Title: On the divide : the many lives of Willa Cather /
Authors: Porter, David H., 1935-
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Cather, Willa,; Novelists, American Biography
Abstract: "On the Divide analyzes the iconic image that Cather helped develop for herself, in contrast to the anonymous face she adopted for promotional activities and the very different private self she shared only with friends and family. Delving into Cather's correspondence and the little-known promotional material she produced anonymously, David Porter provides new insight into the extent - and direction - of her control. He also considers the contrasting influences of Mary Baker Eddy whose biography Cather ghostwrote, and Sarah Orne Jewett on the author's emerging artistic persona. The study goes on to explore the many ways in which these "divides" in Cather's life found expression in her writing. Extending from Cather's early stories to her final novel, Porter's book documents the degree to which Cather's understanding of her own different and often-conflicting sides, and of her penchant for playing diverse roles, enabled her as a novelist to create characters so torn, so complex, and so profoundly human."--Jacket.
Contents: Cather on Cather. Three Autobiographies and an (Auto) interview ; Dust-Jacket Copy -- Entering the Kingdom of Art. The Quest to Excel ; Cather Caught in the Eddy ; Two Alter Egos -- At Home on the Divide. O Pioneers! and My Autobiography ; The Song of the Lark ; My Ántonia -- Confronting Medusa. "Hard and Dry" ; Youth and the Bright Medusa ; One of Ours -- "The Seeming Original Injustice". A Lost Lady ; The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett ; The Professor's House ; My Mortal Enemy -- Recapitulation. Cather Talks with Cather -- "In the End Is My Beginning". Death Comes for the Archbishop ; Fiction of the 1930s ; Cather, Jewett, and Not Under Forty ; Sapphira and the Slave Girl.