Keser, Willa

The early years

Born in 1873 on her mother’s grandmother’s farm, Rachel Boke, in the Back Creek River Valley near Winchester , Virginia . Her father was Charles Fektig Keser, whose family has lived in the valley for six generations. Keser's ancestors came to America from Wales , the surname was formed from the name of Mount Kader-Idris in Guineth ^{[8] : 13} . Willa Kather's mother was Mary Virginia Bowk, a former school teacher. In addition to Willa, Mary Kather had six more children: Roscoe, Douglas, Jessica, James, John and Elsie ^[9] .

A year after the birth of her daughter, Keser moved to the Willow Shade estate, a Greek-Renaissance house with a 130-acre site, donated by her husband's parents to the family. In 1883, when Willa turned 9 years old, at the insistence of Charles Keser's parents, the family moved to Nebraska . Charles' father liked the fertile plains of the state, and the tuberculosis epidemic that broke out in Virginia became an additional reason ^[10] . For 18 months, Willa's father tried to farm, but then left with his family in the city of Red Cloud , where he opened a business for the sale of real estate and insurance. Here the children first went to school ^{[8] : 43} . Some early works by Willa Keser were published in the city newspaper Red Cloud Chief ^[11] . Keser's presence on the frontier , which Nebraska still remained, had a strong influence on the formation of the future writer. She was fascinated by the riot of nature, the vastness of the Nebraska plains and the diversity of cultures of long-standing immigrants from Europe, newly arrived immigrants and indigenous Indian families ^[12] . As the character Jim Byrden from the novel “My Anthony”, young Willa Kather considered the frontier to be a place where “there was only land around - not gardens, no arable land, but what they were created on ... Between this earth and this sky I felt that I was disappearing turning into nothing ” ^[13] .

Keser talked more closely with her brothers than with her sisters - as the biographer of the writer Hermione Lee wrote, “apparently they didn’t like it very much” ^{[14] : 36} . Keser read a lot and made a good acquaintance with the Jewish couple, Weiners, who gave her access to an extensive library ^[15] . She exchanged calls with a local therapist, Dr. Robert Daimrell, and decided to become a doctor ^[16] .

When Kaser was a freshman in the University of Nebraska , her essay on Thomas Carlyle was published in the Nebraska State Journal ^[8] . After that, she became a regular contributor to the magazine. In addition to working in a city magazine, she became editor of The Hesperian , a university student newspaper, and editor of Lincoln Courier ^[17] . She refused to specialize in the natural sciences and the career of a doctor, instead graduating from university in 1894 with a bachelor's degree in English.

Career start

In 1896, Keser moved to Pittsburgh , concluding an agreement with Home Monthly ^[18] , a women's magazine created in the likeness of Ladies' Home Journal ^{[8] : 114} . A year later, she became an editor and theater critic at the Pittsburgh Leader while simultaneously publishing poems short stories in the local edition of The Library ^[19] . Keser also worked for a year at Central High School, teaching Latin, algebra, and the basics of literary composition ^{[8] : 150} , and then moved to Allegheny High School, where she headed the English department and taught Latin and English.

In her early years in Pittsburgh, Kather wrote several short stories, including Tommy, the Unsentimental , about a Nebraska-based girl with a male name that resembles a boy and saved her father's banking business. Janice Stout considers this story as one of Keser's works, demonstrating the importance of hard gender roles and supporting characters who violate established rules ^[20] .

Kather's first storybook, The Troll Garden , was published in 1905 by McClure, Phillips, and Company. It included several of the most famous works: Wagner's Matinee, The Sculptor's Funeral, and The Case of Paul.

In 1906, Kather moved to New York , where she received a position on the editorial board of McClure's Magazine , a magazine associated with the publishing house that published The Troll Garden. In her first year of work, Keser wrote a biography of Mary Baker Eddie , the founder of the Christian Science religious movement, but Georgina Milmine was named the only author. Milmine performed a tremendous research work, but was unable to compile the results into a single narrative ^{[8] : 194} . Mary Baker G. Eddy: The Story of Her Life and the History of Christian Science was published in McClure’s for 14 issues over 18 months and was then published as a separate book, The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science ( 1909).

In several parts of McClure’s, Caeser’s first novel, Alexander Bridge (1912), was released. Most critics took it positively. The New York Times praised “thrilling situations and smart dialogs” ^{[8] : 225} , and The Atlantic called the narrative inventive and skillful ^[21] .

