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Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather
“Chasing Bright Medusas should appeal to anyone — novice or expert — ready to explore Cather’s life and work in the company of a critic so alert to the shimmering subtlety of her style and the hard years of effort that went into crystallizing it.” —The Washington Post
A tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work
The story of Willa Cather is defined by a lifetime of determination, struggle, and gradual emergence. Some show their full powers early, yet Cather was the opposite—she took her time and transformed herself by stages. The writer who leapt to the forefront of American letters with O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918) was already well into middle age. Through years of provincial journalism in Nebraska, brief spells of teaching, and editorial work on magazines, she persevered in pursuit of the ultimate goal—literary immortality.
Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, her idealism was unironic, and she stood alone among the great modern authors—at odds with the fashionable attitudes of her time. Combining intricate analysis with an empathetic, lyrical voice, Benjamin Taylor uncovers the reality of Cather’s artistic development, from modest beginnings to the triumphs of her mature years. His book is simultaneously an homage to her character, a warm consideration of her work, and a case being made to read Cather with renewed vigor.
A tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work
The story of Willa Cather is defined by a lifetime of determination, struggle, and gradual emergence. Some show their full powers early, yet Cather was the opposite—she took her time and transformed herself by stages. The writer who leapt to the forefront of American letters with O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918) was already well into middle age. Through years of provincial journalism in Nebraska, brief spells of teaching, and editorial work on magazines, she persevered in pursuit of the ultimate goal—literary immortality.
Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, her idealism was unironic, and she stood alone among the great modern authors—at odds with the fashionable attitudes of her time. Combining intricate analysis with an empathetic, lyrical voice, Benjamin Taylor uncovers the reality of Cather’s artistic development, from modest beginnings to the triumphs of her mature years. His book is simultaneously an homage to her character, a warm consideration of her work, and a case being made to read Cather with renewed vigor.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 14, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
November 6, 2024
A well-written biography offers considerable insight into the meaningful experiences, relationships & motivation that frame an author's narratives & the characters developed to move them forward. Benjamin Taylor's Chasing Bright Mendusas: A Life of Willa Cather represents a fairly brief but excellent overview of the life of one of America's most revered writers.
Having red 3 novels by Willa Cather, I wanted to delve into the author's life & how it influenced her prose. With Cather having been transplanted from the east coast to Nebraska at an early age, we are told that "All my stories have been written with the material that was gathered--not just gathered but absorbed--before I was 15 years old."
Her biographer comments that:
Willa Cather grew up in a prairie town in Nebraska, studied classics & literature at that state's newly formed university in Lincoln, worked as a journalist in Nebraska before heading east, first to Pittsburgh, serving as managing editor for McClure's Magazine, eventually settling into a writing career in Manhattan. A key early influence was the Maine author, Sarah Orne Jewett.
She thrived in New York's cultural milieu, while continuing to savor & to draw from her childhood experiences on the Midwest prairie. As a footnote, having no children of her own, Cather befriended a young Yehudi Menuhin, remaining close to the brilliant violinist & his family until her death.
Perhaps, the translation lifted from the Latin quote in My Ántonia , a work I've recently read & reviewed, "The best days are soonest gone" suggests Cather's stance on life. Similarly, another translated quote from Virgil's Georgics, conveys Cather's dedication to portraying that life in her novels, "I shall be the first to bring the Muse into my country."
Cather emboldens nature, with thunder "loud & metallic, like the rattle of sheet iron & lightening breaking in great zigzags across the heavens." At the same time, she renders some life-changing human events almost commonplace, as when Ántonia delivers her firstborn (out-of-wedlock) child:
Often, in Cather's work, we encounter characters who are best-described as asexual. Many readers & critics trouble over Willa Cather's own sexuality or lack of it, especially since she is wont to pattern a male character for a role that rather clearly represents the author, as she did via the character of Jim in My Antonia.
