Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Winter 2011
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 31:1 (Winter 2011).
Abstract
Seeking Life Whole, eighth in Fairleigh Dickinson's series on Willa Cather, is a volume in two parts, with nine subdivisions, and excellent notes. Part 1 contains Lucy Marks's biographical account of the lives of expatriate painters Achsah Barlow Brewster and her husband Earl H. Brewster, and David Porter's biographical and critical account of the previously unknown relationship between the Brewsters and Willa Cather. The Brewsters went to Europe after their marriage in 1910 to dedicate themselves to painting, nature, study, and a simple, beautiful way of life; they attracted a remarkable range of friends. Their type has been satirized, by their friend D. H. Lawrence among others, but Marks demonstrates their authenticity and its precarious foundation on subsidies from family and friends. Their story is an important part of the history of the expatriate generation, although it has nothing to do with the Great Plains beyond Achsah's erroneous mention of Red Rock, