Editing Willa Cather (section)

=== 1930s ===

By the 1930s, an increasingly large share of critics began to dismiss her as overly romantic and nostalgic, unable to grapple with contemporary issues:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clere |first1=Sarah E. |title=Troubling Bodies in the Fiction of Willa Cather |date=2011 |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |page=5}}</ref> [[Granville Hicks]], for instance, charged Cather with escaping into an idealized past to avoid confronting the problems of the present.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hicks |first1=Granville |title=The Case against Willa Cather |journal=The English Journal |year=1933 |volume=22 |issue=9 |pages=703–710 |doi=10.2307/804321 |jstor=804321 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/804321 |issn=0013-8274}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Brien |first1=Sharon |title=Becoming Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Cather |journal=American Quarterly |year=1988 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=110–126 |doi=10.2307/2713144 |jstor=2713144 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713144 |issn=0003-0678}}</ref> And it was particularly in the context of the hardships of the [[Great Depression]] in which her work was seen as lacking social relevance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Old |first1=James Paul |title=Making Good Americans: The Politics of Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop |journal=Perspectives on Political Science |date=January 2, 2021 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=52–61 |doi=10.1080/10457097.2020.1830673 |issn=1045-7097 |s2cid=225123832 }}</ref> Similarly, critics—and Cather herself<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Urgo |first1=Joseph |title=Review of Willa Cather and Material Culture: Real-World Writing, Writing the Real World |journal=South Atlantic Review |year=2005 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=182–186 |jstor=20064654 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20064654 |issn=0277-335X}}</ref>—were disappointed when her novel ''A Lost Lady'' was made into [[A Lost Lady (1934 film)|a film]]; the film had little resemblance to the novel.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Melcher |first1=E. de S. |title=Willa Cather Novel Loses Much in the Screen Story |work=Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) |date=November 17, 1934 |page=21}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=C. |first1=E.N. |title=Literary Topics |work=Hartford Courant |date=September 5, 1934 |page=8}}</ref>

Cather's lifelong conservative politics,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frus |first1=Phyllis |last2=Corkin |first2=Stanley |title=Cather Criticism and the American Canon |journal=College English |year=1997 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=206–217 |doi=10.2307/378552 |jstor=378552 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/378552 |issn=0010-0994}}</ref>{{efn-ua|Not all critics see her 1930s political views as conservative; Reynolds argues that while she was reactionary later in life, she subscribed to a form of rural populism and progressivism, built on the continuity of community,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Guy |title=The Cambridge Companion to Willa Cather |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-00086-4 |pages=19–34 |chapter=Willa Cather as progressive}}</ref> and Clasen views her as a progressive.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clasen |first1=Kelly |title=Feminists of the Middle Border: Willa Cather, Hamlin Garland, and the Female Land Ethic |journal=CEA Critic |year=2013 |volume=75 |issue=2 |pages=93–108 |jstor=44378769 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44378769 |issn=0007-8069}}</ref> Similarly, it has been suggested she was distinctly opaque, and that in terms of literary innovation, she was solidly progressive, even radical.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arnold |first1=Marilyn |title=Willa Cather's Artistic "Radicalism" |journal=CEA Critic |year=1989 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=2–10 |jstor=44377562 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44377562 |issn=0007-8069}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goldberg |first1=Jonathan |title=Photographic Relations: Laura Gilpin, Willa Cather |journal=American Literature |year=1998 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=63–95 |doi=10.2307/2902456 |jstor=2902456 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2902456 |issn=0002-9831}}</ref>}} appealing to critics such as Mencken, [[Randolph Bourne]], and [[Carl Van Doren]], soured her reputation with younger, often left-leaning critics like Hicks and [[Edmund Wilson]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Decker|first=James M.|title=Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism|journal=Modern Language Review|date=April 2003|doi=10.2307/3737843|jstor=3737843}}</ref><ref name="affect">{{cite journal |last1=Nealon |first1=Christopher |title=Affect-Genealogy: Feeling and Affiliation in Willa Cather |journal=American Literature |year=1997 |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=5–37 |doi=10.2307/2928167 |jstor=2928167 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928167 |issn=0002-9831}}</ref> Despite this critical opposition to her work, Cather remained a popular writer whose novels and short story collections continued to sell well; in 1931 ''[[Shadows on the Rock]]'' was the most widely read novel in the United States, and ''[[Lucy Gayheart]]'' became a bestseller in 1935.<ref name=Ahearn />

