Zdena Irma Trinka was born in November 1888 in Bohemia.  Miss Trinka attended the Lidgerwood, N.D. public schools and also a ladies finishing school in Europe. In 1913 after studying library science at Valley City State College, Miss Trinka became the first librarian at the Lidgerwood Public Library. In 1920 she became head librarian at Dickinson, North Dakota. There she began writing a chronological history of North Dakota for use in public schools resulting in two books, North Dakota of Today and Out Where the West Begins. About 1936 she went to Europe on a journalistic assignment staying two years and dividing her time between Paris and Prague. The result of her stay was Jenik and Marenka, a Boy and Girl of Czechoslovakia. For this book, she was officially invited to visit Czechoslavokia in 1938. While there she escaped out of the country just prior to the German invasion. In 1940 she published Medora and Home Sweet Home in 1942
 

The Trinka Papers consist of biographical material, a letter, several manuscripts, and material from the Shepherd Correspondence School of Contest Technique through which Miss Trinka studied for a short time in 1949. The biographical file is quite good with newspaper, magazine and book articles as well as the Who's Who Supplement sketch. 
 

Literary, Music and Theater  |  Women