and wisely, one who lucidly traces the unobserved currents connecting headline to headline.ON SECOND THOUGHT is an extraordinarily complete and vivid panorama of contemporary literature and of the writers who have created it. Over 50 modern authors are here reviewed, from our American Nobel prize winners, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, and Pearl Buck, and the “garrulous” English uncles, Arnold Bennett, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and John Galsworthy, to the “half-gods on the threshold,” Feike Feikema, Ann Chidester, Carson McCullers, and Wallace Stegner.Author in his own right of both fiction and nonfiction, Gray has also written many short plays for little-theater groups and has served as consultant for Warner Brothers. His published titles include the novels Shoulder the Sky, Wake and Remember, Wings of Great Desire, and Vagabond Path. He has contributed The Illinois to the “Rivers of America,” and Pine, Stream, and Prairie to “The American Scene.” ON SECOND THOUGHT is his first volume of literary criticism.

Business Without Boundary was first published in 1954. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

The firm of General Mills is probably best known to millions of people as the maker of Gold Medal Flour and as the progenitor of that first lady of the kitchen and the airwaves, Betty Crocker. But, although its greatest fame is as a flour miller, the company engages in a host of other activities that attest to the foresight and creative thinking of its executives. In fact, the sky seems to be the only limit as the company extends its sights upward in Operation Skyhook, a United States navy research project for which General Mills makes and launches into the stratosphere giant plastic balloons.

James Gray relates not only the history of General Mills since its founding in 1928 but also the background of the major companies that merged to form the larger corporation: the Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis, the Sperry Company of San Francisco, the Kell group of Texas and Oklahoma mills, and the Larrowe Milling Company of Detroit.

Anyone interested in advertising and promotion will find fascinating the accounts of the early successes in radio advertising, including the first use of singing commercials and the phenomenal rise of Betty Crocker (voted the second best-known woman in America!) The scientific and technical research that is a cornerstone of the modern corporation is described in detail, as is the development of the products control method, a General Mills innovation now widely adopted in industry.

For those curious to understand how business expands, for those interested in a close-up of industrial leaders, for anyone who wants to sharpen his view of America at work, this is an important book.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was first published in 1967. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Education for Nursing was first published in 1960. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.In the history of nursing in modern times, the University of Minnesota School of Nursing has played a distinguished and significant role as the first training center of its kind sponsored by an institution of higher learning. James Gray tells the story of this pioneering educational experiment in a perceptive and highly readable account.When the Minnesota School was established in 1909, nursing was just beginning to emerge from its status as humble handmaiden to the medical profession. A highly articulate group of leaders among nurses themselves in that period began to insist on the importance of giving the student a broad background in biological science and a full experience in clinical practice. At this same time, there happened to be a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota medical school, Dr. Richard Olding Beard, who believed in the importance of well-prepared nurses in the campaign for better health. Along with the dean of the medical school, Dr. Elias P. Lyon, he worked steadily to create at Minnesota a system of instruction which would fit a carefully selected candidate to assume an ever increasing share of responsibility for patient care. A fortunate selection of directors has kept the Minnesota School of Nursing well in the forefront of study, experiment, and innovation in methods of instruction. The school has, from its start, assumed leadership for the improvement of nursing education and it looks forward to an equally important responsibility in providing the profession with workers in the research field.

John Steinbeck - American Writers 94 was first published in 1971. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.