Willa Cather - The Old Beauty and Others - 343 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Like Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather was a writer of ‘local color’. Through her writings, she brilliantly showcased the regional culture and the emotions of the characters were tailored to these cultures. In her writings readers can experience the landscape of Southwest, Nebraska, Virginia, France, and Quebec.

Starting a career as a journalist,she later delved into writing. In 1903 she published April Twilights, a book of verse, and The Troll Garden in 1905, a collection of short stories.
Cather's first novel was Alexander's Bridge published in 1912. My Ántonia published in 1918 was autobiographical in nature.

Other works include Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920), One of Ours (1922), A Lost Lady followed (1923, The Professor's House (1925), Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) and Shadows on the Rock (1931), among others.


The Old Beauty and Others

This collection was published after the death of Cather. The Old Beauty is a simple story but has a twist which remains with the reader. "The Best Years" relates the story of a young schoolteacher in a one-room school. The difficulties that she goes through in the traditional schoolhouse structure is shown here.

From "Before Breakfast" this excerpt struck home: "Last night had been one of those nights of revelation revaluation, when everything seems to come clear... only to fade out again in the morning. In a low cabin on a high red cliff overhanging the sea, everything that was shut up in him, under lock and bolt and pressure, simply broke jail, spread out into the spaciousness of the night, undraped, unashamed." Powerful imagery and emotion.


Source - Cather archive