Baroque Nebraska

About the Book

Somewhere east of Laramie, south of Pierre, west of Ottumwa and north of Wichita lies a city unsurpassed in the magnificence of its baroque architecture.  It rivals Paris, Rome, Prague or Habsburg Vienna.  This city of Kuhlmannopolis was conceived by the 17th century Silesian visionary, chiliast, heresiarch, charlatan and first Poet Laureate of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Quirinus Kuhlmann, known for writing 1200 heroic couplets in twelve hours and for his invention of one machine for the writing of sonnets and another  for the teaching of all knowledge.

            BAROQUE NEBRASKA not only tells his story but takes the reader on a tour of the architectural wonders of his city.  Here are the monuments, churches, palaces, grain elevators and even the glass-walled Central Intelligence Agency building (spying in this society is always straightforward and open). All structures in Kuhlmannopolis are encrusted with gold. The great cathedral basilica, nearly as large as Saint Peter’s in Rome, was financed by the proceeds from a bake sale and a car wash.  The social clubs of the city are so exclusive that no one has ever applied for membership.  Also pictured are some of the world's most opulent railroad stations, from which one may take the trains of the Sioux City, Homer and Southern Electric Railway to Alaska, Chile, or ancient Greece or Rome.

            If you have been planning a trip to the magical Kuhlmannopolis, this will be your guidebook.  If you haven’t, reading this book may change your mind, especially if you have been drinking a fine old sherry while listening to Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov.  Then again, it may not.

About the Author

TOM KUHLMAN was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where in the 1940's he was thrilled to learn that the city's Terminal Tower was then the tallest building in the world outside New York.  He immediately began drawing great buildings, and continued to do so during class lectures at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he took an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Classical Languages, and at Brown, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in American Civilization and met his future wife, Mary Louise Haynes, whom he has dragged around the U.S., Europe and Central America to admire baroque architecture.

            During his three years of teaching at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., his delight in grand urban spaces increased.  He joined the faculty of Creighton University in Omaha in 1967 and is now an Associate Professor Emeritus, with a concentration in American Literature and Architectural History.  His sabbaticals, at the University of Kansas, the University of North Carolina, Carleton University in Ottawa and the American Academy in Rome, enabled him to continue his pursuit of the baroque.

            He has written five produced plays, fiction, and many essays.  Inspired by trips from Barcelona to Budapest, County Cork to Constantinople, he leads walking tours of Omaha and frequently gives lectures on Nebraska architecture, searching tirelessly for the magnificence he knows will be found on the Great Plains if only he can book passage on one of the Cunard liners which sail up (or down) the Platte, Niobrara and Dismal Rivers to Kuhlmannopolis.