Frederick Feikema Manfred (1912-1994) | Heritage Hall, Hekman Library

Noted regionalist author, Frederick Feikema Manfred was born in Doon, Iowa on January 6, 1912. Raised in the Christian Reformed faith, Manfred attend Calvin College.  In 1937 Manfred worked at The Minnesota Journal as a sports reporter. In 1940 Manfred developed a case of tuberculosis and was sent to Glen Lake Sanatorium in Oak Terrace, Minnesota. It was there that Manfred met his bride-to-be, Maryanna Shorba. In 1942 Manfred became a staff member of Modern Medicine as well as an assistant campaign manager for Hubert Humphrey.

At the beginning of Manfred’s career as an author, he went under the pen name of Feike Feikema. However, after some poorly received books, he changed his name to Frederick Feikema Manfred in 1952. After his name change, his luck turned around with his five novel series of “The Buckskin Man Tales”. The first book in the series, Lord Grizzly, became a best seller and a finalists for the National Book Award in 1954. During the 1970s and 80s Manfred was a writer-in-residence at the University of South Dakota. Manfred passed away in 1994 due to a brain tumor.