HomePaul Legler, Author
Interview on Prairie Public Radio:
What People Are Saying:
"A former lawyer and policy adviser in President Bill Clinton's administration, Paul Legler has turned to writing fiction. I hope his compelling second novel, "Half the Terrible Things," brings attention to him and to North Dakota State University Press. Legler bases the book on occurrences leading to Tabert's brutal death by whipping in 1922 at a convict labor camp, a tragedy that led to prison reform in Florida . . . Legler convincingly renders early-20th-century North Dakota farm life . . . its historical breadth alone is impressive. - StarTribune
“The story is a hybrid of documentary and fiction, depicting the true story of a young North Dakota farmer named Martin Tabert, who left home to see the world and wound up in a convict labor camp in North Florida, where he was whipped to death . . . The book is meticulously researched and written in a clear, accessible, no-nonsense style . . . an important story about a despicable chapter in U.S. history and a reminder of what happens when we dehumanize ‘the other’.” - Historical Novel Society Magazine, November 2021.
"Paul Legler, a North Dakota native and a former lawyer turned author, has taken a dark, ugly incident from North Dakota’s history and woven it into a fascinating story of romance, suspense, and human emotion." -- Maralee Kalianoff, Off the Bookshelf
"Nearly a century ago, a young man from Munich, N.D., died a violent death in the swamps of Florida creating the backdrop for a story that spans decades by Paul Legler. The book is considered true-crime fiction because it is based on the actual events of the death of Martin Tabert, who left his home in North Dakota to see the world in the 1920s. He is pulled from a train in Dixie County, Florida, and charged with vagrancy." Jamestown Sun