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8 - Cather and the short story

from Part I - Contexts and critical issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Marilee Lindemann
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
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Summary

Pater said that every truly great drama must, in the end, linger in the reader’s mind as a sort of ballad. Probably the same thing might be said of every great story.

Willa Cather, “The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett”

Like many intelligent authors, she had a shrewd idea of the relative value of her own work . . .

Alfred Knopf, “Publishing Then and Now: 1912–1964”

Pulitzer Prize-winning short-story writer Katherine Anne Porter once wrote that she liked Willa Cather's short fiction better than any of her novels. More than fifty years later, Porter's opinion runs counter to critical consensus, as Cather is mainly known for her twelve novels published between 1912 and 1940. Her long fiction, which she intended to be her enduring literary legacy, should not, however, obscure her achievement as a short-story writer. Her fiction-writing career began with a short story in 1892 and ended with one over fifty years later. In all, she published sixty-two stories, some of which rank among her most accomplished fiction of any length.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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