Student Companion to Willa Cather

233 Pages·2006·1.95 MB·English

by  Linda De Roche

Student Companion to
Willa
C
ATHER
Willa Cather. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Student Companion to
Willa
C
ATHER
Linda De Roche
Student Companions to Classic Writers
Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
De Roche, Linda.
Student companion to Willa Cather / Linda De Roche.
p. cm. — (Student companions to classic writers, ISSN 1522–7979)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0–313–32842–0 (alk. paper)
1. Cather, Willa, 1873–1947—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Cather, Willa,
1873–1947—Examinations—Study guides. I. Title. II. Series.
PS3505.A87Z624 2006
813’.54—dc22 2006002441
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2006 by Linda De Roche
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006002441
ISBN: 0–313–32842–0
ISSN: 1522–7979
First published in 2006
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Stéphane,
Who makes the journey worthwhile

Contents
Series Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 A Writer’s Life 1
2 Within and against Tradition: Willa Cather’s 21
Literary Career
3 A Writer’s Beginnings: The Troll Garden (1905) and 47
Alexander’s Bridge (1912)
4 “The Land beneath 67
Your Feet”: O Pioneers! (1913)
5 The Song of the Lark (1915) 89
6 My Ántonia (1918) 109
7 After “the World Broke in Two”: 135
The Professor’s House (1925)
8 Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) 155
9 Shadows on the Rock (1931) 177
CONTENTS
10 Coda 199
Selected Bibliography 201
Index 213
viii
Series Foreword
This series has been designed to meet the needs of students and
general readers for accessible literary criticism on the American and
world writers most frequently studied and read in the secondary
school, community college, and four-year college classrooms. Unlike
other works of literary criticism that are written for the specialist
and graduate student, or that feature a variety of reprinted scholarly
essays on sometimes obscure aspects of the writer’s work, the Student
Companions to Classic Writers series is carefully crafted to examine
each writer’s major works fully and in a systematic way, at the level
of the nonspecialist and general reader. The objective is to enable
the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the work and to apply
critical thinking skills to the act of reading. The proven format for the
volumes in this series was developed by an advisory board of teachers
and librarians for a successful series published by Greenwood Press,
Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Responding
to their request for easy-to-use and yet challenging literary criticism
for students and adult library patrons, Greenwood Press developed
a systematic format that is not intimidating but helps the reader to
develop the ability to analyze literature.
How does this work? Each volume in the Student Companions to
Classic Writers series is written by a subject specialist, an academic
who understands students’ needs for basic and yet challenging exam-