Her biographer tells us that for Cather, "sex is often the worm in the apple." When younger, Willa Cather took to dressing in male garb, while calling herself, William. The love of her life seemed to be Isabelle McClurg, whose marriage greatly distressed Ms. Cather. However, all of this seems an unnecessary distraction to the enjoyment of Cather's fiction.
Much of Chasing Bright Mendusas concerns itself with the role of memory, with Cather's biographer quoting T.S. Eliot's remark that "we live not just in the present but in the present moment of the past, past & present being the warp & weft of all experience."
Benjamin Taylor goes on to provide the reader with words that I feel encapsulate so very much about what authors attempt to do: "Writing represents the transubstantiation of memory into art". I can't imagine a better rendering of what writers aim to do!
For those who have found Willa Cather's novels memorable, I highly recommend Benjamin Taylor's insightful biography.
*Within my review are a photo image of biographer, Benjamin Taylor and 2 images of Willa Cather.
Having red 3 novels by Willa Cather, I wanted to delve into the author's life & how it influenced her prose. With Cather having been transplanted from the east coast to Nebraska at an early age, we are told that "All my stories have been written with the material that was gathered--not just gathered but absorbed--before I was 15 years old."
Her biographer comments that:
Temperament is established early & does not change. What is most striking is the catalytic role of experience on temperament. It was an ever-expanding knowledge of the world that would propel her to greatness.With this in mind, Benjamin Taylor sees Cather as an anti-modernist and quotes her as declaring to publisher Alfred Knopf: "If all the great loyalties are utter lies--why then, they are ever so much better than the truth."
For Cather, Nebraska served as a place where refugees from old, sad countries were given another chance. What sets her apart from her younger contemporaries--Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos--is that her idealism about the American possibility was unironic.
Willa Cather grew up in a prairie town in Nebraska, studied classics & literature at that state's newly formed university in Lincoln, worked as a journalist in Nebraska before heading east, first to Pittsburgh, serving as managing editor for McClure's Magazine, eventually settling into a writing career in Manhattan. A key early influence was the Maine author, Sarah Orne Jewett.
She thrived in New York's cultural milieu, while continuing to savor & to draw from her childhood experiences on the Midwest prairie. As a footnote, having no children of her own, Cather befriended a young Yehudi Menuhin, remaining close to the brilliant violinist & his family until her death.
Perhaps, the translation lifted from the Latin quote in My Ántonia , a work I've recently read & reviewed, "The best days are soonest gone" suggests Cather's stance on life. Similarly, another translated quote from Virgil's Georgics, conveys Cather's dedication to portraying that life in her novels, "I shall be the first to bring the Muse into my country."
Cather emboldens nature, with thunder "loud & metallic, like the rattle of sheet iron & lightening breaking in great zigzags across the heavens." At the same time, she renders some life-changing human events almost commonplace, as when Ántonia delivers her firstborn (out-of-wedlock) child:
That very night, she got the cattle home, turned them into the corral, went into the house, into her room behind the kitchen, and without calling to anybody, without a groan, she lay down on the bed & bore her child.At least for me, there seems a wonderfully universal spirit in Cather's Nebraska-rooted books, including Oh Pioneers, as there is also in what is perhaps her best-regarded novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, published in 1927, a memorable tale set among Roman-Catholic clergy in New Mexico, a chronicle that also includes Kit Carson, Pope Gregory XVI & a very sympathetic portrayal of Hopi & Navajo Indians, quite a departure from Cather's Nebraska-based roots.
Often, in Cather's work, we encounter characters who are best-described as asexual. Many readers & critics trouble over Willa Cather's own sexuality or lack of it, especially since she is wont to pattern a male character for a role that rather clearly represents the author, as she did via the character of Jim in My Antonia.
Her biographer tells us that for Cather, "sex is often the worm in the apple." When younger, Willa Cather took to dressing in male garb, while calling herself, William. The love of her life seemed to be Isabelle McClurg, whose marriage greatly distressed Ms. Cather. However, all of this seems an unnecessary distraction to the enjoyment of Cather's fiction.
