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Article Title: The Other Side of Willa Cather

Full Citation: Marilyn Arnold, “The Other Side of Willa Cather,” Nebraska History 68 (1987): 74-82

URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1987WCather.pdf Date: 10/18/2013

Article Summary: Cather biographies emphasize that she was often difficult and inaccessible. Her personal friends and many who knew her casually remembered her more positively.

Cataloging Information:

Cather Biographers: John H Randall III, Paul Horgan, E K Brown, James Woodress, Mildred R Bennett, L K Ingersoll, Marion Marsh Brown, Ruth Crone, Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken

Cather Acquaintances: Alfred A Knopf, Edith Lewis, Elizabeth Sergeant, George Seibel, Fanny Butcher, Elmer Alonzo Thomas, Phyllis Martin Hutchinson, Fannie Hurst, Lorna R F Birtwell, Frank Swinnerton, Marion King, Truman Capote, Mary Ellen Chase, Evaline Rolofson, Eleanor Shattuck Austermann, Myrtle Mason, Eleanor Hinman, Alice Booth, Grant Reynard, Josephine Frisbie, Rose C Feld, Flora Merrill, Walter Tittle, Burton Rascoe

Place Names: Red Cloud, Nebraska; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick; Jaffrey, New Hampshire; New York City, New York

Photographs / Images: Willa Cather at a picnic; young Willa Cather with Margaret Miner and Evelene Brodstone (later Lady Vestey); Dr Elmer Alonzo Thomas; George Seibel and his wife Helen (1899 photo); Truman Capote (1979 photo); Nebraska artist Grant Reynard; Lady Evelene Brodstone Vestey; inscription written by Cather in honor of Lady Vestey for the dedicatory tablet of the Brodstone Hospital, Superior; Cather on December 7, 1936

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The Other Side of Willa Cather By Marilyn Arnold

Students of Willa Cather are accus­ dall III is one who takes an extreme flintiness but granting that she had to tomed to biographical pronounce­ position, asserting that Cather's be ruthlessly protective ofher time and ments about her cantankerous neurotic personality ruined her art.' energy in order to write. nature, her readily expressed pre­ Even the kindly Paul Horgan indirect­ E.K. Brown indicates that more judices, and her almost militant ly lends credence to the standard view than any writer of her time, Cather reclusiveness. While her detractors of Cather's irascible nature. He good­ managed to keep her "freedom and admit that she was fiercely loyal and naturedly describes her impatient anonymity," probably at least partly warmly accessible to family and close reaction when as a young man he inad­ because of Alfred A. Knopf's (Cather's friends, even her admirers have been vertently interrupted her at work in a publisher) sympathy with her "aver­ compelled to concede that to the Santa Fe hotel," Most commentators sion to public encounters" and his end­ casual observer (or the celebrity mon­ who express opinions on the subject of less efforts to ward off "demands for ger), she may have seemed anything Cather's personality, however, take a speechmaking and attendance at but gracious and kind. John H. Ran- neutral stance, acknowledging her innumerable functiona.?'' James Woodress notes that Cather was Willa Cather at picnic held on the old Red Cloud golf course. Courtesy of Willa "always highly selective in her friends. Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society. She chose the people she wanted and ignored the rest, but she never quite managed to be as independent as she liked to seem."! According to Wood­ ress, in the last fourteen years of her life "she became increasingly crotchety about invasions of her privacy and made very few public appearances." Mildred R. Bennett also notes that temperamentally Cather "enjoyed ... isolation." As one observer said, she chose the persons she allowed "inside the battlements" of her affection, and her reclusiveness - which became pronounced in her maturity - was evident even in her youthful years in Pittsburgh." Among those commentators par­ ticularly interested in Cather's per­ sonality is L.K. Ingersoll. He indicates that the residents of Grand Manan Island - where Cather spent many summers and eventually built a cot­ tage - were "at best, reserved in their

Marilyn Arnold, Professor of English and Dean of Graduate Studies at Brigham Young University, has lectured widely and published two books and numerous articles on Willa Cather. Willa Cather