Although Cather made her last trip to Red Cloud in 1931 for a family gathering after her mother's death, she stayed in touch with her Red Cloud friends and sent money to Annie Pavelka and other families during the Depression years.{{r|Lee1990|page=327}} In 1932, Cather published ''[[Obscure Destinies]]'', her final collection of short fiction, which contained "[[Neighbour Rosicky]]," one of her most highly regarded stories. That same summer, she moved into a new apartment on [[Park Avenue]] with Edith Lewis, and during a visit on Grand Manan, she probably began working on her next novel, ''Lucy Gayheart''.<ref name="gayheartdate">{{cite journal |last1=Homestead |first1=Melissa |title=Yet More Cather-Knopf Correspondence |journal=Willa Cather Review |year=2017 |volume=59 |issue=2 |page=3}}</ref>{{efn-ua|Some sources indicate that Cather began writing ''Lucy Gayheart'' in 1933.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Giannone |first1=Richard |title=Music, Silence, and the Spirituality of Willa Gather |journal=Renascence |year=2005 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=123–149 |doi=10.5840/renascence20055723}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Deena Michelle |title="What now?": Willa Cather's successful male professionals at middle age |date=2006 |page=41 |url=https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4240&context=etd-project}}</ref> Homestead argues instead that she truly began writing in the summer of 1932.<ref name="gayheartdate" /> Some sources agree with her.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lindemann |first1=Marilee |title=The Cambridge companion to Willa Cather |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52793-4 |page=xx |edition=1st}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=David |title=From The Song of the Lark to Lucy Gayheart, and Die Walküre to Die Winterreise |journal=Cather Studies |year=2017 |volume=11 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1qv5psc.12 |url=https://cather.unl.edu/scholarship/catherstudies/11/cs011.porter |access-date=February 1, 2021}}</ref> Others are imprecise or ambiguous.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=David |title=Following the Lieder: Cather, Schubert, and Lucy Gayheart |journal=Cather Studies |year=2015 |volume=10 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1d98c6j.19 |url=https://cather.unl.edu/scholarship/catherstudies/10/cs010.porter |access-date=February 1, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=Sally Elizabeth Peltier |title=Willa Cather: Redefining the American Dream |year=1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=William Winfred |title=MUSIC IN THE FICTION OF WILLA CATHER |date=1953 |page=176 |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc130334/m2/1/high_res_d/n_02230.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Randall |first1=John Herman |title=The landscape and the looking glass; Willa Cather's search for value |date=1960 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |page=353}}</ref> Her idea for the story may have been formed as early as the 1890s (using the name Gayhardt instead of Gayheart, based on a woman she met at a party),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edel |first1=Leon |title=Willa Cather, the paradox of success; a lecture delivered under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund in the Coolidge Auditorium |date=1960 |publisher=Library of Congress |page=13}}</ref> and it is possible she began writing as early as 1926<ref name="ohlucy">{{cite book |last1=Stout |first1=Janis P. |title=Cather among the moderns |date=2019 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-817-32014-0 |page=68}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |title=Louise Guerber (October 15 [1926]) {{!}} Willa Cather Archive |url=https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let2871 |website=cather.unl.edu |access-date=February 1, 2021 |date=1926}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=David |title=1926: Blue Eyes on the Platte Enters Gayheartedly |journal=Willa Cather Newsletter & Review |year=2013 |volume=56 |issue=2 |page=32}}</ref> or 1927.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chown |first1=Linda |title="It Came Closer than That": Willa Cather's Lucy Gayheart |journal=Cather Studies |year=1993 |volume=2 |url=https://cather.unl.edu/scholarship/catherstudies/2/cs002.closer |access-date=February 8, 2021}}</ref> While she intended to name the novel ''Blue Eyes on the Platte'' early on, she changed the title<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Nebraskaland |year=1966 |volume=44 |page=56 |publisher=Nebraska Game and Parks Commission | title=Daughter of the Prairies}}</ref> and made Lucy's eyes brown.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=BENNETT |first1=MILDRED R. |title=Willa Cather's Bodies for Ghosts |journal=Western American Literature |year=1982 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=45 |jstor=43020206 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43020206 |issn=0043-3462}}</ref> Stout suggests mention of ''Blue Eyes on the Platte'' may have been facetious, only beginning to write and think about ''Lucy Gayheart'' in 1933.<ref name="ohlucy" /> This is contradicted by Edith Lewis insisting that not only did she begin working on ''Blue Eyes on the Platte'' "several years before" 1933, but that it was the precursor to ''Lucy Gayheart''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |editor1-last=Porter |editor1-first=David H. |editor1-link=Historical essay |title=Lucy Gayheart |date=August 2015  |isbn=978-0-803-27687-1 |page=288 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |edition=Willa Cather Scholarly}}</ref> Regardless of which of these details are true, it is known that Cather reused images from her 1911 short story, "[[The Joy of Nelly Deane]]", in ''Lucy Gayheart''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosowski |first1=Susan J. |title=Willa Cather's female landscapes: The song of the lark and Lucy Gayheart |journal=Women's Studies |date=December 1984 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=233–246 |doi=10.1080/00497878.1984.9978614}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Deena Michelle |title="What now?": Willa Cather's successful male professionals at middle age middle age |date=2006 |publisher=California State University, San Bernardino |page=6}}</ref> "The Joy of Nelly Deane" may be best understood as an earlier version of ''Lucy Gayheart'' altogether.<ref name="jstor.org" />}} She was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1934.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Willa+Cather&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

