Willa Cather's Gift of Sympathy (and other Cather offprints)
Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962. First edition. Hardcover. A small collection of critical Willa Cather material from the the library of Wallace Stegner. Stegner and Cather traded letters and he wrote about Cather in his essay collection The Sound of Mountain Water--probably these items served as fodder for that effort. This collection is headlined by the Blooms' Cather's Gift of Sympathy which explores three major themes in her work: "the frontier spirit, both old and modern, the threat to it posed by materialism and selfish acquisitiveness, and the nature of an artist." Additionally included are three offprints by critic David Stouck: "Willa Cather and The Professor's House: 'Letting Go with the Heart'" reprinted from Western American Literature; "O Pioneers!: Willa Cather and the Epic Imagination" from Prairie Schooner; and "Hagiographical Style in Death Comes for the Archbishop," co-authored with Mary-Ann Stouck and reprinted from the University of Toronto Quarterly. A very good or better book in red boards with some rubbing to lower cloth spine, and with the bookplate of The Jones Room at the Stanford University Library on the front pastedown; in a very good jacket with some rubbing and some loss to spine crown. The offprints are stapled and very good, "O Pioneers! ..." with creasing and curling to margins. Not signed, but all are from the the library of Wallace Stegner. A nice association between American writers known for their portrayal's of frontier landscapes. Very good. Item #1244
Price: $250.00 save 5% $237.50