Photo provided by the Fond du Lac Public Library
A longtime member of the Allied Authors was recently honored with an engraving on an unconventional monument.
Thomas P. Ramirez is one of six Wisconsin writers whose name appears on a new bicycle rack outside of the Fond du Lac Public Library. He is featured for his memoir, That Wonderful Mexican Band, published in 2017.
The book-themed rack was introduced as part of recent improvements to the library. When two standard bike racks had to be removed to accommodate a driveway redesign, library staff elected to replace them with a unique option that celebrates Fond du Lac writers from across the years and from a variety of genres.
The following works are represented on the rack (with abbreviated titles to fit the space):
- Foot of the Lake: An Early History of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin by Cindy Barden
- Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
- Fond du Lac: A Gift of the Glacier by Michael Mentzer
That Wonderful Mexican Band: A Memoir of The Great Depression by Thomas P. Ramirez- Extraordinary People: Understanding Savant Syndrome by Darold Treffert
- Secrets of the Ledge: Pictorial Report of Archaeological Findings on the Niagara Escarpment in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin by Dwight Weiser
The inclusion of That Wonderful Band is appropriate not only because the memoir so vividly captures Fond du Lac during The Great Depression, but because Ramirez specifically cites the Fond du Lac Public Library as one of his favorite childhood destinations.
Ramirez, 92, is also the author of 150 paperbacks and dozens of published short stories—including three popular Phoenix Force novels in the 1980s—making him among the state’s most prolific authors. He joined the Allied Authors in 1955.
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