Much of Chasing Bright Mendusas concerns itself with the role of memory, with Cather's biographer quoting T.S. Eliot's remark that "we live not just in the present but in the present moment of the past, past & present being the warp & weft of all experience."
Benjamin Taylor goes on to provide the reader with words that I feel encapsulate so very much about what authors attempt to do: "Writing represents the transubstantiation of memory into art". I can't imagine a better rendering of what writers aim to do!
For those who have found Willa Cather's novels memorable, I highly recommend Benjamin Taylor's insightful biography.
*Within my review are a photo image of biographer, Benjamin Taylor and 2 images of Willa Cather.
December 29, 2023
A wonderfully guided stroll through the life, with focused context on each of her books in order. As a Cather enthusiast, it read to me like a love letter from a fellow (and more knowledgeable) fan. I appreciated the brevity and commentary. Now I want to revisit or read the entirety of her canon. Highly recommend!
April 11, 2025
I didn’t plan to read this but it rather fell into my lap after listening to the first Close Reads podcast episode on O Pioneers! It’s a quick yet compelling jaunt through Willa’s life and work and I loved it. Benjamin Taylor clearly loves Willa’s work and finds her inspiring as a person. She does seem like a quality human being and believed so strongly in ideals and nobility. She wanted to be an antidote to the despair of modernism, so she was sometimes criticized for being outdated in her lifetime. Ha! Willa and her readers get the final laugh.
I have no idea if Taylor is a person of religious faith. Either way, he explored Willa’s own faith succinctly and beautifully and recognized that her work has a sacramental quality, which is what I’ve always loved best about her novels. This seems like a perfect jumping off point into other Cather biographies. Taylor praises Hermione Lee’s as a standout, which I recently bought and am eager to get to soon. I highly recommend this. It’s very readable and short but has real substance.
I have no idea if Taylor is a person of religious faith. Either way, he explored Willa’s own faith succinctly and beautifully and recognized that her work has a sacramental quality, which is what I’ve always loved best about her novels. This seems like a perfect jumping off point into other Cather biographies. Taylor praises Hermione Lee’s as a standout, which I recently bought and am eager to get to soon. I highly recommend this. It’s very readable and short but has real substance.
February 1, 2024
This lived up to the high expectations I had. Lively and full of the author's love and appreciation of Cather. As you can imagine at roughly 150 pages of content (the rest is bibliography, notes and an index) this is not an exhaustive bio. The thing I appreciated most is that it placed the finished works of Cather into her development as a writer and as a person. I loved learning more about her friendships, romantic relationships and the events of her life and how they influenced her writing and storytelling. I now have a list of Cather's works I've not read that I'm eager to get to. A very satisfying read!
This is a glowing review from the New York Times.
Why I'm reading this: I have loved all the Willa Cather books and stories I've read (not nearly enough!) so when I saw a review of this recent biography I immediately put on hold at my library.
This is a glowing review from the New York Times.
Why I'm reading this: I have loved all the Willa Cather books and stories I've read (not nearly enough!) so when I saw a review of this recent biography I immediately put on hold at my library.
January 13, 2024
This is a short trip through her life using her own words and writing as a guide. Well done.
All I know about Willa Cather is My Ántonia and O Pioneers! so this was enlightening for me. I didn't know how prolific she was, especially with her short stories. I have some catching up to do!
All I know about Willa Cather is My Ántonia and O Pioneers! so this was enlightening for me. I didn't know how prolific she was, especially with her short stories. I have some catching up to do!
January 15, 2024
Do not be turned away by the slimness of Taylor’s biography of Willa Cather, Chasing Bright Medusas. Taylor’s approach to Cather is chronologically through her works. Well written and well researched, he provides many insights into Cather’s personality. By using a chronological approach, readers can see Cather’s growth as a writer.
