Willa Cather, Alexander's Bridge

Joshua Grasso (East Central University)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1912

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

In 1911, despite being a successful and influential editor for

McClure’s Magazine

, Willa Cather asked for a leave of absence from her mentor and boss, S.S. McClure. Her varied duties at the magazine left her little time to write, much less to complete the serious—and for a writer, essential—effort of a first novel. With her employer’s blessing, she retired to Cherry Valley, New York with her dearest companion, Isabelle McClung, in tow. There, she finished

Alexander’s Bridge

(1912), a novel begun while writing and publishing her first story collection (

The Troll Garden,

1905) and heavily under the influence of the literary doyens of the age—James and Wharton, especially. Looking back at this novel from the perspective of 1931, Cather wrote, “Like most young writers I thought…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2534 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "Alexander's Bridge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6787, accessed 24 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Willa Cather, Alexander's Bridge

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback