Only Wonderful Things - by Melissa J Homestead (Hardcover)

About the Book

Drawing on newly uncovered archives, The Only Wonderful Things offers a groundbreaking look at American novelist Willa Cather's creative process by arguing that the writer's life partner, magazine editor Edith Lewis, had a crucial impact on Cather's literary work.

Book Synopsis

A groundbreaking new look at American novelist Willa Cather's creative process

What would Willa Cather's widely read and cherished novels have looked like if she had never met magazine editor and copywriter Edith Lewis? In this groundbreaking book on Cather's relationship with her life partner, author Melissa J. Homestead counters the established portrayal of Cather as a solitary genius and reassesses the role that Lewis, who has so far been rendered largely invisible by scholars, played in shaping Cather's work. Inviting Lewis to share the spotlight alongside this pivotal American writer, Homestead argues that Lewis was not just Cather's companion but also her close literary collaborator and editor.

Drawing on an array of previously unpublished sources, Homestead skillfully reconstructs Cather and Lewis's life together, from their time in New York City to their travels in the American Southwest that formed the basis of the novels The Professor's House and Death Comes for the Archbishop. After Cather's death and in the midst of the Cold War panic over homosexuality, the story of her life with Edith Lewis could not be told, but by telling it now, Homestead offers a refreshing take on lesbian life in early twentieth-century America.

Review Quotes

"The Only Wonderful Things opens up new ways for critics and biographers to read love, intimacy, and creative partnership in the queer archives." -- Jada Ach, Arizona State University, Western American Literature

"The Only Wonderful Things paves the way for further studies depicting the partnerships that sustain and shape the lives of writers--studies that, like this one, avoid prioritizing one partner over the other and instead position writers and their partners as coequals." -- Kelsey Squire, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association

"By demonstrating how some of Cather's most powerful, compressed sentences--the style for which she was celebrated--were in fact the result of revisions by Lewis, Homestead reassesses the nature of Cather's authorship, not diminishing individual creativity but illuminating the power of collaboration. In a literary world in which single authorship is most prized, in which the lone genius produces masterwork, Homestead demonstrates the efficacy of another form of artistry generated by creative and professional reciprocity." -- Jennifer Haytock, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature

"Homestead's greatest contribution is how intensely she examines the final years of Cather's life through Lewis....Homestead honors Lewis's pain with tenderness and reverence, prioritizing space within the narrative to allow the grieving Lewis to be seen fully and truthfully as the widow she was." -- Charmion Gustke, Resources for American Literary Study

"In Homestead's book, Cather's partner Edith Lewis emerges as a fascinating figure: intellectually sophisticated, professionally accomplished, and socially skilled...Described by a coworker as 'the best boss I ever had, the most intelligent, the most just, the kindest, and the bluntest, ' Lewis brought these qualities to the editing of Cather's most celebrated novels." -- Evan Carton, Provincetown Independent

"This work is critical for scholars of Cather as well as those interested in the relationship between these two accomplished women." -- Dr. Jillian L. Wenburg, Park University and Johnson County Community College, Nebraska History Magazine

"This is a masterpiece of scholarly literary biography." -- CHOICE

"Homestead is the first to recover the central and influential role Lewis played in Cather's life and in her writing career ... this meticulously researched book is a very important addition to the literature on Cather." -- C. Johanningsmeier, CHOICE

"This book is a meticulously researched portrait of the life that Cather and Lewis shared ... The Only Wonderful Things gives us a fascinating portrait not only of a marriage but of American culture at a particular time and place." -- Andrew Holleran, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide

"At last! -- an in-depth look at how Edith Lewis, the woman with whom Willa Cather lived in domestic partnership for almost forty years, was central to both her life and her literary career. By foregrounding the crucial role played by Lewis (remarkable in her own right), Homestead gives us valuable new insights into the way Cather, the artist, worked and the way Cather, the woman who loved women, lived her life." -- Lillian Faderman, author of To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America -- a History

"Melissa Homestead has accomplished something beautiful and profound: she has recovered a decades-long relationship that has been ignored and minimized, introducing us to the complex life of Edith Lewis and reframing what we thought we knew about Willa Cather and her writing. The research is remarkable, the product of years of dogged work, and it is woven together to tell a story of love and creativity that we all need to know. I cherish the book and the vision it offers." -- Andrew Jewell, co-editor of The Complete Letters of Willa Cather

"This book is cause for celebration...For decades, the Cather industrial complex, skittish that any hint of sapphism might tarnish the reputation of Nebraska's first lady of letters, seemed eager to downplay the significance of the woman Cather chose as her literary executor and trustee...Melissa Homestead's long-awaited book is a truly wonderful thing for Cather studies." -- Marilee Lindemann, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers

About the Author

Melissa J. Homestead is Professor of English and Program Faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A graduate of Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania, she has published widely on American women's writing and authorship from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. She serves as Director of the Cather Project and Associate Editor of The Complete Letters of Willa Cather: A Digital Edition.