His criticism of her works seems apt, and he offer quotations from the reviews of critics who were Cather’s contemporaries. Taylor demonstrates that many of the characters in her works were based upon people she knew in real life and her settings upon places she lived or visited.
Well worth reading.
His criticism of her works seems apt, and he offer quotations from the reviews of critics who were Cather’s contemporaries. Taylor demonstrates that many of the characters in her works were based upon people she knew in real life and her settings upon places she lived or visited.
Well worth reading.
April 12, 2023
more of a literary biography than a personal one, nonetheless it's well-researched (if a bit short) and contains eloquent summaries of willa cather's artistic life (and the basic facts of her real-world one as well). short and sweet, good for college students i would imagine
September 20, 2024
One of the embarrassments of my literary life is being a native Nebraskan who has read so little Willa Cather. This book was a good way to learn a little more about her life and her books and to be inspired to read them. It's short, at 4 hours on audio - perfect for what I was looking for, might be too brief for someone looking to go deeper.
March 15, 2024
This succinct overview of Willa Cather’s life and work was written by someone who loves Cather’s work and has strong opinions about it. While not a scholarly book, his enthusiasm and knowledge shine through, and he incorporates many quotes from her letters and books. My favorite story involved a correspondence with a professor from an American college, inquiring into her inspirations and influences. After telling him that it was hardly a case for the FBI, Cather went on to tell him “I’m leaving for Mexico City within a few days, and this is an opportune time to bring our correspondence to a close”. The author points out she had no plans to travel and informs us Cather had relied on a “leaving for Mexico City” alibi before. In short, this is a useful introduction to Cather’s life and work, which includes a useful list of more thorough and scholarly books to consult for the fuller story. And it should inspire readers to explore Cather’s work for themselves. I don’t recommend the audio version as unfortunately the author’s monotonous reading makes a well- paced and entertaining book seem boring. 3.5 stars
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November 30, 2023Much to love in this relative slim biography for appreciators of Cather.
January 1, 2024
A nice, little summary of Cather’s life and major works. I just visited her childhood home and loved visiting her attic room where she developed her craft.
April 9, 2024
I expected more of an in depth study on Willa Cather but it was particularly good for the back story on her books.
February 20, 2024
It was a real treat to read this to cap off my 2023 Year of Willa Cather when I read her 12 novels. This slim biography brings all her works together, discussing them in the context of her own life. It makes me want to read a collection of her short stories! As a co-admirer of Ms. Cather, the author did a wonderful job on the whole, though he projected some of his own ideas/speculation on Cather’s life - and I think the book would have been just slightly better had a more objective point of view been taken. Nonetheless this is a wonderful read for any Cather fan!
This quote from one of Willa Cather’s letters to a fan sums up her work so beautifully and is why I love her writing so much: “You seem to have liked the book in the way, I wanted it liked, and to have read it in the spirit in which I wrote it. If I had written a preface to the book, I would have said ‘I for one am tired of ideas and “great notions” for stories. I don’t want to be “literary.” Here are a lot of people I used to know and love; sit down and let me tell you about them.’”
This quote from one of Willa Cather’s letters to a fan sums up her work so beautifully and is why I love her writing so much: “You seem to have liked the book in the way, I wanted it liked, and to have read it in the spirit in which I wrote it. If I had written a preface to the book, I would have said ‘I for one am tired of ideas and “great notions” for stories. I don’t want to be “literary.” Here are a lot of people I used to know and love; sit down and let me tell you about them.’”
November 24, 2023
The author is not a historian, and I think this needs to be flagged at the outset. Nearly at the beginning, there’s a glaring historical inaccuracy that left out including women as those who took advantage of The Homestead Act. If you were the head of your household, you were eligible to claim land under the 1862 Act (the fact that it was indigenous land is another topic for another day). There are MANY primary source accounts of women homesteaders.
Secondly, the landscape of the American Southwest is critical to Willa’s writings. However, the author calls the indigenous peoples of the Four Corners Anasazis which is no longer in preferred parlance and hasn’t been for some time. They should be called Ancestral Puebloans.
