Student Companion to Willa C ATHER Willa Cather. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Student Companion to Willa C ATHER Linda De Roche Student Companions to Classic Writers Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data De Roche, Linda. Student companion to Willa Cather / Linda De Roche. p. cm. — (Student companions to classic writers, ISSN 1522–7979) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–313–32842–0 (alk. paper) 1. Cather, Willa, 1873–1947—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Cather, Willa, 1873–1947—Examinations—Study guides. I. Title. II. Series. PS3505.A87Z624 2006 813’.54—dc22 2006002441 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2006 by Linda De Roche All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006002441 ISBN: 0–313–32842–0 ISSN: 1522–7979 First published in 2006 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Stéphane, Who makes the journey worthwhile Contents Series Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi 1 A Writer’s Life 1 2 Within and against Tradition: Willa Cather’s 21 Literary Career 3 A Writer’s Beginnings: The Troll Garden (1905) and 47 Alexander’s Bridge (1912) 4 “The Land beneath 67 Your Feet”: O Pioneers! (1913) 5 The Song of the Lark (1915) 89 6 My Ántonia (1918) 109 7 After “the World Broke in Two”: 135 The Professor’s House (1925) 8 Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) 155 9 Shadows on the Rock (1931) 177 CONTENTS 10 Coda 199 Selected Bibliography 201 Index 213 viii Series Foreword This series has been designed to meet the needs of students and general readers for accessible literary criticism on the American and world writers most frequently studied and read in the secondary school, community college, and four-year college classrooms. Unlike other works of literary criticism that are written for the specialist and graduate student, or that feature a variety of reprinted scholarly essays on sometimes obscure aspects of the writer’s work, the Student Companions to Classic Writers series is carefully crafted to examine each writer’s major works fully and in a systematic way, at the level of the nonspecialist and general reader. The objective is to enable the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the work and to apply critical thinking skills to the act of reading. The proven format for the volumes in this series was developed by an advisory board of teachers and librarians for a successful series published by Greenwood Press, Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Responding to their request for easy-to-use and yet challenging literary criticism for students and adult library patrons, Greenwood Press developed a systematic format that is not intimidating but helps the reader to develop the ability to analyze literature. How does this work? Each volume in the Student Companions to Classic Writers series is written by a subject specialist, an academic who understands students’ needs for basic and yet challenging exam-