Annotations from the Archives: The World of Willa Cather
This month, author Will Fellows reminds us that February marks an important anniversary: the 75th year of The World of Willa Cather, written by Mildred Bennett, a school teacher, author, researcher, and founder of the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial, now known to us as the National Willa Cather Center.
Fellows spent hundreds of hours reading and researching in the NWCC archives as he began work on a Bennett auto/biography which blends his original research and interviews with Bennett's own unpublished memoir.
The Mildred Bennett Collection, comprised largely of Bennett's extensive correspondence and personal papers, provides a one-of-a-kind window into early Cather studies, literary tourism, and 1950s museology that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The majority of the collection is open to research, and you may request access through our online form or by emailing archivist Tracy Sanford Tucker at ttucker@willacather.org.
On February 13, 1951, The World of Willa Cather was published by Dodd, Mead. The first biography of Cather, it appeared four years after her death. It was Mildred Bennett's first book, and it received very enthusiastic reviews and sold well, necessitating several printings in a few months.
At that time, there were many people living who had been reading Cather's books as they appeared through the 1910s, '20s and '30s, and many of these readers were eager to know more about the life of this rather elusive author, and the origins of her novels and stories.
During Mildred Bennett's five years of work on the book, Dr. Leo Jacks of Creighton University was an important adviser. This photo by an Omaha World-Herald photographer was taken at the February 1951 event at Matthews Bookstore in Omaha. Bennett is seated, with Jacks at her side.
The World of Willa Cather was one of Mildred Bennett's key contributions as "mother of Catherians," as scholar John J. Murphy has described her. University of Nebraska Press published a paperback edition in 1961, which is still in print.
~ Will Fellows