Dean Robbins and his book 'Wisconsin Idols.'
Dean Robbins knows a little something about heroes. He’s built his career as an author writing popular picture books — 13 and counting! — about the likes of vaccine genius Jonas Salk, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Malala Yousafzai, the youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize. Now, with his first book for adult readers, Robbins is turning his attention to even more heroes.
In Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) Robbins presents short, well researched and highly readable essays about the men and women who have inspired him — including magician and onetime Appleton resident Harry Houdini, who captured his imagination as a second-grader growing up in St. Louis. The catch: Each hero presented in the book must have a significant Wisconsin connection and have made a transformative impact on the broader world.
If you know Robbins, you can hear his voice and personality loud and clear in nearly every one of these 100 pieces; if you don’t know him, you’ll feel like you do after reading this book. (Robbins, 67, is a former editor-in-chief at Isthmus.)
“I’ve always been fascinated by people who’ve shown exceptional courage, integrity and vision,” says Robbins — noting a framed photograph in his office portraying one of his biggest heroes, Jackie Robinson, stealing home. “With this essay collection, I feel like I had a chance to provide a personal perspective on dozens of heroic figures in my own backyard.”
The opening chapter is about Joni Mitchell and the ethereal black-and-white images of her ice skating on Lake Mendota that were featured in the artwork for her 1976 Hejira album. The final entry centers on Chia Youyee Vang, a vice chancellor at UW-Milwaukee and chronicler of the Hmong in America. In between, Robbins covers a broad mix of obvious and not-so-obvious “melody makers,” “creators,” “scene stealers,” “champs,” “boundary breakers” and “thinkers” (as they are categorized in the table of contents).
Robinson is here, with a story partially set at Milwaukee County Stadium. So are Caroline Quarlls, who escaped enslavement in St. Louis in 1842 via eastern Wisconsin’s Underground Railroad; Madison-born Jeffrey Erlanger, a disability-rights activist who as a 10-year-old appeared on a paradigm-shifting 1981 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; and Meinhardt Raabe, the UW-Madison business major who achieved lasting fame as the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz.
Many essays are punctuated with personal anecdotes. But nowhere does Robbins get more personal than in his essay about Madison native, Edgewood High School graduate and Saturday Night Live icon Chris Farley. The comedian, who got his start with the sketch-comedy troupe Ark Improv in its tiny Madison theater, died in 1997 at age 33 after a drug and alcohol binge. Farley was laid to rest in a chapel at Madison’s Resurrection Cemetery. Robbins writes, “It’s down the street from where I live now, and I occasionally wander in to pay my respects. Like Ark Improv’s converted garage, the place feels way too small for him.”
With its diverse mix of memorable and inspiring stories, Wisconsin Idols emerges as a balm for these troubled times.
“I think heroes show humanity at its best, providing hope for the rest of us,” Robbins says. “Right now, we desperately need role models. We’re so often confronted with the worst people can be. I hope Wisconsin Idols shows examples of the best that we can be.”
Dean Robbins will discuss Wisconsin Idols with Madison journalist Doug Moe at Mystery to Me on April 15 at 6 p.m.
