Hamlin Garland, Prairie Radical"I am a reformer a radical a promoter of Democracy. . . . Hamlin Garland to Horace Traubel, 13 January 1892 As a self proclaimed native "son of the middle border" states of Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota, Hamlin Garland wrote short stories, novels, and essays about the harsh realities of farm life. At a time when rural romanticism was in literary vogue, he described conditions for midwestern farmers as they really were and