The farmer's wife who raises a large family and cooks for them and makes their clothes and keeps house and on the side runs a truck garden and a chicken farm and a canning establishment, and thoroughly enjoys doing it all, and doing it well, contributes more to art than all the culture clubs. Often you find such a woman with all the appreciation of the beautiful bodies of her children, of the order and harmony of her kitchen, of the real creative joy of all her activities, which marks the great artist. The very best cooks I have ever known have been prima donnas. I must eat a great deal, and enjoy it. Many people seem to think that art is a luxury to be imported and tacked on to life.
Art springs out of the very stuff that life is made of.
Most of our young authors start to write a story and make a few observations from nature to add local color. The results are invariably false and hollow. Art must spring out of the fullness and the richness of life. This glorification of the old-fashioned housewife came very naturally from Willa Cather, chronicler of women with careers. It at least keeps the woman interested in something real.