Willa Cather: A Literary Life by James Woodress (review)

150 Western American Literature successfully analyzes well-known but often under-explained aspects of Lon­ don’scareer. For example, Lundquist goes into more interesting detail than many I have read on such diverse topics as London’sparents, the cultural ramifications of the “Strenuous Age,” the cruise of the Snark, London’s attitude toward the Socialist Party, and his sportswriting. Lundquist offers as fair an account of London’sbehavior during the Mexican Revolution as I think we have. There are weaknesses. The most curious flaw is the down-playing of London’s late South Seas stories and their obvious Jungian flavor. These stories are much more significant than Lundquist even begins to convey. He uncriti­ cally accepts Joan London’s assessment of The Star Rover (1915) as London’s “last attempt at serious work,” which entirely ignores the stories of On the Makaloa Mat and The Red One, written during 1916. Lundquist’s critical chapters feature some odd groupings of works, as in the case of “Working Class Writer” (Chapter 5), which covers the South Seas fiction (1912,1919), Before Adam (1906), The Scarlet Plague (1915), The Star Rover, and London’s sportswriting. At times Lundquist takes London at his word on biographical facts and at times does not. Similarly, Lundquist is often critical of those who stress the sensational aspects of London’s life—but he spends his first few pages as well as many others detailing London’s swashbuckling. He posits that “the Jack London most of us want to know isthe devoted sportsman and adventurer who loved sailing, fishing, duck hunting, bicycling, and boxing.” This is not true for readers and critics interested in Jack London the writer. I found this statement a strange one in a book that elsewhere argues so convincingly for London’s fiction as a “literature of ideas”:for example, Lundquist’s analysis of The Sea Wolf is among the best I’ve read. He argues that Wolf Larsen repre­ sents the “failed superman,” and his discussion makes sense out of the murky contradictions in London’s thought between individualism and socialism. If Professor Lundquist’sbook isintended for a mixed rather than a strictly academic audience, then it succeeds in being clearly written and informative. In places it is quite thought-provoking. JEANNE CAMPBELL REESMAN University of Texas at San Antonio Willa Cather: A Literary Life. By James Woodress. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. 583 pages, $35.00.) In this valuable, long-awaited volume James Woodress proves that Alfred A. Knopf was indeed mistaken in endorsing E. K. Brown’s 1953 biography as “all the biographical information anyone is likely ever to gather about Willa Cather.” Between the prologue depicting Cather’s artistic awakening and the epilogue emphasizing her increasing reputation, Woodress gives a finely Reviews 151 detailed account of Cather’s days, including her struggles and successes as a young writer, teacher, magazine editor and novelist. Although quotation from Cather’s letters is forbidden in her will, Woodress’ careful paraphrase evokes her rich expression, ambition, love and humor. His vivid description combined with ninety well-reproduced photographs recreates her settings in America, Canada and Europe, and he incorporates perspectives from her fiction into the biography. In the process, he significantly expands and corrects the record of her life, which suffered from her own exaggerations as well as distortions by others. Among the new information is the text of Cather’s high school gradua­ tion speech, never before reprinted in full. Woodress also explores her early reading and first adventures abroad. He examines her editorial principles during the McClure’s years and reveals that during her first year as managing editor, circulation expanded by sixty thousand, increasing further the next year. The milieu of her less familiar stories also emerges from these pages. Woodress notes, for example, that “Behind the Singer Tower,” set following a hotel fire, was written while McClure’s was publishing a series of articles on the lack of fire escapes in New York apartment buildings. In addition to expanding the background for Cather’sfiction, Woodress traces the composition of each novel, quotes contemporaneous reviews and incorporates the important critical insights of Susan Rosowski, Sharon O’Brien and others. He...