Revisiting

I spent this weekend traveling to Portland, ME for a wedding.  Any travel of any kind requires that I bring and read my copy of My Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather, one of my  particularly  favorite authors, as I've mentioned before.

Washington Square Park, New York City, 1924, left to right: S. S. McClure, Willa Cather, Ida Tarbell, and Will Irvin.

My Mortal enemy is one of her lesser known novellas, at 122 tight pages it reads more like a well crafted longer short story, immensely suited for short plane, bus or train trips.  Agreeably readable and enigmatically fathomable it can be entertainingly  read on both journeys to and from destinations.  Not until recently did I discover the equally fascinating history to the story which makes for more than enough drama on it's own before Cather so deftly took her hand to it.

It's a book I have to hide on my shelves, should I come upon it while dusting I am compelled to open and read it .And is most probably the source of  why I've never been fond of carved amethysts.

Find yourself a copy (I prefer the hardcover illustrated edition) and let me know what you think!

Early influence

 
It was one of my high school English teachers, Mr. Millman,  who first introduced me to Willa Cather. Her story Paul's Case was in the Norton Anthology we were studying that year.  Reading it set a slow incendiary burn into my psyche.  It was the perfect combination of  a "misunderstood" teenager stumbling upon one of the great literary gems done in the man against environment theme.  It helped to build and solidify the bonfire of attitude(platitude, in hindsight) that colored my teenage angst.  I re-read it almost weekly for a year or so, ensuring that whenever the gloom was breaking I could bring it right back. 

From Paul's Case I went on to read all of Willa Cather's output.  She led me to Edith Wharton who led me David Graham Phillips and Henry James.  They've molded me into who I am today..  Sometimes I wish I could go back and thank Mr. Millman.

 "Paul's Case", Water color by Yan Nascimbene