Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.What follows is a second-hand Rock Island story; I was not there. It may be one of those stories that are true rather…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The Mississippi River Valley in which Rock Island nestles is lovely, but there is a lonely beauty, too, above the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Imagine what the view from Rock Island must have been like just before the Civil War, when some 1,500 steamboats a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Even in ancient Greece, professors were accused of having their heads in the clouds. Their places of work are still…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Of all the trees that inhabit the Mississippi River Valley, the most common are certainly the several species of willow…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I beg to differ with The New Yorker magazine. In their first issue in 1926, they announced that they were not writing…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The designer of the stage on which we Rock Islanders act out our lives—our seven parts—does good work, but he's awfully…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Three years ago, a colleague of mine bought a house in a small town south of Rock Island. When she decided to get a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.George Washington never slept here. You can't visit Rock Island and sleep in the same bed for an extra nine dollars a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Folks around Rock Island don't take much stock in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. None of those wonders did any…