"Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there—that, one might say, is created." This famous observation appears in Willa Cather on Writing, a collection of essays and letters first published in 1949. In the course of it Cather writes, with grace and piercing clarity, about her own fiction and that of Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, and Katherine Mansfield, among others. She concludes, "Art is a concrete and personal and rather childish thing after all—no matter what people do to graft it into science and make it sociological and psychological; it is no good at all unless it is let alone to be itself—a game of make-believe, of re-production, very exciting and delightful to people who have an ear for it or an eye for it."
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"[Willa Cather] is saying the most interesting, most profound things about the art of writing, and the life of art, that have been said in our time certainly, and she does it with immense grace and dignity."—Katherine Anne Porter, New York Times
(Katherine Anne Porter New York Times )"Like her novels…her criticism has an impeccable distinction of style—it is a criticism démeublé, uncluttered by jargon or pedantry."—Nation
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pieces lack the "author"ity of Cather,
By Leonard A. DeAngelis "Peace, Len" (Newport, RI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Willa Cather on Writing: Critical Studies on Writing as an Art (Paperback)
WILLA CATHER ON WRITING, Critical Studies as an Art, published by the University of Nebraska Press, is a slim(20 page introduction by Stephen Tennant, 126 pages by Cather) and valuable, though selective, work. Tennant attempts, with effort, to pull the contents together by his introduction. The contents are extensive pieces Cather wrote on writers and pieces of writing familiar to readers. The attempt is forced and the contents are wedged into the title and purpose of the publishers or Tennant. The Contents: Four letters: On DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP, On SHADOWS ON THE ROCK, Escapism, On THE PROFESSOR'S HOUSE The Novel Demeuble Four Prefaces: THE BEST STORIES OF SARAH ORNE JEWETT Gertrude Hall's THE WAGNERIAN ROMANCES Stephen Crane's WOUNDS IN THE RAIN AND OTHER IMPRESSIONS OF WAR Defoe's THE UNFORTUNATE MISTRESS My First Novels [There Were Two] On the Art of Fiction Katherine Mansfield Light on Adobe Walls [An unpubished fragment] The pieces are critical and hold advice for would-be-writers. Selections read like pieces of conversation with Cather on aspects of writing. Given Cather's talent and output, she deserves a more thorough collection with a more accurate title.
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