Cather suffered two devastating losses in 1938.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |title=Dorothy Canfield Fisher (March 5 [1939]) {{!}} Willa Cather Archive |url=https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let1440 |website=cather.unl.edu |date=March 5, 1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |title=Ferris Greenslet (October 12 [1938]) {{!}} Willa Cather Archive |url=https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let1419 |website=cather.unl.edu |date=October 12, 1938 |quote=They were the two people dearest to me.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |title=Mary Willard (May 6, 1941) {{!}} Willa Cather Archive |url=https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let1540 |website=cather.unl.edu |date=May 6, 1941 |quote=I have waited for some days to turn to you, because I seemed unable to utter anything but a cry of grief and bitter disappointment. Only Isabelle's death and the death of my brother Douglass have cut me so deep. The feeling I have, all the time, is that so much of my life has been cut away.}}</ref> In June, her favorite brother, Douglass, died of a heart attack. Cather was too grief-stricken to attend the funeral.{{r|Woodress|page=478}} Four months later, Isabelle McClung died. Cather and McClung had lived together when Cather first arrived in Pittsburgh, and while McClung eventually married the musician [[Jan Hambourg]] and moved with her husband to Toronto,<ref>[[Eric Koch|Koch, Eric]] (1997). ''The Brothers Hambourg''</ref><ref name=Gatenby215>{{cite book|last1=Gatenby|first1=Greg|title=The Wild is Always There: Canada through the eyes of foreign writers|date=1993|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf Canada|isbn=978-0-39428-023-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wildisalwaysther0000unse/page/215 215]|url=https://archive.org/details/wildisalwaysther0000unse/page/215}}</ref> the two women remained devoted friends.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stouck |first1=David |title=Marriage and Friendship in "My Ántonia" |journal=Great Plains Quarterly |year=1982 |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=224–231 |jstor=24467939 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24467939 |issn=0275-7664}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mason |first1=Julian |title=An Interesting Willa Cather Letter |journal=American Literature |year=1986 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=109–111 |doi=10.2307/2925947 |jstor=2925947 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2925947 |issn=0002-9831}}</ref>{{efn-ua|Cather wrote hundreds of letters to McClung over her life, and most of them were returned to Cather by McClung's husband. Almost all of these were destroyed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pritchard |first1=William H. |title=Epistolary Cather |journal=The Hudson Review |year=2013 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=387–394 |jstor=43488733 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43488733 |issn=0018-702X}}</ref><ref name="obscurerecord">{{cite journal |last1=Jewell |first1=Andrew |title=Why Obscure the Record? The Psychological Context of Willa Cather's Ban on Letter Publication |journal=Biography |year=2017 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=399–424 |jstor=26405083 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26405083 |issn=0162-4962}}</ref>}} Cather wrote that Isabelle was the person for whom she wrote all her books.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Susie |title=Willa Cather |date=1990 |publisher=Macmillan Education  |isbn=978-0-33342-360-8 |page=13}}</ref>