| "The Namesake" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Willa Cather | |
 Text available at Wikisource | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short story |
| Publication | |
| Published in | McClure's |
| Publication type | Magazine |
| Publication date | March 1907 |
"The Namesake" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in March 1907. [1]
Charles Bentley, one of Hartwell's students, is about to leave. After going to an upscale restaurant, Maxim's, they all gather at Hartwell, who goes on to tell his life story. His father, an American, moved to Italy to seek inspiration for his sculptures. His uncle stayed in America and died in the Civil War shortly after. At age eleven, his mother died and he was sent to work as an apprentice in a sculpture atelier in Rome until age twenty-one. When he was fourteen his father died. On coming of age, he moved to Paris where he studied with more masters, and eventually took a trip to America to see his father's birthplace in Western Pennsylvania. Although at first he didn't feel at home with the ravages industrialisation had wreaked on the landscape, he soon learned his uncle had been buried in the garden. Later in the attic he found a trunk with his own name on it, and realised this was his uncle's. The sense of kinship was rekindled; that is why he feels going home is always something special.
The Namesake was inspired by her maternal uncle, William Silbert Boak, who died in the Civil War. [2] For that reason, it has been deemed 'one of Cather's most autobiographical fictions'. [3] The short story has been linked to Willa Cather's poem, The Namesake, which also broaches the subject of the Civil War, told from the perspective of a sculptor. [4]
The frame story has been deemed Jamesian. [5] It has also been linked to One of Ours with regards to Claude Wheeler. [6]
It has also been propounded that although it is set in Paris and Pennsylvania, it 'foreshadows the treatment of Nebraska'. [7]
Willa Sibert Cather was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.
Charles Stanley Reinhart, usually cited as C. S. Reinhart, was an American painter and illustrator. He was a nephew of artist Benjamin Franklin Reinhart.
O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather, written while she was living in New York. It was her second published novel. The title is a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" from Leaves of Grass (1855).
"The Sculptor's Funeral" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in January 1905.
"Lou, the Prophet" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Hesperian in 1892.
"A Death in the Desert" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Scribner's in January 1903.
"Double Birthday" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Forum in February 1929.
"The Bookkeeper's Wife" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Century in May 1916.
"Ardessa" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Century in May 1918.
"The Enchanted Bluff" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Harper's in April 1909.
"A Night at Greenway Court" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Nebraska Literary Magazine in June 1896. Four years later a revised version was published in the Library.
"The Count of Crow's Nest" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in October 1896.
"A Resurrection" is a short story by American writer Willa Cather. It was first published in Home Monthly in April 1897.
"Eleanor's House" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's in October 1907.
"The Marriage of Phaedra" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in The Troll Garden in 1905
"The Professor's Commencement" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in New England Magazine in June 1902
April Twilights is a 1903 collection of poems by Willa Cather. It was reedited by Cather in 1923 and 1933. The poems were first published in many literary reviews, often under pen names.
"A Tale of the White Pyramid" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published on 22 December 1892 in The Hesperian.
Bernice Slote, a Willa Cather scholar, was a professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"The Elopement of Allen Poole" is a short story by Willa Cather, first published in 1893 by The Hesperian while she was a student. The story itself deals with the character of Allen Poole, who is shot by an officer on the night of his elopement with his partner, Nell.