opinion" ofthe "rather austere and lit­ beginning to cultivate the reticence tle known 'summer visitor' " who that later made her almost a recluse.:" seemed to want little to do with them. Butcher's unabashed personal admir­ But Ingersoll also reports the views of ationfor Cather, apparent in countless one local citizen who taxied Cather laudatory reviews, is confirmed in her about and did carpentry work for her. autobiographical memoir. She notes This fellow claimed that it was only that Cather was more absorbed in, and the unscheduled disturbance that fulfilled by, her writing than anyone irritated her, and that her need for Butcher had ever known. 9 absolute concentration while at work Following is a sampling of descrip­ created a false impression about her tions of Cather by casual observers, personality." some recalled after the passing of Others interested in Cather's nature years, others recorded secondhand. are Marion Marsh Brown and Ruth The most valuable of them for us Crone. In their anecdotal biography, today, however, may be those they portray Cather in Jaffrey, New published shortly after the encounter Hampshire (Cather's earlier summer that produced them, uncolored by retreat) as even-tempered, though time and Cather's increasing fame. private. Their description of her in Cather's observers pay particular New York, however, characterizes her attention to her appearance - that is, as aloof and likely to rebuff any ad­ to her physical build, facial features, vances by strangers. Brown and Crone and dress - and to her conver­ conclude that "probably all of Willa's sational manner. acquaintances in the 1920s - with the Young Willa Cather (right) with One of the earliest, and one of the possible exception of Edith Lewis and Margaret Miner (center) and Evelene least flattering, of these published Brodstone (later Lady Vestey). a few old friends in Red Cloud, notably casual reminiscences is that' of Dr. Annie Pavelka and Carrie Miner Sher­ Elmer Alonzo Thomas, a hometown wood - would have agreed that she childhood contemporary of Cather was difficult at times."? passing views do not tell the whole and a descendant of one of Red Cloud, Such views enjoy a large degree of story, but they do tell a part of it that Nebraska's founding fathers. Article credibility, but they probably need to has been generally unknown or 73 of his 1953 Compilation of Webster be adjusted to accommodate the slighted. The present discussion County Chronicles is titled "Willa impressions Cather made on casual deliberately omits the views of those Cather as I Knew Her." Thomas ram­ observers - such as interviewers, lec­ who knew Cather well - the memoirs bles a good deal, talking about a ture audiences, and passing acquain­ published by Edith Lewis, Elizabeth varietyof Webster County matters and tances. Brown and Crone note that at Sergeant, and Alfred A. Knopf, and naively revealing some unpleasant least one interviewer, Burton Rascoe, the recollections of other close friends personal envy over Cather's rise to found Cather approachable and and family members. More than national prominence. He fixes on what intelligent. The fact is that during the casual observers, but less than lifetime he regards as her "masculine" charac­ 1920s, the decade Brown and Crone close friends are people like George teristics and asserts that she was just single out as a period when most peo­ Seibel, who first knew Cather at the an ordinary person and certainly no ple found Cather "difficult," she gave turn of the century when she was editor saint. In fact, he seems unable to a number of public lectures and of the Home Monthly in Pittsburgh, forgive her, both for failing to endow granted more than a few interviews. In and Chicago Tribune book columnist Webster County with some sort of rich addition, she apparently struck up Fanny Butcher. Seibel remembers her memorial andfor choosingto be buried several new acquaintances and as looking "about eighteen," a "plump elsewhere. "To me," he writes, "she interacted readily with strangers in a and dimpled" young woman "with was never attractive and I remember variety of public settings. dreamy eyes and an eager mind, . . . her mostly for her boyish makeup and Ifone were to read only the reports of avid of the world." Reflecting on Ellen the serious stare with which she met these interviewers and observers, one Glasgow's comment about Cather's you." He recalls that Dr. Damerell, would conclude that here was a woman reticence, Seibel recalls that even as who apparently favored Cather and of impressive physical presence, of early as 1911, when she would go four Thomas among the town children, much good humor, and of abundant nights in succession to see Sarah agreed withhimthat "she had as many gracious charm. Obviously, these Bernhardt perform, "she was also male tendencies and characteristics as 75 Nebraska History - Summer 1987

