Great Short Works of Willa Cather

The greatest gift Ms. Cather had was in making her characters knowable. When reading a story, you felt that you know the people she wrote about. You could sit down for a cup of coffee with them, like you have known them forever. 'Eric Hermannson's Soul' is about the religion and love of life out on the prairie. Eric 'gets religion' then meets a woman who shows him that life could be enjoyed. 'The Sculptor's Funeral' is set in his parent's home. He had left home to get his education out East and became successful and happy. One of his students is in attendance. The local community pillars are also there. The talk turns to how the sculptor treated his folks, embarrassingly bad. Another fellow from the town, a lawyer, is there as well and sets them all straight. 'A Wagner Matinee' has his aunt coming to Boston for a few days to settle an inheritance. He shows her around and she ends up crying for joy. You sort of wonder if she regrets her choices made many years ago. 'Paul's Case - A Study in Temperament' is a high school kid suffering from angst. He just can not get past that he can not have an exciting, fun filled life. 'The Enchanted Bluff'' is in New Mexico. A group of high school boys hanging out on a sand bar during the summer regale each other with stories and plans for the future. One of them tells of this place in New Mexico. 'The Bohemian Girl' is the daughter of the local barkeeper. She has married well and her brother-in-law, the prodigal son, sort of, has come to visit. 'Uncle Valentine (Adagio non troppo)' lived next door to the narrator when she was growing up. He was a composer who married badly, lived in France, etc and got away from all that. He has come home and he and the little girl's family are close. The time he is there is wonderful, in fact, later on, you learn that it is referred to as 'the golden year.' 'Neighbour Rosicky' is a gentle farmer who has grown old. His family is one of the few that are truly happy. His wife and children are the joy of his life. He has known city life and never thinks it is worthy of a second thought if there is a choice. He is proud that he has given his children that choice. 'Old Mrs. Harris' is the mother who takes care of her daughter's family like a maid or cook or nanny. There are trials and tribulations to be dealt with and she does. She is from an old Southern well-to-do family, with certain social standards and ways. 'The Novel Démeublé' is not a story. It is an exposition of writing and what makes a better writer.

Willa Cather wrote that book that many of us were forced to read in high school, My Antonia, but she did much more that that. Her novels from the plains and prairies deal with the clash of Eastern and Western culture (as in Eastern and Western United states) as well as the values of art and the simple life. At the center of Cather's message is the search for meaning in the midst of relationships that sometimes offer limited choices. This collection of her great short stories is a wonderful way to re-introduce yourself to an American Storyteller in smaller does than a full-length novel. Herein you will fined what is perhaps Cather's most-reproduced short story, "Paul's Case", a tale of a young high schooler who goes off to the big city because of the lure of its culture, music and art. This was the only short story of Cather's I had read before buying this book. The other stories took me to the Lone Star schoolhouse for a revival sweeping a rural Western community (in "Eric Hermannson's Soul"), a Kansas train station ("The Sculptor's Funeral"), a Manhattan concert hall ("The Wagner Matinee"), a Nebraska riverbank ("The Enchanted Bluff") and more. Cather's vivid descriptions conjure up whole worlds in these diverse settings. My favorite story, however, was "Uncle Valentine" which tells the story of "a golden summer" before a brilliant young musical composer's life is sidetracked by a series of unfortunate events. The story is poignant whether one understands that the main character is based on a real American composer or not. Although this anthology was published sixteen years ago, it is still in print. Perhaps due not onlly to the wonderful stories but also the maginficant introduction by Robert K. Brown. Brown allows those of us who are not scholars of American letters to feel as if we do in fact have an understanding of Miss Cather and her remarkable career as newspaper reporter, literary magazine editor and Pulitzer Prize winning author.