Sounds like a fascinating presentation.? Did you end up publishing?? I would love to read it.? As to Cather's article, I loved it!? She gets down in the mud and starts slinging.? I thought I read a quote of Twain's where he praises Cather as one of America's greatest new writers.? Anyone familiar with this?

Dustin Zima
Quincy University

? -----Original Message-----
From: Martin D. Zehr <[log in to unmask]>
To: TWAIN-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, Apr 17, 2013 11:08 am
Subject: Re: Twain and Willa Cather

I used these quotes in a presentation I gave on Twain and Cather at the 200= 
9 Elmira conference.=A0 Cather likely never appreciated Twain, although she= 
 appeared to change her tune in later public statements, when it became app= 
arent that Twain was not a passing fad.=A0 In an 1897 editorial for The Hom= 
e Monthly, she states=A0 "I would rather sail on a raft down the Missouri a= 
gain with Huck Finn and Jim than go down the Nile in December or see Venice= 
 from a gondola in May."=A0 If she had ever read Huck Finn she might not ha= 
ve referred to "sailing" a raft, and mistaking the Missouri for the Mississ= 
ippi has to be considered more than a minor faux pas for someone who spent = 
much of her childhood and adolescence in Red Cloud, Nebraska, on the Republ= 
ican River, a tributary of the Missouri.=A0 Later, in a 1913 interview, Cat= 
her opined "My own favorite writers?=A0 I've never changed in that respect = 
much since I was a girl at school.=A0 There were great ones I liked best 
 then and still like-=A0 Mark Twain, Henry James and Sarah Orne Jewett."=0A= 
=0ACather also detested overtly political, satirical or muckraking writing,= 
 preferring an "art for art's sake" orientation.=A0 Ironic because, for man= 
y years, as a writer and editor for McClure's magazine, she shared office s= 
pace with Ida Tarbell, whose writing was the impetus for the breakup of Joh= 
n D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust.=A0 Finally, although Cather is born = 
in 1873, a generation after Twain, there are traces of racism and anti-Semi= 
tism in her writing as late as 1940, in her novel, Sapphira and the Slave G= 
irl.=A0 =0A=0ACather was an invitee to Twain's 70th birthday celebration, o= 
ne of 170 guests, but was likely invited by Col. Harvey and Fred Duneka, lo= 
oking for new talent for Harpers.=A0 She later made a reference to a bedsid= 
e meeting with Twain in New York, but this is likely an "exaggeration," and= 
 Twain, who made a favorable remark in 1909 of one of her poems, recorded b= 
y ABP in his biography, died two years before the publication of Cather's f= 
irst novel, Alexander's Bridge.=A0 The notion, proposed by some writers, th= 
at Twain influenced Cather's writing,=A0 seems to be a stretcher, to put it= 
 mildly, and the 1895 comments, in which she also refers to Twain as a "bla= 
ckguard," "with limited mentality," likely represent the core of her views = 
of Twain.=0A=0AMartin Zehr=0A=0A=0A=0A=0A________________________________= 
=0A From: Dustin Zima <[log in to unmask]>=0ATo: [log in to unmask] =0ASent: Wed= 
nesday, April 17, 2013 8:59 AM=0ASubject: Twain and Willa Cather=0A =0A=0AI= 
 am teaching My Antonia, and came across this little cutie:=3D20=0A=0Ahttp:= 
//www.everywritersresource.com/writingsense/2010/05/mark-twain-is-a-sl=3D= 
=0Aob-by-willa-cather/=0A=0AThis might explain why Cather was not seated at= 
 Twain's table at his notorio=3D=0Aus 70th Birthday Celebration. =3D20=0A= 
=0ADustin Zima=0AQuincy University=3D