female." Thomas says later, "I charmed and impressed those she remember Willa Cather most for her encountered. Novelist Fannie Hurst masculine habits and dress .... Willa recalls being quite overwhelmed when seemed impervious to any criticism she first met Cather in the early 1920s. along this line and even boasted that Doubting if Cather ever really was she preferred the masculine garb."!" young, Hurst remembers feeling Phyllis Martin Hutchinson has "vulgar" in her presence. Cather's more pleasant recollections. Hutchin­ mind, Hurst says, was "a porcelain son took high school English from cup that held its contents in perfect Cather at Pittsburgh's Central High balance," while Hurst feared that her School in the fall of 1901. She remem­ own "slopped over into the saucer." bers Cather as "good looking, with She describes Cather as a "gracious" gray-blue eyes and dark hair worn and "aloof" woman "whose vast pompadourfashion. She had intermit­ serenity ... layover the complicated tent dimples andbeautiful, evenwhite mechanism of her mind and intellect teeth that seemed to flash when she like a blanket of snow.l'" Perhaps even laughed." Hutchinson also notes that more sincerely impressed was Lorna Cather "affected mannish dress," and R.F. Birtwell, who remembers Cather that although she had "strong likes as a sensitive, thoughtful critic of the and dislikes and was generally work of aspiring young writers at outspoken, she understood the sen­ Breadloaf School of English in 1922. sitivity of teen-agers and never held us She recalls Cather's "kindly, chuck­ up to ridicule as some of the other ling criticism" of some amateur teachers did." Furthermore, Hutchin­ efforts. In spite of the novelist's son says, Cather was a perfectionist Dr. Elmer Alonzo Thomas, from his "proverbial" reticence, Birtwellfound book 80 Years in Webster County who "had little patience with the (Hastings, Nebraska: Hastings Daily that she became "a warm and hearty stupid or careless pupil." According to Tribune, 1953) human being ... among just people." Hutchinson, "personality was all She cherished the experience of know­ important to her. She made it clear ing Cather "as a friendly neighbor in a that even a child is not interesting per small community of students."!' se,but only ifhe has aninterestingper­ echo Hutchinson's recollections of the British writer Frank Swinnerton sonality. Her own personality could younger woman and emphasize also recalls meeting Catherin the early not be ignored. She was greatly Cather's physical and mental sturdi­ 1920s on a late 1923 voyage of the admired by some of her students, and ness. For instance, Elizabeth Moor­ Berengaria from England to the just as heartily disliked by others." headVermorcken's first impressionsof United States. His first comments des­ Obviously one of those who admired the young author of "Paul's Case" cribe her appearance, his subsequent Cather, Hutchinson indicates that focus on Cather's physical traits: comments her conversational abili­ even though she was young, "Willa She was young. Short, ratherstockyin build, she ties. She was, he remembers, "of mid­ had marked directness of aspect. You saw at Cather always seemedvery sure of her­ once that here was a person who couldn't be dle height, fresh coloured, rather self. Yet she did not seek the limelight, easily diverted from her chosen course. "Pretty" broad-cheeked, and decidedly self­ but always kept inconspicuously in the would indeed be a trivial word to describe a face possessed." Moreover, he says, she that showed so much strength of character as background." In New York, sometime hers, yet she was distinctly good-looking, with a had a ready tongue, and the two of in the late teens, Hutchinson called on clear rosy skin, eyes oflight grey and hair a dark them "talked unstintedly" through­ her former teacher at one of Cather's brown brushed back from a low forehead - an out the voyage. He found her to be odd and charming contrast in colour. They were Friday afternoon teas and was "sur­ observant eyes, nothing escaped them. intelligent, wise, interested in many prised to see, instead of the tailored Altogether a fine healthy specimen of young things, graced by good humor, com­ womanhood. She looked me straight in the face teacher I remembered, a very charm­ as she greeted me, and I felt her absolute frank­ pletely free from egotism, and ing and delightfully feminine person ness and honesty. She would never say anything unruffled by minor exasperating who was most friendly and gracious as she didn't mean; indeed, at times her speech incidents." would become a little hesitant, stumbling, in her she introduced me to the other searchfor the precise words to express her mean­ Marion King, who worked at the guests."!' ing. She was incapable ofaffectationor pretense, New York Society Library and met The latter Cather is the one who I saw that.l2 Cather after the novelist moved from dominates accounts of interviewers in It was the Cather of the 1920s, Bank Street, remembers seeing "anew the 1920s, while earlier observations however, that seems to have especially person in the neighborhood, a rather 76 Willa Cather

