Jack-a-Boy is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Saturday Evening Post in March 1901. [1]
Willa Sibert Cather was an American writer who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I.
A young boy moves into a neighbourhood and makes friends with all the neighbours.
A young boy, Jack-a-Boy, moved into Windsor Terrace with his family. He is loved by all the neighbours: the Professor, who lets him read books about Greek mythology; the old spinster, who gives him a makeshift toy dog; Miss Harris, with whom he would play the piano; the Woman Who Nobody Called On, whom he proffers to be a second-best mother. Once the boy throws a party and everyone helps him with the preparations. On another occasion he goes for a walk with Miss Harris and the Professor, who is allowed to hold his basket. Later, Miss Harris is summoned by the Professor to help him improve a makeshift map of the Peloponnesus with flowers.
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.
The following Summer the boy gets ill. Miss Harris has forgotten to bring him cattails and acorns according to his wish. The Woman Nobody Called On holds him in her arms. The Professor answers questions about Greek mythology. Finally the boy passes away. Subsequent to his death, the Professor ponders that the boy had Ancient Greece in his soul. He then returns to his work on Greek prosody and Miss Harris to her piano lessons. On the first day of May, the Professor and Miss Harris join the Woman Nobody Called On in memory of Jack-a-boy
The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives. It usually contains a single seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns are 1–6 cm (0.39–2.36 in) long and 0.8–4 cm (0.31–1.57 in) broad. Acorns take between 6 and 24 months to mature; see the list of Quercus species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology and phenology are important factors.
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Roughly three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.
The Ancient Greek language includes the forms of Greek used in Ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE. It is often roughly divided into the Archaic period, Classical period, and Hellenistic period. It is antedated in the second millennium BCE by Mycenaean Greek and succeeded by medieval Greek.
Sanskrit is a language of ancient India with a history going back about 3,500 years. It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit, in its variants and numerous dialects, was the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India. In the early 1st millennium CE, along with Buddhism and Hinduism, Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia, parts of East Asia and Central Asia, emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in these regions.
Homer is the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.
Georg Autenrieth was a German philologist and educator.
John Flaxman R.A. was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several years in Rome, where he produced his first book illustrations. He was a prolific maker of funerary monuments.
The story is a reference to Willa Cather's youngest brother Jack, whom she 'nursed through a serious disease in the summer of 1893'. [2]
Alexander's Bridge is the first novel by American author Willa Cather. First published in 1912, it was re-released with an author's preface in 1922. It also ran as a serial in McClure's, giving Cather some free time from her work for that magazine.
Peter is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Mahogany Tree in 1892.
Lou, the Prophet is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Hesperian in 1892.
The Burglar's Christmas is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in 1896 under the pseudonym of Elizabeth L. Seymour, her cousin's name.
El Dorado: A Kansas Recessional is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in New England Magazine in June 1901.
The Conversion of Sum Loo is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Library in August 1900.
"The Way of the World" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in April 1898.
Ardessa is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Century in May 1918.
The Bohemian Girl is a short story by Willa Cather. It was written when Cather was living in Cherry Valley, New York, with Isabelle McClung whilst Alexander's Bridge was being serialised in McClure's. It was first published in McClure's in August 1912.
On the Divide is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Overland Monthly in January 1896.
Tommy, the Unsentimental is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in August 1896.
The Count of Crow's Nest is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in October 1896.
"Eric Hermannson's Soul" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Cosmopolitan in April 1900.
A Singer's Romance is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Cosmopolitan in July 1900.
The Affair at Grover Station is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Library in June 1900 in two installments, and reprinted in the Lincoln Courier one month later.
The Namesake is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in March 1907.
The Garden Lodge is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905
The Marriage of Phaedra is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905
The Treasure of Far Island is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in New England Magazine in October 1902.
The Professor's Commencement is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in New England Magazine in June 1902