Mari Sandoz in Lincoln

Mari Sandoz (1896-1966), a Nebraska historian and novelist, lived at 1226 J Street from 1925 to 1937. There in 1928, she began writing Old Jules, a biography of her father. From the J Street curb, she often wrote while watching construction of the capitol, completed in 1932. That same year, she submitted Old Jules to the Atlantic Monthly Press nonfiction contest, but it was rejected seven months later. Frustrated, she burned more than 70 short stories behind the house, and in January 1934 she began work for the Nebraska State Historical Society on the ninth floor of the capitol. In 1935, she revised Old Jules for the Atlantic Press contest. Two days before the deadline, the manuscript fell into a scrub bucket, but with the help of friends she managed to retype it. On June 13, 1935, she received a telegram at the capitol that Old Jules had won the first-place, $5,000 prize. Its publication afterward launched her prolific writing career.

Lincoln, Nebraska · United States