The fact that these weren’t caught at some point during the editing process takes away from the overall authority a biography should be accepted with.
Secondly, the landscape of the American Southwest is critical to Willa’s writings. However, the author calls the indigenous peoples of the Four Corners Anasazis which is no longer in preferred parlance and hasn’t been for some time. They should be called Ancestral Puebloans.
The fact that these weren’t caught at some point during the editing process takes away from the overall authority a biography should be accepted with.
August 24, 2024
3.5 stars.
Don’t read this book if you still intend to get to some Cather novels you haven’t read yet— it is FULL of spoilers. When I started this book I did not intend to read more Cather. I loved so many Cather novels since middle school, but was so seriously burned by The Song of the Lark (my copy of which I immediately threw into the trash, upon finishing) that I did not want to read any more. NOW, however, I want to go back and read the novels and stories I hadn’t read yet…and I wish I didn’t know the endings already.
Anyway, there are lots of great Cather biographies out there, and I expected this one to be more revealing than it was, given that her letters are now released to be quoted from (and not just paraphrased). There were no great revelations, but it was a sympathetic and endearing portrait of Cather nonetheless.
Don’t read this book if you still intend to get to some Cather novels you haven’t read yet— it is FULL of spoilers. When I started this book I did not intend to read more Cather. I loved so many Cather novels since middle school, but was so seriously burned by The Song of the Lark (my copy of which I immediately threw into the trash, upon finishing) that I did not want to read any more. NOW, however, I want to go back and read the novels and stories I hadn’t read yet…and I wish I didn’t know the endings already.
Anyway, there are lots of great Cather biographies out there, and I expected this one to be more revealing than it was, given that her letters are now released to be quoted from (and not just paraphrased). There were no great revelations, but it was a sympathetic and endearing portrait of Cather nonetheless.
February 14, 2024
Willa Cather was one of America’s best authors. This book gave a rather boilerplate summary of her life and read mostly as a synopsis of her books. I am not sure if this is due to a lack of scholarship or that there is very little material available about the author herself.
November 22, 2023
At 4 hours. It's pretty short and you are not any closer to knowing cather after reading this book.
May 11, 2025
This was such a good book about the life and writings of the author Willa Cather. I have read a few of her books and it made me want to read more of them. What I liked about this book was that the author shared where Willa got her ideas, what person in her life her characters came from and what was going on in the world when she wrote her stories. She had many tragedies that happened in her later years that sadly showed up in her serials. She also wrote two historical fiction books about Mexico City and the arrival of Catholicism and Quebec in Medieval days.
I also enjoyed the snippets of the stories that the author included in the book as well as parts of letters that she wrote to her many friends and acquaintances.
I also enjoyed the snippets of the stories that the author included in the book as well as parts of letters that she wrote to her many friends and acquaintances.
July 27, 2025
I really enjoyed this short biography of Willa Cather. It’s like a love letter to her life and work. I listened to the audiobook but also have a hardcover. I plan to reread it and mark the passages that resonated like the one on pg. 123 where Cather so vividly captures how accumulated losses feel.
In a letter to Dorothy Canfield Fisher:
“These vanishings, that come one after another, have such an impoverishing effect upon those of us who are left—our world suddenly becomes diminished—the landmarks disappear and all the splendid distances behind us close up. These losses, one after another, make one feel as if one were going on in a play after most of the principal characters are dead.”
In a letter to Dorothy Canfield Fisher:
“These vanishings, that come one after another, have such an impoverishing effect upon those of us who are left—our world suddenly becomes diminished—the landmarks disappear and all the splendid distances behind us close up. These losses, one after another, make one feel as if one were going on in a play after most of the principal characters are dead.”
Read
November 1, 2025DNF. I got halfway through this and got so bored. It started out okay, but then I felt like I was reading a Dickens novel. Cather's life is not that interesting in the minute detail used to fill the pages of this book. It read something like this: [On Tuesday, she decided to write a letter to a friend. Her favorite day of the week was Tuesday because this was the day that was after Monday, and Mondays were always so unpleasant. Mondays reminded Cather that she had to work, and all she wanted to do was write. But her work was writing so she wrote but not what she wanted to write so it was work. Tuesdays were days when she wrote to write not to work.] What? Exactly. Every page began to feel like that.
April 24, 2024
This book wasn’t near as interesting as I had hoped it would be. I was mainly interested in her experience in the Southwest and it focused more on listing every article and book she published. She had have tremendous gumption about getting published and won a Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a book I never heard of. My main takeaway were interesting quotes by Cather that I will add in the quotes section.
February 17, 2024
After reading this bio, I'm inspired to read the Cather works I haven't read already, and re-read the ones I have.
May 20, 2024
Too short but I loved reading about the origins of some of my favorite novels.
February 22, 2025
A short stroll through Cather’s books and influences. A good intro to her books and life. Quite enjoyable.
October 20, 2025
A brief, beautiful biography. Not exhaustive but covers representative aspects of Cather's life quite well. Listened to the audio on my way out to Cather country in Red Cloud, NE.
April 19, 2024
We need more concise and brief biographies! This was perfect for me, a fan of Willa Cather's writing but someone who didn't know a whole lot about her.
Mostly this went through her life in broad strokes and described how her life and the times she lived influenced each book she wrote and published.
It was a great reminder that Cather still has a lot I haven't read and I should get to at least several of her books sooner rather than later, while this is still fresh in my mind.
Mostly this went through her life in broad strokes and described how her life and the times she lived influenced each book she wrote and published.
It was a great reminder that Cather still has a lot I haven't read and I should get to at least several of her books sooner rather than later, while this is still fresh in my mind.
May 17, 2024
This is a short book, exponentially so -- relatively few pages, large font size, big margins -- and it feels short on content, too. Chapters are (not surprisingly) very short, and there's few if any transitions between various periods of Cather's life and in the pieces of information Taylor provides us. For instance, in a later chapter, he spends several pages talking about LUCY GAYHEART and then suddenly starts talking about a teenage boy the then fifty-something Willa had met four years before? It's jarring.
I don't know if Willa is a particularly mysterious figure -- I do know she had lots of her letters and whatnot burnt after her death, so maybe? -- but this book feels like something SparkNotes would make. There's a few brief biographical anecdotes, but the majority of prose here is summaries of her novels and stories, brief discussions of their inspiration ("Neighbor Rosicky," for instance, came out of her dad's death), and some comments on how they were received by critics. Taylor alludes directly to Cather's same-sex relationships but he seems almost afraid to discuss that in relation to any of her work, which feels... repressed, to say the least. (He comments on Cather's hateful indictment of Oscar Wilde's homosexuality and then playfully says asks if it does not "cross her mind that she and Oscar have a little something in common," and he comments a few times on her aversion/hatred of the physicality of sex, but there's never any investigation into that, where it may have come from, what her works says about it, etc. I realize Taylor's not a psychoanalyst, but bringing it up only to not talk about it felt weird... repeatedly. (He does at one point say how something he suggests is pure speculation on his part... and it's literally just that one sentence, so not very much speculation, which adds to my feeling that he's afraid to be too critical. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts.)
The one good thing I will say about the book, though, is that it's very clearly a labor of love, and Taylor very clearly admires and respects and even honors Cather and her work. I can appreciate that. As I've said multiple times, by all rights, I should not like Cather or her work, but I do... ergo, I felt a certain affinity with Taylor as he spoke of her, but I was ultimately disappointed with his book as a biography... particularly because he speaks in the introduction about the unlocking of her letters, which prior biographers hadn't had access to. Perhaps I need to go to one of those earlier biographers to get what I'm really looking for. Perhaps if this had been positioned more as an homage or a memoir of his own experiences with Cather I'd have been less disappointed in what I got.
