It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
Another interesting book by Schlesinger,
ReplyDeleteThe Imperial Presidency,
http://books.google.com/books?id=zbLO9aNL6ncC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+imperial+presidency&hl=lt&ei=HMjxTaWJI8ydOo702ZgD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Of the three books above, Leuchtenburg is available and only through loan from a suburban high school. I wonder if that school will be open this summer (?).
ReplyDeleteRemember a while ago when we discussed the possibility of discussing this:
Walt Whitman's America : a cultural biography by David S. Reynolds
http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Whitmans-America-Cultural-Biography/dp/0679767096
I meant to read it a while ago but only managed a portion of it. In fact, I also suggested that we consider reading "Leaves of Grass'' which is something I tried but somehow couldn't quite make heads or tales about it.
Hard to believe Schlesinger's books aren't available through your library. Those are classics.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted by the Whitman biography when it came out, but we settled on Emerson.