short, stocky lady in an apple green ing expression of deepest interest, which, I am wore "long white kid gloves" and sure, was a mannerism rather than any sign of coat and matching green pork-pie felt genuine concern. would not review the drama without hat, which she alternated with a them." Another secondhand reminis­ similar habit in red." King says she According to Chase, Cather "was not a cence comes from Elizabeth Yates, treated Cather with an "incurious person who craved for or sought many who interviewed Eleanor Shattuck matter-of-factness" because she had human relations," for the most part (Austermann), daughter of the pro­ "heard a good deal about her seclusion preferring her own created characters prietors of the Shattuck Inn, near Jaf­ and reserve." Cather spoke, King to living people, but "she had great frey Center, New Hampshire, where recalls, with a "husky, rather boyish physical energy and vitality," and Cather was a regular summer guest in voice that came in little gusts. Her hair strong, broad hands that she used the 1920s. Mrs. Austermann remem­ was brown, but her fresh pink and equally well in chopping undergrowth bered Cather as a "shy person, deeply white skin and large blue eyes gave an or punctuating conversation.IS kind and by nature considerate." Ifshe effect of blondness. She was sturdy Occasionally journalists inter­ seemed to withdraw, it was only and wholesome 100king."16 viewed people who knew Cather rather because she was such "a demon for Certainly, one of the persons most than Cather herself, and they recorded work" and had to have solitude in charmed by his casual encounters with recollections ofthe artist secondhand. order to write. Mrs. Austermann also Cather was the young Truman Capote. For example, Ella Fleischman reports recalled, however, that when Cather His recollections of his initial meeting this to be Evaline Rolofson's (Mrs. came downstairs for meals she was with Cather, probably in the early Harvey Newbranch) most vivid extremely cordial and frequently 1940s, outside the New York Society recollection of Cather in her university joined a group in conversation by the Library, describe the same woman days: "A whack on the back, so start­ fire. In Yates's words, "She preferred that King and others met in the 1920s. ling I nearly fell out of the window to be with the people she sought out - . As he tells it to Gloria Steinem, he did through which I was looking, when many of them elderly women who not know who Cather was, but the two 'Billy' Cather came up behind me ...." could not walk abroad as she did ­ of them began talking books, and he Mrs. Newbranch also remembers rather than with- those who, sought told her that Willa Cather was his that this "thoroughly unconventional, her."20 favorite writer. She plied him for the . . . out-of-doors girl" nevertheless Aswas suggestedearlier, some ofthe titles of his favorite Cather books and "dressedup in the most formal fashion most interesting accounts of Cather's then confessed to have written them. to attend the theater." She always appearance and nature are contem- He remembers having noticed her prior to that day, an "absolutely George Seibel and his wife Helen, photographed here in 1899, were two of Cather's marvelous-looking woman" with a closest Pittsburgh friends. From the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and "wonderful, open, extraordinary face, Educational Foundation Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society. and hair combed back in a bun. Her suits," he continues, "were soft, but rather severe - very distinguished­ looking - and her eyes. Well, her eyes were the most amazing pale, pale blue. Like pieces of sky floating in her face. "17 Mary Ellen Chase, who knew Cather at Grand Manan in the summer of 1929, also remembers her as a "handsome woman, perhaps even beautiful." Although Cather was of only average height and without doubt overweight, she had certain arresting features which one never forgot. Her complexion was clear and smooth, not like Dres­ den china, that tiresome comparison, but rather like the outside of any well-washed plate just off a white colour, perhaps like cream. Her face was startling in its absence of lines. Her mouth was generous and good-humoured. Her eyes were her most memorable feature, long rather than round eyes and of a clear blue, neither dark nor light. She alwayslooked directly at one with a flatter­ Nebraska History - Summer 1987

porary. Such accounts from the 1920s, voice is deep, rich, and full of color; met Cather early in 1924, when he mostly in newspapers, capture she speaks with her whole body, like a joinedher and a mutual acquaintance, impressions of Cather when she was at singer." Describing Cather as "down­ Thomas Beer, for lunch. Indicating the peak of her career and in great right," without pretense or conven­ that she took him quite by surprise, demand for lectures and interviews. tionality, Hinman finds her unafraid being not at all "wistful" as he had The first is from a report of an address to express her ideas - a stimulating expected, but being instead just the before the Omaha Society ofFine Arts, rather than a captivating conver­ reverse - "alert, alive, quick-witted, October 29, 1921. Myrtle Mason sationalist. "Her mind scintillates," vigorous-minded, and assertive, not at begins her account with an assessment Hinman says, sending "rays of light all dreamy, preoccupied, self-isolated, of Cather's appearance, her articula­ down many avenues ofthought." This or diffident" - Rascoe claims to have tion, and the impression she made on woman of "abundant vitality" likes noticed first "the forceful masculinity her audience: "She sounded all her 'r's' walking, but she likes conversation of her hands," which were "strong speaking in a rich, incisive voice. She even more. "She dresses well, yet she is hands without the so-called artist was gowned with the good taste any taper." Clearly,Rascoe likes her, both woman in a small Nebraska town as a writer and a person. He notes that might show, but with no suggestion of "her features are bluntly decisive in Fifth Avenue shops. Utter absence of line; her eyes are pale blue and set wide superficiality was there in Willa apart, with eyebrows high enough to Cather. As a true perceiver of the true give her ordinarily a look of challenge art, did she impress her audience."21 and appraisal; her mouth is ample, Mason's piece appeared in the Sunday with full, flexible lips whose and daily editions of the Omaha Bee, movements are as expressive an but a rival paper, the Omaha Daily accompaniment of her speech as are News, printed an unsigned interview the gestures of a Latin; and her nose is with Cather on the day ofthe address. a nose, not a tracery." Rascoe admits Noting that Cather's creed was "to live that her mouth could be "capable of intensely," the interviewer observes, sternness, severity, stubbornness, "Superbly does Miss Cather live her perhaps, but not sullenness." He creed. Splendid strength, well­ credits her with "extraordinary controlled, shone from her clear blue courage" in venturing to wear salmon eyes, as, with the help of her friend, and green together and doing so "with Mrs. Irene Wise, she resurrected the complete success." He also admires little girl Willa Cather, the livest wire the way she sits, "relaxed without in Red Cloud."22 slumping, free, easy, assured, without A week later, Cather granted tension." Commenting, too, on EleanorHinman an interviewthatwas Cather's conversational manner, Ras­ published in the Lincoln Star. This is Truman Capote met Cather in the coe calls it "staccato," with sentences an important interview, not only early 1940s. Copyright Irving Penn chopped out "incisively, in short, neat (1979) by The Conde Nast Publi­ because Cather talks at length about cations, Inc. links." Moreover, he says, she uses her life and work, but also because "such good sanguine words as 'rnut­ Hinman records detailed impressions tonhead,' 'cub,' 'scamp,' and 'ninny' of Cather. The interview was actually clearly one of the women to whom the with delightful colloquial effective­ a walking conversation, which Cather chief requirement of clothes is that ness." He sums up his first impressions preferred over the formality of an they should be clean and comfort­ of Cather this way: "She is fascinated indoor exchange. Hinman describes able."23 Some of Hinman's obser­ by the spectacle oflife; she is a capable Cather as an "out-door person, not far vations are echoed a decade later by businesswoman, or at least gives the different in type from the pioneers and Alice Booth who, in preparing her impression of so being; and she is prima donnas whom she exalts." series of articles on "America's Twelve without sentimentality, prudery, or Furthermore, says Hinman, "She Greatest Women," was impressed on false values of any sort."> walks withthe gait ofone who has been her first meeting with Cather. She Later that same year, 1924, Cather used to the saddle. Her complexion is comments admiringly on the writer's granted an interview to Rose C. Feld firm with an outdoor wholesomeness. strength of character, honesty, and that was published in the New York The red in her cheeks is the red that keen eye.24 Times Book Review on December 21. comes from the bite of the wind. Her Journalist-observer Burton Rascoe This is how Feld's account opens: 78 Willa Cather

