My dad’s writing

 

Lawrence Albert Marsden was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in May of 1919. His mom was hurried there with pregnancy complications, and the two returned to live with his Aunt Vi in Luverne. My father’s dad had died in the flu epidemic of 1918 in November.

Among all of the aspirations Dad had and acted upon, writing was high on the list. He wrote about his experiences in the South Pacific during WWII in Attack Transport, that was published by the University of Minnesota Press but did not sell well. He later rewrote the book and added a second part covering the rebirth of the USS Doyen, the ship he served on, after the war. The ship was scheduled for the scrap yard, but was refitted as a floating classroom, and renamed the Bay State.

That book is The Gemini Ship, and was self-published.

Some copies of each are attainable online.

My dad died in June of 2005, and my mother, in July of 2010. Rummaging through their belongings, we came across quite a bit of writing. My daughter has committed to scan each document for the family.

The following is the first of what should be a longer list to come of selections written by my dad. The final listing is something my grandmother, Carrie Ross Marsden, wrote about her father. Dad, I think, was so embarrassed over the story that he never shared it with us, his children.

• Luverne: The Great Depression
• Dad’s bio
• Carrie Ross Marsden’s story about her father