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The Selected Letters (2013)

by Willa Cather(Favorite Author)

4 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0307959309 (ISBN13: 9780307959300)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf

review 1: This huge volume is really too much to get through, so I only skimmed it; the foreword is interesting as we learn that Cather stipulated in her will that her letters were never to be made public. The trust responsible for her writings has since decided that as 65 years or so have passed and everyone mentioned is now gone, it's all right to gather the letters into one volume for publication. Cather is witty and nimble with a phrase. She writes lightly yet intelligently. I was interested in her early letters as a teen, and then again when she writes of her experiences in Santa Fe (while she prepares to write Death Comes For the Archbishop). Good quote, from her earliest surviving letter, as she writes about having to return to school after being happy at home with various... more projects: "...here, I am "Miss Cather" & govern, there I am a child & am governed. That makes a great difference with frail humanity." A fine look into the fully lived life of one of the foremost women writers of the 20th century.
review 2: For the life of me, I can not figure out what the hype surrounding this collection is about. Never have I been so happy to complete a read, and one which, I might add, took an inordinately long time to complete. I look upon writing good literature as an art, and for that, I truly appreciate Willa Cather as an author. I just find it hard to accept that by reading a collection of letters by this author that I am anywhere closer to understanding her as a person or as an artist. To believe otherwise, is a pretentious farce by the reader. First and foremost, though letters may give us insight into their author's mindset, even Willa herself admitted when commenting upon some of her own, that there is an inherent bias in letter writing. The writer may frequently write in a style or provide content geared toward their expectations of the recipient's views and needs. Further, though Cather tries to provide insight into the writing process, I offer, what does it matter? Does it affect my appreciation of a Van Gogh or a Klimt to know whether the painter was close with his parents or siblings, or hated them? Artists truly have a gift, but to appreciate their art, is it fair to suppose that by reading their letters I can crawl into their psyche and truly understand from where their gift springs. I think not. Further, I really didn't like the woman whose letters I read, which unfortunately may color my appreciate of her "art." Sure, she doesn't mince any words (and I respect that), but she came across as petty, self-centered and a bit self righteous. Perhaps there was a valid reason why she did not want these printed. Perhaps she realized that by indulging in this supposed "connection" to her work we might minimize the art. For me, I will stick to reading the "art" and not the "how to." less

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