Why Obscure the Record
The Psychological Context of Willa Cather's Ban on Letter Publication
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3805645 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Jewell (0000-0003-3497-8261, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 399-424 |
| Publication date | 2017-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Biography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0162-4962 • E-ISSN: 1529-1456 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/bio.2017.0031 |
| OpenAlex | W2770507778 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
This essay provides an explanation for American author Willa Cather’s confounding decision to ban the publication of her letters, arguing that one must understand the specific personal and psychological contexts of the execution of her final will in 1943. Since the ban on publication has now been lifted by Cather’s executors, the essay uses ample direct evidence from the letters themselves to analyze the concerns that led to Cather’s choice. I argue that Cather’s ban emerged from a time of grief, physical pain, and growing hopelessness about the future while the world was at war
Archaeology · Art · Grief · Literature · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · American and British Literature Analysis · American Jewish Fiction Analysis · History · Poetry Analysis and Criticism · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|