I don't know if Willa is a particularly mysterious figure -- I do know she had lots of her letters and whatnot burnt after her death, so maybe? -- but this book feels like something SparkNotes would make. There's a few brief biographical anecdotes, but the majority of prose here is summaries of her novels and stories, brief discussions of their inspiration ("Neighbor Rosicky," for instance, came out of her dad's death), and some comments on how they were received by critics. Taylor alludes directly to Cather's same-sex relationships but he seems almost afraid to discuss that in relation to any of her work, which feels... repressed, to say the least. (He comments on Cather's hateful indictment of Oscar Wilde's homosexuality and then playfully says asks if it does not "cross her mind that she and Oscar have a little something in common," and he comments a few times on her aversion/hatred of the physicality of sex, but there's never any investigation into that, where it may have come from, what her works says about it, etc. I realize Taylor's not a psychoanalyst, but bringing it up only to not talk about it felt weird... repeatedly. (He does at one point say how something he suggests is pure speculation on his part... and it's literally just that one sentence, so not very much speculation, which adds to my feeling that he's afraid to be too critical. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts.)
The one good thing I will say about the book, though, is that it's very clearly a labor of love, and Taylor very clearly admires and respects and even honors Cather and her work. I can appreciate that. As I've said multiple times, by all rights, I should not like Cather or her work, but I do... ergo, I felt a certain affinity with Taylor as he spoke of her, but I was ultimately disappointed with his book as a biography... particularly because he speaks in the introduction about the unlocking of her letters, which prior biographers hadn't had access to. Perhaps I need to go to one of those earlier biographers to get what I'm really looking for. Perhaps if this had been positioned more as an homage or a memoir of his own experiences with Cather I'd have been less disappointed in what I got.
April 9, 2024
This sweet short biography of Willa Cather is pulled down by factual inaccuracies. The most egregious is that book ended with the image of Edith Lewis buried at the feet of Willa Cather. They were buried side-by-side and there is much meaning in that. The book is SUCH a disappointment. It could have been an example of a perfect book for readers interested in an important author--an affectionate look at her life and works, providing the overall arch of the author's life in a fairly short telling. I was SO hoping for that book, and am so sorry that this falls short.
I reviewed this title on the All About Books program on Nebraska Public Media.
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/se...
I reviewed this title on the All About Books program on Nebraska Public Media.
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/se...
January 4, 2025
[Print] This was such a struggle to get through. I come away from this book with no greater understanding of or appreciation for Willa Cather that what I had when I started. The biographical details were scant and often lacking context. The text is hopelessly littered with quotes that I would say break up the flow if there was any flow to break. A reader hoping to learn more about Cather's work would be just as well served by reading summaries and reviews on Goodreads. Even if this book was intended as merely an academic exercise, it still fails to form or follow any clear thesis. If it was intended as biography, it does a poor job of giving the reader a clear picture of Cather in any redeeming or deserving way.
March 2, 2024
From my notes app:
-poor writing ("here is what she said about blah blah")
-narrator exceptionally boring (and I have a penchant for boring narrators) and mispronounces some words (i.e. "fort" instead of "forte")
-fixation on the gay, emphasizes every relationship was sexual
-transubstantiated x3 (Only books about the Catholic Mass should use "transubstantiated" more than once.)
-makes plot of all major works explicit (Would be more understandable if this was an extensive biography and not a 4 hour audiobook. Detailed all works without need, added nothing to the bio.)
-poor writing ("here is what she said about blah blah")
-narrator exceptionally boring (and I have a penchant for boring narrators) and mispronounces some words (i.e. "fort" instead of "forte")
-fixation on the gay, emphasizes every relationship was sexual
-transubstantiated x3 (Only books about the Catholic Mass should use "transubstantiated" more than once.)
-makes plot of all major works explicit (Would be more understandable if this was an extensive biography and not a 4 hour audiobook. Detailed all works without need, added nothing to the bio.)
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