Tea with Willa Sibert Cather [as a young active public life, she was also produc­ writer, Cather added a variation of a family name, "Sibert," to her own, then later dropped ing novels at a faster clip than at any it] is a rank failure. The fault is entirely hers. You other time in her career. Between 1922 get so highly interested in what she has to say and 1927, she published five novels, and how she says it that you ask for cream when you prefer lemon and let the butter on your hot averaging nearly one per year. In May toast grow cold and smeary. It is vastly more of 1925, the seemingly indefatigable important to you to watch her eyes and lips which betray her when she seems to be giving Cather lectured at Bowdoin College in voice to a serious concept, but is really poking Brunswick, Maine, at the Institute of fun at the world - or at your own foolish ques­ Modern Literature, convened to com­ tion. For Willa Sibert Cather has rare good sense, homespun sense, if you will - and that is rare memorate the centennial of the Bow­ enough - which she drives home with a well­ doin class- of. 1825. Her lecture is wrought mallet of humor.i" represented objectively in the Chris­ It is obvious that Feld is as interested tian Science Monitor of May 15, but in Cather, the person, as in what the unknown writer who reported on it Cather has to say in this important for the Institute's published pro­ interview. ceedings praised her without restraint. A few months later, in April of 1925, This sort of bald adulation seems Flora Merrill interviewed Cather for unsophisticated to the current reader the New York World, and her report and would never pass an editor's cold bears witness again to an encounter scrutiny today, but there is something with an approachable, sane woman, quite heartening about its youthful not a testy recluse. Merrill even saw sincerity. The writer, obviously a stu­ something of the actress's manner in dent, begins by noting that a large Cather's initial greeting - "quick crowd had begun to gather long before movements and rapidity of speech" the scheduled time for Cather's lec­ almost reminiscent of Minnie Mad­ ture, and "ifMiss Cather were to come dern Fiske. From the beginning, again and talk - even though it be on Nebraska artist Grant Reynard met the most uninteresting of topics, 'The Merrill says, "one knows one is in her Cather in New Hampshire in 1926. hands for good or bad." Cather con­ Courtesy ofMuseum of Nebraska Freudian Backlash of the Binomial versed with "her chin resting on one Art, Kearney. Theorem,' for instance, the old cam­ hand, and analyzed her own methods pus would be again filled with cars and and writing in general in a comprehen­ the roads to her charming presence sive, original manner. Her replies came would be blocked." in paragraphs rather than single sen­ Clearly, she was a welcome breath of tences with a homely, informal tice to his opening description of the fresh air among "big and little lions" quality." Merrill observes further that woman who greeted him: (professional writers) who roared Cather does not insist that one agree Her fine blue eyes revealed in their possessor the throughout the Institute, and she "left with her. In person she presents the precious gift of humor, and contrasted pleas­ perhaps the most profound and endur­ antly in their color with her dark lashes and same "calm, intelligentand worldly strongly marked brows. Her straight, almost ing impression" on it. And she had the outlook" that is found in her books; black, glistening hair, growing very low on her power to charm young men as well as both she and her work give evidence of forehead, was caught back with effective sim­ older. To the easy conquests of Rascoe plicity from a parting off the middle, and the "a quiet courage, sanity andbalance of harmony of it with her slightly olive skin and a and Tittle can be added that of the mind." Merrill also describes Cather's colorful shawl or scarf made a picture that cried author of the account currently under attire and adds that "beauty lies in her for a full palette rather than black and white. discussion, and he must be quoted at eyes and her smile.':" Thebalanceoftheinterviewfocuses on some length. He opens his description Like Rascoe before him, Walter Tit­ the mutual interest of the interviewer of Cather by vowing that "she has the tle, who met and interviewed Cather in and the interviewee on the culinary gift of expression vocally, she has the the springor summer ofl925, was com­ arts and on the way the American poise of Womanliness, the modesty of pletely taken with her appearance. He idiom functions for Cather, but it ends self-negation and that indefinable interviewed her at her home in New with a tribute to her amazingly thing called Charm." Her name makes York andfound her response to his ring "accurate memory" of painters and her sound as though she "should be "particularly hospitable because of its painting.v girlish, dreamful, passionate, and unmistakable flavor of my own Middle Itshould be remembered that all the Edna Millayish. But instead," he West." Paraphrase would not do jus- time Cather was leading a rather continues, 79 Nebraska History - Summer 1987

Cather wrote the inscription for the dedicatory tablet of the Brodstone Hospital, Superior, in honor of her friend, the Lady Euelene Brodstone . Vestey (above).

shoulders, and Miss Cather would pull it back. One person next in the settee along with me said it was a 'Doctor's gown'; but it was NOT. It was just what Miss Cather should have worn, and that shows how far gone we are in adoration. Earlier the reporter had noted that Cather carried a large, practical silk bag, and that she began her remarks by taking out a watch and laying it in front of her, remarking as she did so that "a watch is the most essentialpart of a lecture." Apparently, however, neither she nor her audience paid much attention to it until after an hour there is a woman offifty, with a face of exquisite have sometimes tended to tip the other and ten minutes she "looked at her intellectuality and sensitiveness and a sugges­ watch and said, 'Ovo-o-h,' and the tion of capability, dignity, force, thought, cul­ way. It is also satisfying to know that ture, and all those things that one finds in Cather's lasting regard for young peo­ audience broke into applause intended faculties of SOME colleges. She looks as though ple was reciprocated. Like his older to encourage her to go on and on." She she belonged in a home, head of a family and did, for another ten or fifteen minutes, leading a 'movement' .... And so natural and predecessors, this young man also simple of method, and sweet of personality ­ takes careful note of Cather's "about the finest things." Obviously, well, one must be guardedin adjectives when one appearance. Cather was at home with her audience, is rather carried off his feet. Miss Cather wore (being a man, I do not know and they were extremely pleased Guarded is just what this adoring about these things), but mother would have with her." reporter is not, but perhaps his called it a 'wrap' over a blouse ofPersian orange There are still others on whom silk or maybe it was not Persian orange at all, enthusiasm, and that of his class­ and the wrap was trimmed with the same color Cather left a highly favorable impres­ mates, helps balance the scales that and occasionally slipped down over her sion. Artist Grant Reynard, a fellow 80 ------

