N Street

Nason Pl. Riel Nason is a Canadian novelist. Her debut novel, The Town That Drowned, published in 2011 by Goose Lane Editions, won the Commonwealth Book Prize for the Canadian and European region in 2012.

Nebraska Ave. Malcolm X ( May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska. The Autobiography of Malcolm X  was originally published in 1965 with the continuation of the title reading “as told to Alex Haley.” It was republished in 1999 with the title reading “with the assistance of Alex Haley.”

Neid Ln. Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power." She is the author of Neid  which is available to read only on her website.

Neill St. John  Neill (1877 - 1943) was a magazine and children's book illustrator primarily known for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz, including L. Frank Baum's, Ruth Plumly Thompson's, and three of his own. His pen-and-ink drawings have become identified almost exclusively with the Oz series.

Nelson St. Rolihlahla  "Nelson" Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. "Nelson" was the name assigned to him by his British teachers. This alternate connection to Nelson Street seems appropriate as the original connection was to Benjamin Franklin Nelson, a soldier in the Confederate army (thanks to Donald Empson and his book, The Street Where You Live for this information). This author thinks political correctness can be stifling but he also thinks enemies of his country should not be honored with street names. The Nelson street named for the Confederate is the one in the state fairgrounds. There is another Nelson street near Battle Creek but it is named for a former mayor of Saint Paul. Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela, abridged by Chris van Wyk and illustrated by Paddy Bouma is the children’s picture book version of Mandela’s autobiography of the same name.

Nevada Ave. Alta Gerrey (born 1942) is a  poet, prose writer, and publisher. She is best known as the founder of the feminist press Shameless Hussy Press and editor of the Shameless Hussy Review. Her 1980 collection The Shameless Hussy won the American Book Award in 1981. She was born in Reno, Nevada.

Newcomb St. Barbara T. Newcombe is a contributor to The North Star State: A Minnesota History Reader  edited by Anne J. Aby and published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2002.

Niles Ave. Blair Niles (1880 - 1959) was an American novelist and travel writer. She was a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers.

Nina St. Subtext Books is an independent bookstore located beneath Nina’s Coffee Shop at the corner of Western and Selby Ave. in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Nina’s is pronounced with a long i sound. The coffee shop is named for Nina Clifford who ran a brothel in Saint Paul from 1889-1929. Don Empson’s book tells us that the street is not named for her. The bookstore announced plans in March, 2015, to move into an aboveground space at the St. Paul Building, 6 West 5th Street.

Ninth St. The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, (sometimes known simply as "Beethoven’s Ninth"), is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Beethoven by Lene Mayer-Skumanz is a 2007 children’s book about Beethoven with an accompanying musical CD.

Nokomis Ave. Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. Longfellow's poem was not about the historical Hiawatha. The original Hiawatha was a member of the Iroquois Confederacy in precolonial (1500's) North America. He was a follower of the Huron "Great Peacemaker." Hiawatha's family had been slaughtered by a member of another tribe. The custom at the time among many tribes in that area was to seek revenge by killing  family members of the offender. Hiawatha went into the forest for a year. He came out with a message for the tribes to practice forgiveness and to stop revenge killing. This was a radical change for the times and clearly an inspiration for future peacemakers. Longfellow's intent was to turn the story into a Christianized version and remove as much of  the native story as he could.    Albert L. Murray (1916 – 2013) was an African-American literary and jazz critic, novelist, essayist and biographer. He was born in Nokomis, Alabama. He attended Tuskegee Institute and became friends with the author of Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison.

Norbert Ln. The Great Monster Hunt is a young children’s picture book by Norbert Landa, published in 2010.

Norfolk Ave. Boudica was the scourge of the occupying Roman Army in first century Britain and queen of the Iceni, a British tribe. She lived in the area now known as Norfolk, England. She gets a chapter in Ten Queens: Portraits of Women of Power by Milton Meltzer and published in 1998.

Norpac Rd. Named for the Northern Pacific Railroad (now Burlington Northern). The Northern Pacific in Minnesota, by John C. Luecke and published in 2005 tells the history of the railroad. Speaking of trains, the Twin City Model Railroad Museum at Bandana Square, 1021 Bandana Blvd, Saint Paul, is worth a visit. The original site of the Children's Museum was adjacent to the museum. The two sites made a fun visit with kids. This author particularly misses the Peter Rabbit Garden in the old Children's Museum. Another train site worth checking out is the Jackson Street Roundhouse located on 193 Pennsylvania Ave E, Saint Paul. The museum is worth a visit. There are one or two books about trains. One of this author's favorites is the picture book, Freight Train, by Donald Crews.

Norris Circle The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica is a 2001 children’s book  written by Kathleen Norris (born 1947) and illustrated by Tomie De Paola.

North Park Dr.

North St. North (1975) is a collection of poems written by Irish poet, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Norton St. Mary Norton, (1903 – 1992), was an English author of children's books. She is best known for the The Borrowers series of low fantasy novels (1952 to 1982), which is named for its first book and, in turn, for the tiny people who live secretly in the midst of contemporary human civilisation.

Nortonia Ave. The Nortonia Hotel was an elegant hotel in Portland, Oregon. It was built in 1908 and is now known as the Mark Spencer Hotel. It merits mention in this book simply because the author lived in Portland and has many fond memories of the city. Nortonia braunsii is a type of wasp in Africa. How it became the name of a fancy hotel is anyone's guess. A good book with "wasp" in the title is A Severed Wasp: A Novel by Madeleine Engel of  A Wrinkle in Time fame.

Nugent St. Cynthia Nugent is a children’s book illustrator. She has a number of books about a real-life cat who walked into the Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, and stayed. Mister Got to Go: The Cat Who Wouldn't Leave was authored by Lois Simmie and published in 2003. Minnesota has its own “cat-in-a-hotel” story. Sadly the hotel is no longer but at one time in Wabasha, Minnesota, you could stay at the Anderson House and ask for a cat to spend the night with you. You can still read about it in Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat by Jean Davies Okimoto and published in 1990. This author and his wife took their two young children there in the 1990’s. The children loved it. All night. Which means no one got any sleep.

Nussbaumer Dr. Frederick Nussbaumer was the superintendent of St. Paul Parks from 1891-1922. He gets a mention in History of the Parks and Public Grounds of St. Paul by Peabody Lloyd and published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2009.