University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: English, Department of Department of English Spring 5-2014 Advertising "In These imes:"T How Historical Context Influenced Advertisements for Willa Cather's Fiction Erika K. Hamilton University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss Part of the American Literature Commons Hamilton, Erika K., "Advertising "In These Times:" How Historical Context Influenced Advertisements for Willa Cather's Fiction" (2014). Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English. 87. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss/87 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. ADVERTISING “IN THESE TIMES:” HOW HISTORICAL CONTEXT INFLUENCED ADVERTISEMENTS FOR WILLA CATHER’S FICTION by Erika K. Hamilton A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: English Under the Supervision of Professor Guy Reynolds Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2014 ADVERTISING “IN THESE TIMES:” HOW HISTORICAL CONTEXT INFLUENCED ADVERTISEMENTS FOR WILLA CATHER’S FICTION Erika K. Hamilton, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2014 Adviser: Guy Reynolds Willa Cather’s novels were published during a time of upheaval. In the three decades between Alexander’s Bridge and Sapphira and the Slave Girl, America’s optimism, social mores, culture, literature and advertising trends were shaken and changed by World War One, the “Roaring Twenties,” and the Great Depression. This dissertation examines how Cather’s fiction was advertised in periodicals during this time, how literary and historical context influenced advertisements, and how publicity for Cather conversed with and diverged from advertising trends. Each chapter explores Cather’s opinions on publicity strategies such as author photos, reviews, gossip, prizes, speaking engagements and endorsements, while acknowledging the dichotomy between Cather’s theory of art and her willingness to bend her own “rules” in favor of publicity and sales. In public comments, Willa Cather disavowed any relationship between business and art. “Economics and art are strangers,” she wrote in a 1936 letter to The Commonweal (Willa Cather On Writing 27). What Cather wrote in theory, she didn’t always follow in practice. She wanted to write fiction for which there is no market demand, but she was interested in sales and actively guided the creation of advertisements. Her novels and the advertisements for them did not usually follow market trends or current events, but publicity for Death Comes for the Archbishop fed off increased interest in books about religion. She shied away from allowing photos of herself, but large photos graced several advertisements placed by her publisher. This study of Willa Cather’s advertising history illustrates her growing popularity as a writer, her fluctuating level of satisfaction with her publishers’ commitment to advertising, and her efforts to create a market for her fiction in lieu of creating fiction for the market. It also examines advertisements for Cather in context with her contemporaries, analyzing advertisements for authors such as John Dos Passos, Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis and Bess Streeter Aldrich. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, my gratitude to Susan J. Rosowski (1942-2004) who introduced me to Cather Studies when I was a student of Creative Writing and Renaissance Literature. What began as a class to fill my schedule became a focal point for my doctoral work. Sue provided valuable guidance during the composition of Chapter Two, “Advertising Cather During the Transition Years.” I also wish to thank Paul A. Olson, who co-chaired my Supervisory Committee with Sue Rosowski before becoming sole chair from 2004 until his retirement in 2006. His advice on research methods and resources helped structure my approach to this topic. My committee has demonstrated faith, patience and enthusiasm while guiding and encouraging my completion of this degree. My sincere thanks and gratitude to Guy Reynolds, Melissa Homestead, Andrew Jewell, and Nancy Mitchell. Thanks also to Susan Belasco, a former committee member, who was the first reader of Chapter One. Funding was provided by Barbara J. Lawrence Arnold through the University of Nebraska Foundation to support my travel expenses while researching Willa Cather’s and Houghton Mifflin’s correspondence at the Houghton Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This dissertation would have never been completed without the full support and understanding of my colleagues and my family. Many thanks to my husband, my children, my parents and my husband’s parents for picking up the slack while I was busy working on this! v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 I. Successful Advertising Strategies in the Late 19th Century ........................................ 14 II. Advertising Cather During the Transition Years (1914-1922) ................................... 34 III. To Sell the War (1918-1922): Advertising Strategies for Books on WWI ................. 64 IV. Controversy Sells: Advertising the Pulitzers .............................................................. 79 V. Advertising Cather in a Broken World (1923-1929) ................................................. 114 VI. The Rise of Nebraska Writers During the Great Depression ................................... 150 Epilogue .......................................................................................................................... 195 Exhibits ........................................................................................................................... 197 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 216 1 INTRODUCTION A study of methods used to advertise Willa Cather’s fiction must necessarily acknowledge the dichotomy between Cather’s theory of art and her business practice. In the 1973 introduction to Uncle Valentine and Other Stories, Bernice Slote lists two drives that motivated Willa Cather: 1) to have a successful career in a business world of men; and 2) to be a great artist (xiv). As a trusted and respected editor at McClure’s Magazine, Cather was “determined to succeed in business, to win out.” Her career as an editor, however, “did not mesh with her most creative forces, her most creative self” (Slote xiii). Her long-time partner, Edith Lewis, said “the hard grind of newspaper work” left Cather without “energy for anything else” (43). Cather’s departure from McClure’s to concentrate full-time on writing was intended to be a move away from the business world to focus more on the world of art, but Cather’s business side never left her. In her public comments, Willa Cather disavowed any relationship between business and art. “Economics and art are strangers,” she wrote in a 1936 letter to The Commonweal (Willa Cather On Writing 27). Despite Cather’s “public posturing” against market demand and popular taste, as expressed in “On the Art of Fiction” (1920) and “The Novel Démeublé” (1922), Melissa Homestead states that Cather “nevertheless quietly exploited middlebrow institutions, such as book clubs and mass-circulation women’s magazines, as a way to reach and engage the common reader” (78). What Cather wrote in theory, she didn’t always follow in practice. Brent Bohlke notes in his 2 Introduction to Willa Cather in Person that she “courted and enjoyed public notice, yet she loved anonymity and seclusion. She was enamored of the notice of the press and deeply resentful of the intrusions the press made upon her time and energies. She sought fame but disliked attention” (xxi). What Bohlke describes as a “civil war in Cather’s personality” is further described by David Porter as “rifts” or “divides” in Cather’s life and fiction. In his study of “autobiographical vignettes” and dust jacket blurbs written or co-written by Cather and Lewis, Porter sees Cather as “an author whose first goal throughout her career is to reach the heights” of art and as an author who “repeatedly devoted her writing skills to penning advertising copy and to otherwise promoting herself” (xx). My own study of print advertisements shows this same “jostling” (borrowing Slote’s term) between art and business. Cather says she wants to write fiction for which there is no market demand, but she is interested in sales and actively guides the creation of advertisements. Her novels and the advertisements for them do not usually follow market trends, but publicity for Death Comes for the Archbishop feeds off interest in books about religion. She shies away from allowing photos of herself, but large photos grace several advertisements placed by Alfred Knopf’s publishing firm. Bohlke and Porter both write about an “interview” printed in the September 5, 1926 issue of the Nebraska State Journal. Bohlke says: “This short interview, obviously wrested from her in an inescapable moment, reveals her impatience with the press, her wit, and much