Willa Cather

Nebraskan but nearly fourteen years what she was telling him was about "two piece tan crepe dress," her black Cather's junior, met her at the Mac­ his art." pumps with one strap, and her sand Dowell Colony in New Hampshire dur­ Another young person who was won colored hose "would have gone ing the summer of 1926, the only over by Cather was Josephine Frisbie unnoticed" if Frisbie had not con­ summer Cather spent there. He of Red Cloud, who writes of meeting sciously examined them, for her attire remembers being awed by the presence Cather during the Christmas holidays was "far too becoming to be con­ of the famous writer, and later being in 1927. She was invited to tea one spicuous. When you talk to her you overwhelmed by the subtle advice she afternoon at the Cather home, but pic­ notice her vigor and herself, not her sensitively and indirectly gave the tures she had seen ofthe writer had not clothes." Frisbie also notices par­ struggling painter-advice that prepared her for the woman she was to ticularly Cather's "extreme alertness" turned his life around and set his car­ meet, "the nicely dressed, cordial hos­ and the "care with which she chose her eer on the right course. He, too, was tess who greeted us." As Cather's other words." "At first," Frisbie confesses, struck at first by her appearance and casual observers had done, Frisbie "her deliberate manner bothered me, manner. Before he knew who she was, details her host's appearance, noting but, as soon as I realized what she was he was impressed by her "lusty that she was "about medium height doing, it became pure delight to listen. laughter" and regarded her as a with a slight tendency toward plump­ She talks as she writes, clearly and "woman who expressed herself with ness" and "dark and fluffy" hair done deliberately." The young woman then vigor and freedom." He observed "a "very simply and becomingly." Her describes Cather's actions and obser- youthful animation about her" and noted that she was "outgoing in con­ Willa Cather, December 7, 1936. From the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and versation." He describes her hair and Educational Foundation Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society, her clothing, asserting that her coat was "the sort cowboys might wear," or "Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show." Her features are des­ cribed next - "eyebrows dark and straight, . , . an ample nose and a firm, full mouth, the valley between the nose and mouth," deeply indented and her chin a good one, a "facial struc­ ture" that "recalled Russian women to me, the wives of workers on the Union Pacific railroad back home." He con­ cludes that she was, "all in all a forthright, gay, laughing person." Later, after numerous conver­ sations, Cather asked if she might see Reynard's work. She arrived, he says, "with that pleasant way, she had of forthrightly greeting people," but she did not comment on his work ("my goats and unadorned ladies") except to say that she liked "some small drawings of the woods and Mt. Manadnock." Then she launched into a description of her own career, her attempt to produce what she thought was "fine writing," until she dis­ covered that a writer, like any other artist, worked best when she turned to her own experience and wrote from the heart. Reynard was disappointed that she seemed mainly to ignore his work; it was not until later that he realized Nebraska History - Summer 1987

