The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-14

tensely satisfied with o Pioneers! you never for
moment expect more Of her-perhaps because it
does not seem as if to expect would be in any
way reasonable.
A year or SO passes You get hold of new
novel by her, as much thicker than 0 Pioneers! as
o Pioneers! was thicker than Alerander's Bridge
1t is called The Song of the Lark You eye it spec
ulatively. You start to read it confidently but
not breathlessly. And ere you are half way through
you know that she has excelled herself again.
From the wonder of these second and third
books, each much bigger than the one before, we
turn somewhat bewilderedy to the probable won
der of the woman who could-and did-write their
But here no wonder lies At least, you may read
the external record of VILLA SIBERT GATHER s life
and find nothing that fully, or even adequately,
explains her growth novelist. If there were
only hint But read through this bit of auto
biography and see if you can find any
Her Life Story.
''WHLA SIBERT GATHER was born near Winches-
ter Virginia the daughter of CHARLES FEcTGUE
GATHER and VIRGINIA SIBERT BEAK. Though the
Siberts were originally Alsatians and the Gathers
came from County Tyrone, Ireland, both families
had lived in Virginia for several generations.
When VILLA GATHER was years old her father
left Virginia and settled on ranch in Nebraska
in very thinly populated part of the State where
the acreage of cultivated land was negligible beside
the tremendous stretch of prairie There
very few American families in that district;
all the neighbors were Scandinavians, and ten
or twelve miles away there an entire township
settled by Bohemians
"For a child accustomed to the quiet and the
established order behind the Blue Ridge this change
was very stimulating. There was no school near
bopd md ~ of
ter and summer. She had a pony and rode about
the Norwegian and Bohemian settlements, talking
to the old men and women and trying to under
stand them. The first two years on the ranch were
probably more Important to her as writer than
any that came afterward.
after some preparation in the high school at
Red Cloud Nebraska, Miss GATHER entered the
State University of Nebraska, graduated at 10,
and Immediately went to Pittsburg and got po-
sition on the Pittsburg Leader. She telegraph
editor and dramatic critic on this paper for sew
eral years and then gave it up to take the place
of the head of the English department in the Allie
gheny High School.
"While she teaching in the Allegheny High
School she published her first book of verse April
TtRghts, and her first book of short stories, The
Troll Garden. The latter book attracted good
deal Of attention, and six months after it was pub
New York to accept position on the staff of Nc
Cture's Magazine. From 1908 until the autumn
of 1912 Miss GATHER was managing editor of Nc
Clure'S Magazine, and during these four years did
no writing at all. In the fall of 1912 she took a
house in Cherry Valley, New York, and wrote a
short novel, Alerander's Bridge, and novelette,,
The Bohemian Girl both of which appeared serially
in McClureS Magazine In the spring of 1918 Miss
GATHER went for long stay in Arizona and New
Mexico, penetrating to some of the many hardly
accessible Cliff Dweller remains and the remote
mesa cities Of the Pueblo Indians.
Miss GATHER has an apartment at 5 Bank street
in New York, where she lives in winter In the
summer she goes abroad or returns to the West.
This summer Q915) she refused a tempting offer
to write series of articles on the war situation in
Europe, to explore the twenty-odd miles of Cliff
Dweller remains that are hidden away in the south
west corner of Colorado, near Mancos and Du-
range"
The Secret Pops Out.
Very nice hut n TOLLS you pothip1 tbat vou Daad