Our College president, Joe Urgo, is a Cather scholar. I sent the link to him. Here's his response: The piece was written while she was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned the title of “meat-axe” for her theatre and opera criticism on shows passing through Lincoln. She was staking claims for sophistication, positioning herself to get a job on the east coast (which she did). Anyway, this is her adolescent voice in full force. By the way, if any of you are in the Southern Maryland region this *Saturday night, April 20, 7:30PM, JOHN HODGMAN of the Daily Show* will deliver the annual Mark Twain Lecture on American Humor and Culture, a part of a program I run called the Twain Series. Here's a link to the homepage: http://www.smcm.edu/twain/ Cheers, Ben On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 9:59 AM, Dustin Zima <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I am teaching My Antonia, and came across this little cutie:=20 > > > http://www.everywritersresource.com/writingsense/2010/05/mark-twain-is-a-sl= > ob-by-willa-cather/ > > This might explain why Cather was not seated at Twain's table at his > notorio= > us 70th Birthday Celebration. =20 > > Dustin Zima > Quincy University= > -- Ben Click Professor/Chair, English Writing Center Director Director, Twain Lecture Series On American Humor and Culture http://www.smcm.edu/Twain/ (240) 895-4253 (240) 895-2190 St. Mary's College of Maryland