It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
I suppose it was a happy day back then, at least for a short while.
ReplyDeleteBut, it is sad that only a weak-kneed League of Nations came out of it. Without the US, the LoN was severely handicapped and without a military element a paper tiger. It proved ill-equipped to deal with the many border disputes that came up during the 20s and 30s. Poland was effectively able to annex Vilnius and all the LoN did was refuse to recognize it. Disputes continued over the Alsace-Loraine, the punitive measures thrust on Germany severely handicapped its recovery, and of course the 1929 stock market collapsed set Europe as well as America into an economic free fall.
Would be interesting to find a book on WWI and its aftermath we could all read together.
A book that immediately springs to mind is Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Months-Changed-World/dp/0375760520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289553409&sr=1-1
Here's an C-Span interview with MacMillan from 2002,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/174388-1
"But, it is sad that only a weak-kneed League of Nations came out of it...."
ReplyDeleteWell, that and another major war. And probably the heart of all the strife in the Middle East.
All in all, more a curse than a blessing.
ReplyDelete