Northfield author returns to familiar ground with latest book 'Beyond Barron'

In short chapters accompanied by two dozen black and white photos, local author Daniel E. Van Tassel continues narrating the events of his life in a sequel of sorts. “Beyond Barron: A Memoir” combines humor and insight to record an indelibly stunning variety of lifetime experiences.

Van Tassel, a St. Olaf College graduate, with advanced degrees in literature from the University of Iowa, moved to Northfield in 2013, wife his wife Rhoda and daughter Abigail, who now lives two houses away.

Over coffee and pound cake in his Northfield living room, Van Tassel talked about writing, teaching, reflecting and the essence of memoir.

“This is my final book,” he said. “Now I’ve covered the seven decades of my life.”

With the publication of this last book by Sunbury Press, Inc., Van Tassel said he can relax and enjoy his daily mountain bike rides and time with his family and friends.

Now in his second retirement, Van Tassel is focusing on his upcoming Cannon Valley Elder Collegium poetry class which starts this week.

“What I like about CVEC courses, there are no papers, no exams,” he said. “We can just read, talk and learn together.”

Asked about looking back over a life that involved multiple moves across several states, Van Tassel said his life was “a potpourri” of odd juxtapositions and threads weaving a tapestry of experiences.

“The memoir fascinates like a kaleidoscope, revealing colorful scenes unique in their portrayal and at the same time catching up on stages of life know and lived by me, the identifying observer-author, and vicariously experience by the reader,” he writes in the book’s prologue.

His latest book starts where “Back to Barron,” published in 2008, leaves the reader. The 144-page volume chronicles the lives and adventures of a pair of academics whose numerous and diverse avocations enhanced their careers and family life, while also contains observations on universities attended, taught at, and visited; trips taken; houses bought and decorated; pets and vehicles cared for; and interests in architecture, literature, poetry, travel and carpentry explored.

Margaret Odell, Professor Emerita of Religion, St. Olaf College, said Van Tassel’s comprehensive survey was “a remarkable numbering of his days.”

“Not many of us take the time to review our lives, much less to trace the threads weaving in and out across our various pursuits,” said Odell. “...his contributions to college and university teaching and administration, his shared love of art and architecture with his wife Rhoda, their enthusiasm in building and renovating houses, zest for adventure, and not least, love for their children, friends, and numerous pets. With humility, humor and joy, Dan assembles memories of a life well lived.”

“Beyond Barron” follows the saga of attending three very different high schools, meeting Rhoda at a Fourth of July festival, falling in love, and getting married, before starting a life in academia that kept the family on the move.

Upon completing a grad degree at the University of Iowa, he takes an instructorship at Concordia College, while Rhoda becomes a “Cobber” and earns two more years toward her BA degree prior to the couple’s moving to California, and Chapman College for a year, where he teaches and she finishes her BA.

Between colleges and squeezed in during the summer, they indulge in a grand tour of Europe, which he chronicled in his 2022 book, “Journey by the Book.” Armed with a PhD and she an MA, they move to Pacific Lutheran University, where during his eleven-year tenure they have two children and build a house.

In vignettes, anecdotes, catalogs and annotated lists reminiscent of an epic, and as scenes in a drama, the book traces in bas-relief the Van Tassels’ scholarly, administrative, and pedagogical achievements, additional moves (to Muskingum College, in Ohio, later to Cal State San Marcos, and, upon retirement, back to Minnesota), and recreational activities, including acting in plays, u-picking fruit and harvesting organically-grown vegetables, skiing, swimming, and boating as well as numerous trips and adventures within the US and beyond.

Richard Waters emeritus minister, former bookstore owner and writer, called his friend’s latest book “a must read.”

“Dan is always in motion, learning, teaching, building, reflecting — and as traveling companions, we, too, learn and reflect,” Waters said. “’Beyond Barron’ is a reminder that having a place to return to, even if it’s only in our mind, is a luxury.”

If You Go The author will read and sign his latest book “Beyond Barron: A Memoir” at FiftyNorth, 1651 Jefferson Parkway, on Saturday, April 20 from 10-11:30 a.m. All three of Van Tassel’s books will be for sale. 054f226c-a0d0-4e29-899c-316791cd8de1