Cedar Falls has been a community that values literature and supports local authors. From the beginning, it has placed a focus on literature, by building a library and documenting town history. The city and the University of Northern Iowa have created an atmosphere that supports authors and offers an idyllic setting for literature. Cedar Falls has been home to many prominent writers, and among them, several women writers. The presence of the University has brought authors to Cedar Falls, both in its faculty, and as visiting authors, and helped create a literary community. Cedar Falls is a community that has nurtured its literary culture. 

From the early days of Cedar Falls, its citizens have been a literary society. In 1859, Peter Melendy, who was instrumental in the development of Cedar Falls, helped found the Cedar Valley Horticultural and Literary Association. [1] The society developed into a private library association that the city began to run in 1877. The library was stored in an office above 2nd and Main Street, in the Overman Block, until 1872 when a fire destroyed all its contents. The citizens bought and donated books, so that, six years after the fire, the reconstituted library above 212 Main Street in the Union Block was home to over a thousand books.[2] Later in 1903, Andrew Carnegie donated $15,000 to the building a Cedar Falls library, and Sarah Dayton, the widow of a mill owner, donated the lot at 6th Street and Main Street, where the current Cedar Falls Public Library still stands. [3] 

On October 17, 1876, the Cedar Falls Parlor Reading Circle first met at the home of Mrs. A. G. Thompson.[4] The group gathered every other week to discuss various topics and assigned readings. Topics varied from lectures on shipbuilding to the works of Charles Dickens. According to Moses Bartlett, its members “desired more rational and profitable entertainment than is found in the average society gathering.”[5] Membership was limited to thirty, and was open to men and women. According to Moses Bartlett, “few towns…are more interested in social and intellectual culture than [Cedar Falls].”[6] 

Several citizens of Cedar Falls, first Peter Melendy and Roger Leavitt, and later Herb Hake, and Leland Sage, began a tradition of writing local history. Melendy wrote The Record of Cedar Falls (1893) which praised the town’s amenities. Roger Leavitt came to Cedar Falls in 1888 and witnessed much of the town’s development. He shared his memories in When Cedar Falls was Young (1928) and “Main Street” (1948).[7] Leavitt wrote to novelist Bess Streeter Aldrich to convince her to write a pioneer novel about her hometown. By sending her eighteen pounds of documents and letters, he inspired her to write Song of Years (1938). Herb Hake was a local historian, cartoonist, movie reviewer, radio broadcaster, and educator. He interviewed citizens of Cedar Falls and turned their memories of the town into 101 Stories of Cedar Falls (1977).[8] He also wrote on Iowa history. Leland Sage, a professor at the University, wrote a History of Iowa (1974). Throughout their lives and careers, Cedar Falls memoirists and local historians labored to share the past. 

The city of Cedar Falls makes for an idyllic setting. Writers Bess Streeter Aldrich, Ruth Suckow, James Hearst, and Nancy Price have used Cedar Falls as the setting for their works. Bess Streeter Aldrich based her Song of Years (1938) on the history of her pioneer grandfather, Zimri Streeter, who settled in Cedar Falls.[9] The main character in Miss Bishop (1933) is thought to be based on a professor from the University.[10] In the beginning of A Lantern in Her Hand (1928), Bess Streeter Aldrich uses Cedar Falls as the setting.[11] Ruth Suckow set all fictional stories in Iowa and was respected for the use of “regional realism.”[12] Renowned poet, James Hearst, spent his life in Cedar Falls writing poetry about Iowa farm life. He was known as “the Robert Frost of the Midwest,” for his use of the Midwestern landscape in his poetry. [13] Nancy Price set her best-selling novel Sleeping with the Enemy (1987) in Cedar Falls.[14] Robert Waller set Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (1993) in the town, as well.[15] Cedar Falls has been used as a setting for novels and poetry, by its resident authors. 

Cedar Falls is the birthplace of several famous authors. Bess Streeter Aldrich was born here in 1881, and became a very successful novelist in the 1920s and 1930s. Ronald Verlin Cassill (“R.V.”) was born in Cedar Falls in 1919.[16] He became known as a teacher of creative writing at Brown and Harvard. His textbook, Writing Fiction (1975), was widely used at universities. Cassill wrote over thirty novels under the name “R.V. Cassill,” such as Eagle on the Coin (1950), Clem Anderson (1961), and Dr. Cobb’s Game (1970).[17] 

There have been several famous women novelists from Cedar Falls. Bess Streeter Aldrich was the first prominent local female writer. Ruth Suckow wrote at least three novels and many more short stories while she lived in Cedar Falls from 1937 to 1947.[18] Resident Nancy Price became well-known after her 1987 book, Sleeping with the Enemy, was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts. 

The University of Northern Iowa is able to bring in scholars and creative intellectuals who benefit the community greatly. The University has hosted many speakers who were prominent authors. Kurt Vonnegut, Carlos Fuentes, Allen Ginsberg, Booker T. Washington, and Maya Angelou have all visited the University. The University has hired faculty who have written well-known novels, such as Nancy Price, the daughter of University President Malcolm Price, and Robert James Waller, author of Bridges of Madison County (1992). The University has certainly played a major role in the development of Cedar Falls literature. 

From the beginning of Cedar Falls, its citizens have valued literature in the libraries and Cedar Falls Parlor Reading Circle. The development of Cedar Falls has been well documented by passionate local historians and memoirists. The town’s support literature has led to its being home to a number of writers. Overall, Cedar Falls welcomes literature and the authors who write it.