Synopses & Reviews
In correspondence, Willa Cather confessed to planting some of her allusions deep. This reader's companion contains thousands of lively and informative entries on persons, places, and events, fictional and real, and on quotations, works of art, and other items to reveal meanings or provide background for understanding Cather's fictional world. At the same time, it offers insights into her real world and time, her interests, and her astonishingly broad frame of reference. A lifetime project of encyclopedist John March, the once unwieldy manuscript and notes have been verified, clarified, amplified, and organized by literary scholar Marilyn Arnold, with the assistance of Debra Lynn Thornton. The goal was to develop a work that would be useful to the reader while preserving March's authorial presence has resulted in a dictionary that will both enlighten and delight.
Review
Thousands of entries contained in this delightful literary reference work range from "A" (a French town visited by Claude Wheeler and David Gerhardt in One of Ours) to "Zuni" (the Sothwestern Indian pueblo and site of a tale of mission revolt told in Death Comes for the Archbishop)...the Companion feels somewhat more like a lively dialogue, a complex conversation involving innumerable interconnections between Cather's short stories and novels and the continuing curiosities and concerns of her committed readership, than an alphabetically ordered dictionary.Western American Literature
Review
Literary archaeologists of the future may be able to reconstruct the outlines and many of the details of Cather's fiction just from this comprehensive and readable guide. This volume will deservedly become a standard reference. March assumed readers would move from the fiction to his handbook; the editors believe, rightly, that this companion will be read on its own. It serves admirably to illuminate the range of Cather's allusions, to increase the reader's understanding of the cultures of which she writes, and to bring the reader back to the text with a deeper understanding.Great Plains Quarterly
Synopsis
Thousands of entries on persons, places, events, and topics interpret allusions and illuminate Willa Cather's fictional world while enriching the reader's understanding and appreciation.
Synopsis
Thousands of entries on persons, places, events, and topics interpret allusions and illuminate Willa Cather's fictional world while
Synopsis
enriching the reader's understanding and appreciation.
About the Author
DEBRA LYNN THORNTON is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
"Handbook of Willa Cather" by John March
Preface and Key to Symbols for Primary Sources
A Reader's Companion to the Fiction of Willa Cather