The Song of the Lark

Illustrations

1. Willa Cather (1873–1947), July 1915. This publicity photograph was used in The Song of the Lark promotional booklet and accompanied several early reviews of the novel. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 2. Willa Cather’s childhood home on the corner of Cedar Street and Third Avenue, Red Cloud, Nebraska, on which the Kronborg house is based. Cather’s attic window is on the right. Photograph by Betty Kort. 3. Ground- and attic-level floor plans of the Cather childhood home. Cather, like Thea, slept in the main attic bedroom with her brothers until she was given her own room when she reached adolescence. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 4. Willa Cather, age thirteen. Philip L. and Helen Cather Southwick Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. 5. Willa Cather’s attic bedroom was, like Thea’s, covered in yellow paper with red and brown roses. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. Photograph by Lucia Woods. 6. Anna Olivia (Olive) Fremstad (ca. 1871–1951) standing beside a piano pupil. Like Thea, she taught piano lessons as an adolescent and was from a Swedish Norwegian family. Grantsburg (wi) Area Historical Society. 7. Map of Red Cloud, Nebraska (the main prototype of Moonstone, Colorado), ca. 1885–90, when Cather lived there, showing (1) Standpipe, (2) Banker S. L. Smith’s house, (3) Washington School, (4) Dr. G. E. McKeeby’s house, (5) Methodist church, (6) the courthouse, (7) Baptist church, (8) Moon Block, (9) the Opera House, (10) State Bank Block, (11) Dr. Cook’s drugstore, (12) the livery stable, (13) the post office, (14) C. F. Cather’s house, (15) calaboose (approximate location), (16) Catholic church, (17) Jackson’s Reserve (grove), and (18) the depot. NORTH 10th Avenue 9th Avenue 8th Avenue 7th Avenue 6th Avenue 5th Avenue 4th Avenue 3rd Avenue 2nd Avenue 1st Avenue Avenue A Avenue B Jefferson Street Franklin Street Cherry Street Chestnut Street Walnut Street Seward Street Cedar Street Webster Street Seward Street Division Street 3rd Street 2nd Street 1st Street Elm Street 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 8. Mary Virginia ( Jennie) Cather (1852–1931), Cather’s mother, who shares many qualities with Mrs. Kronborg. Philip L. and Helen Cather Southwick Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. 9. Charles F. Cather (1848–1928), Cather’s father. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 10. Dr. Gilbert Einstein McKeeby (1844–1905), a prototype for Dr. Howard Archie. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 11. Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert Einstein McKeeby’s house at 641 North Cherry Street in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Photograph by Kari A. Ronning. 12. Elizabeth (Bess) Seymour (1857–1934), a prototype for Tillie Kronborg. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 13. Webster Street and Fourth Avenue in Red Cloud, Nebraska, ca. 1900. Beyond the bank on the corner are the Opera House and the Moon Block, where one of Dr. McKeeby’s offices was located. Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. 14. Map of Colorado and Nebraska sand dunes. From Ann S. Bleed and Charles A. Flowerday, eds., An Atlas of the Sand Hills (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998), 43. 15. Henry Miller (1859–1926) in William Vaughn Moody’s play The Great Divide (1907–8). Cather compared Arizona brakeman H. L. Tooker, the prototype for Ray Kennedy, to Miller in this role. From The Theatre Magazine October 1907: 89. 16. Map (not to scale) of the Burlington and Missouri Railroad in Colorado and Nebraska, before 1941. From Richard C. Kistler, The High Plains Route: A History of the McCook Division of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, 2nd ed. (David City, Neb.: South Platte P, 2010). Map by Janie Harting, courtesy of South Platte Press. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 17. Map of the Centre of Chicago, showing (1) The North Side, north of the Chicago River; (2) Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan on the North Side (the Potter Palmers lived at Lake Shore Drive and Banks Street); (3) Lake Park (renamed Grant Park in 1901); (4) Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue and Adams Street...