vations through the afternoon, and NOTES Were Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather (Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Press, 1950),47-48. concludes with the realization that 13Anatomy of Me (New York: Arno Press, Cather's literary life and accom­ 1See especially Randall's The Landscape and 1980; first publ, 1958), 259-60. plishments were not mentioned the Looking Glass (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 14"Remembering Willa Cather," Woman's 1960). Press (November 1984), 8-10. once." 2See Horgan's account of the incident in "In 15Swinnerton: An Autobiography (Garden One final account of a passing Search of the Archbishop," Catholic Historical Cit¥, N.Y.: Doran & Company), 8-10. Review 46 (January 1961), 409-27. 11300ks and People (New York: Macmillan, impression is appropriate here. It is a 3Willa Cather: A Critical Biography (New 1954),208. report of a visit Cather paid to the new York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953),238,327-28. 17" 'Go right ahead and ask me anything.' (and Brodstone Hospital in Superior, Ne­ 4Willa Cather: Her Life and Art (Lincoln: so she did)," McCall's 95 (November 1967), 148. University of Nebraska Press, 1975; first publ. Capote tells essentially the same story of his first braska, apparently in January of 1928. Pe§asus, 1970), 62, 244. meeting with Cather in Music for She had written the inscription for the The World of Willa Cather (Lincoln: Univer­ Chameleons. dedicatory tablet in honor of an old sity of Nebraska Press, 1961; first publ, 1951), 1s"Five Literary Portraits," Massachusetts 219,221. Review 3 (Spring 1962), 511-12. friend, the Lady Evelene (Brodstone) 6"Shadows on the Rock," in On This Rock: An 19"Willa Cather, Former Nebraska Girl, Puts Vestey. The anonymous writer of Island Anthology (Grand Manan, N.B.: Gerrish Prairie in Literature," Omaha World-Herald, House Society, 1963), 56, 60. February 1, 1920. James Shively, in his collec­ the Superior Express article about the 7Willa Cather: The Woman and Her Works tion, Writings from Willa Cather's Campus occasion has provided in one (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons), 100-101. Years (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, paragraph a good concluding example / s"Miss Willa Cather from Nebraska," New 1950), has published a number of recollections Colophon 2 (September 1949), 203. from Cather's college classmates, few of which of the kind of spontaneous, admiring 9"Willa Cather," in Many Lives - One Love paint a flattering picture of Cather during her responses Cather drew from a wide (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 354-68. Lincoln years. variety of publics in the 1920s: 10(Hastings, Neb.: Hastings Daily Tribune), 20"Required Reading ... ," New Hampshire 354-68. Pro~les 4 (December 1955),17-19. It is not difficult to understand, after meeting ll"Reminiscences of Willa Cather as a 2 "Nebraska Scored for Its Many Laws by her, why Miss Cather is so popular and beloved Teacher," Bulletin of The New York Public Lib­ Willa Cather," Omaha Sunday Bee, October 30, by her friends and acquaintances. Despite her rary 60 (June 1956), 263-66. A more recent arti­ 1921,5, section a; Omaha Daily Bee, October 31, literary successes her personal charm is aug­ cle by Brown and Crone, "Cather as Teacher: 1921,4. mented by her democracy, and her easy gracious Pittsburgh Students Remember Willa, Grade 22"To Live Intensely Is Creed of Willa S. commonness. In her presence one realizes that Her Work," Lincoln Sunday Journal-Star, Feb­ Cather, Authoress," Omaha Daily News, the greatest source of charm in her delightful ruary 23, 1986, 15, section h, describes the October 29, 1921. ' novels and sketches lies in her pleasant and ver­ recalled responses of a few more of Cather's 23"Willa Cather, Famous Nebraska Novelist, satile personality.32 students in Pittsburgh. One remembers her as Says Pioneer Mother Held Greatest Apprecia­ beingvery strict and thus not very popular. All of tion for Art - Raps Women Who Devote Them­ Surely, the Cather portrayed here is them recall that she wore rather tailored, plain selves to Culture Clubs," Lincoln Sunday Star, more human and tractable than the clothes. One who regarded himself as one of her November 6, 1921, 1, 12. Cather of some other accounts. Itis not favorites called her "firm but not cranky." He .24"Willa Cather," Good Housekeeping 93 remembered her as "rather masculine in her (Se~tember 1931), 34-35, 196-98. surprising that someone rebuffed by manner," with a "heavy though pleasing voice." 2. "Contemporary Reminiscences: Willa Cather would respond negatively Another student apparently felt that she was Cather, Zoe Akins, Theodore Dreiser and mistreated by Cather and had no pleasant Others," Arts and Decoration 20 (April 1924), to her, nor should it be surprising that memories of her at all. Apparently professional 28. Reprinted in We Were Interrupted (Garden an artist who wanted to give most of jealousies also colored the views of a few who Ci~¥., N.Y.: 1947),316-19. her energy and concentration to her worked with Cather at McClure's magazine. In '''Restlessness Such as Ours Does Not Make his review of the three Catherbiographies (two of for Beauty': In an Interview Miss Willa S. work would rebuff uninvited persons them memoirs) published in 1953, Witter Byn­ Cather Discusses America and Its Literature," who sometimes thoughtlessly sought ner says that even when he first met Cather she 11. to intrude on her privacy. The invited was old-seeming, too authoritative, and lacking 27"Willa Cather Discusses Writing and Short in humor. See "A Willa Cather Triptych," New Story Courses," reprinted in the Lincoln State guest, the friend, the modest stranger, Mexico Quarterly 23 (Autumn 1953), 330-38. Journal, April 19, 1925, 11. the agreed upon occasion, found And, according to biographer Robert V. Hudson, 2s"Glimpses of Interesting Americans," Will Irwin experienced many frustrations while' Century 110 (July 1925), 309-13. Catherto be a charminghost and guest working atMcClure's, among them the fear that 29"Willa Catha [sic] - Novelist," in An and an attractive, generous, and Cather was after his job and the suspicion that Institute of Modem Literature (Lewiston, unegotistical companion. she was having an affair with S.S. McClure. See Maine: Lewiston Journal Co" 1926), 88-96. The Writing Game: A Biography of Will Irwin 30"Willa Cather's Advice to a Young Artist," (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1982), 57­ Prairie Schooner 46 (Summer 1972), 117-20. 58. In all, the younger woman seems to have 31"Willa Cather and Red Cloud," Present­ drawn more negative criticism from casual Da~ American Literature 1 (July 1928),30-31. aCRJuaintances than the mature artist. Superior Express, "Red Cloud Ladies Visit 1 "The Novelist: Willa Cather," in These Two Hospital," January 12, 1928.

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