“Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather” by Benjamin Taylor.
Viking, New York, 180 pages, Grades 11 and higher.
Willa Cather is one of the great writers in American literature. Born in 1873 in Virginia, her family migrates to Nebraska when she is 9 years old.
The family eventually settles in Red Cloud, Nebraska. The young girl grows up on the immense plains of western Nebraska, and many of her novels are inspired by this geography.
While still a young girl, Willa has immense drive and ambition and wants to make her place in the world. This leads her to enroll in the University of Nebraska. Though she first thinks she might want to be a doctor, literature and the written word soon become her vocation.
Upon graduation from the university, Miss Cather travels to Pittsburgh and begins her literary career. Benjamin Taylor writes a beautiful, loving account of the life of Willa Cather in this fine biography, “Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather.”
As a young writer, Cather works for magazines and newspapers. She writes constantly and begins to find her way into fiction. Though well-educated and a fine student in Latin, Cather is somewhat short in the social graces. Fortunately, through her work, she encounters the McClung family in Pittsburgh.
Mrs. McClung is a sophisticated woman and introduces Willa to the finer things in life. Later, this will be a great asset for Willa as she continually meets writers and editors from the literary world. She begins writing fiction and her books are well received. This gives her the financial means to travel widely and explore many parts of North America and Europe.
But inevitably, many of her books lead back to the western Nebraska landscape and to areas that remind her of Red Cloud. As the author grows older, she travels and explores the American Southwest. This will be the setting for what might be her greatest novel, “Death Comes for the Archbishop.”
Taylor continues to discuss numerous novels and short stories written by Willa Cather during the progression of the biography. His writing is elegant, insightful and a pleasure to read. He accurately places her among the great American writers of the 20th century.
In the book, Taylor addresses the disputes concerning Willa Cather’s sexual orientation. In today’s near voyeuristic society, this issue continues to be discussed. Cather never married and lived most of her life with her close friend, Edith Lewis. After Cather’s death, most of her letters and some manuscripts were burned by Lewis. The destruction of this correspondence and writing literally eliminates the smoking gun in this matter. It would behoove those fixated on this subject to spend more time reading Cather’s splendid novels and short stories and less on this sexual obsession.
Few writers have ever been able to describe the geography and physical characteristics of a setting with such beauty and precision as Willa Cather. During a trip in the Arizona desert, I realized that I had already seen this part of the country. The reason for this is I had the good fortune to experience the desert through the lovely descriptions written by Cather in “Death Comes for the Archbishop.”
I hope you get a chance to check out this engaging biography, “Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather,” by Benjamin Taylor.
