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Exhibition Seminar: James Kraft, Willa Cather in New York (December 13 session)

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 - 11:00 AM | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $60 for all sessions (recommended); $15 per session | Advance registration required

Most people read Cather’s My Antonía, and perhaps her other writing about 19th-century life on the plains of Nebraska, but go no further. This is disappointing, as Cather is a formidable figure in American literature who wrote many excellent novels exploring complex, controversial places and ideas. The places include New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Quebec City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and a nineteenth-century plantation in Virginia. The subjects are numerous and include women’s role in the professions, the significance of music, adultery, homosexuality, the loss of the pioneer spirit, the Native American and Hispanic aspects of our culture, and, most surprisingly, an account of a female slave’s escape to Canada, a novel Toni Morrison wrote about in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.

This seminar’s reading will cover several novels and short stories beginning with A Lost Lady (1923) for the October 4 session. A reading list will be provided to registrants.

Popular seminar leader Dr. James Kraft has previously taught on Henry James, literature of World War I, and many other topics.

This seminar takes place over four Wednesdays:
October 4
November 1
December 13
January 10
all at 11:00 AM in the Whitridge Room.

At left: A Society Library charging card showing books checked out by Willa Cather and Edith Lewis.