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
I don't know where to put this photo but guarantee you will be startled to see George Armstrong Custer and friends in a new light:
ReplyDeletehttp://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7900/95108997.png
That looks like Nathan Bedford Forrest to his right. Do you have any info to go with the photo, trip, you can start a new post.
ReplyDeleteAmazing photo -- usually these colored ones look artificial, garish even. The power of the computer.
ReplyDeleteI assumed it was a Matthew Brady photo but I was wrong. It was someone named James Gibson:
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/pictures/custer-fitz-porter.htm
Regret I don't have more info. But I believe that's Custer with the pooch
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