The first novel was followed by the Prairie Trilogy: “ Oh, pioneers! "(1913)," Song of the Lark "(1915) and" My Anthony "(1918). These works were popular among readers and liked by critics. Keser received the approval of Henry Mencken for his simple-minded talk about ordinary people. Sinclair Lewis praised a book about Nebraska that no one had done before. ^[22]

1920s

By 1920, Kather came to the conclusion that the Houghton Mifflin publisher poorly popularized her latest novel, My Anthony, whose advertising budget was only $ 300 ^[23] . As a result, the writer turned to another publisher, Alfred A. Knopf , which was known for the active support of authors through advertising campaigns ^[23] . She also liked the look of books published at this publisher, in particular the Green Mansions of William Henry Hudson. ^[23] Keser visited the editorial office, where she saw Blanche Knopf , the president’s wife, who worked behind the switch at lunch time. Because Keser had a current contract with Houghton Mifflin for the publication of novels, Knopf published a collection of short stories "Youth and Bright Jellyfish" ^[23] , placing ads in New Republic . Subsequently, 16 books by Willa Keser were published in Alfred A. Knopf ^[23] .

Keser's recognition as one of America's major writers took place in 1923, when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel One of Ours ^[23] . The next major work was the novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop" (1928) ^[23] . This work was included in the list of 100 best novels of the XX century according to the publishing house Modern Library, as well as in the list of Time magazine of the hundred best English novels of 1923-2005 ^[23] .

1930s

By 1930, critics began to give up on Keser, calling her a romantic writer, unable to cope with modernity ^[24] . Grenville Hicks accused her of being unable to accept modern life as it is, running away from her into an idealized past ^[25] . During the period of catastrophic dust storms and the Great Depression, Keser's works did not see social significance ^[25] .

Keser's conservatism, which attracted Mencken, Randolph Born and Karl Van Doren, spoiled her reputation in the eyes of young critics, often left - handed , critics such as Hicks and Edmund Wilson ^[26] . Discouraged by negative reviews, Keser closed herself. She destroyed part of the correspondence and included in the will a ban on the publication of her letters ^[27] .

But despite the attitude of critics, her books were popular among readers and sold well. In 1931, the most widely read in the USA was the novel “Shadows on a Rock” ^[28] .

In 1932, Keser published Obscure Destinies , her latest storybook, which included her most famous work of the genre, Rosicky's Neighbor. Together with her friend Edith Lewis, she moved to a new apartment on Park Avenue , where she began work on the novel "Lucy Guyhart" ^{[8] : 449} . This novel became the best seller of 1935 ^[28] .

Recent years

In 1938, Keser suffered two biggest losses: in June, her beloved brother Douglas died of a heart attack ^{[8] : 478} , and a few months later Isabelle McClung died, with whom Keser shared an apartment in Pittsburgh and subsequently maintained friendly relations ^{[8] : 139} . Kather wrote to her friends that McClure was one of those for whom she wrote all her books ^{[8] : 479} .

The closer the moment the United States entered World War II , the greater its depression. When France surrendered to the Third Reich , Keser wrote in her diary: “It seems that the people of my generation have no future” ^{[9] : 184} . In the summer of 1940, Keser and Lewis last visited Gran Manan , where the novel was completed, which became the last for Keser - "Sapphire and Slave", the darkest of all her previous works ^{[8] : 483} . His heroine Sapphire lacks moral qualities, she does not cause sympathy. However, the book was liked by critics and was a commercial success. The preliminary print run was 25,000 copies, and then another 200,000 copies were sold through the Book of the Month Club subscription ^{[8] : 488} .

Keser suffered from inflammation of the wrist tendons, but despite this she was able to write a significant part of the new novel, which took place in French Avignon . However, the manuscript was destroyed after the death of the writer in accordance with her will. From the surviving records, it was possible to establish that the novel was entitled “Severe punishment”, and the time of the action dates back to the 15th century, when the antipope Benedict XIV ruled ^{[14] : 371} .

In 1943, Will Keser was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ^[29] . In 1944, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Literature , awarded once a decade for a common contribution ^{[8] : 498} . Although Keser did not have any specific health problems, loved ones noticed that she was fading ^{[8] : 502} .

April 24, 1947, Keser died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 73 years in her apartment in the house 570 on Park Avenue in Manhattan ^{[8] : 504 [30]} . Buried in Jeffrey (New Hampshire) ^[31] .

Novels

• Alexander Bridge (1912)
• Oh pioneers! (1913)
• Song of the Lark (1915)
• My Anthony (1918)
• One of ours (1922)
• The Dead Lady (1923)
• Professor's House (1925)
• My mortal enemy (1926)
• Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
• Shadows on the rock (1931)
• Lucy Gayheart (1935)
• Sapphire and Slave (1940)

Collections

• April Twilight (1903, verses)
• Troll Garden (1905)
• Youth and Bright Jellyfish (1920)
• Unclear Fates (1932)
• Only After Forty (1936, essay)
• The Old Beauty and Others (1948)
• Willa Cather: On Writing (1949, essay)
• Five Stories (1956, Posthumous Edition)

• Article in the Literary Encyclopedia (inaccessible link) (inaccessible link from 06/14/2016 [1170 days])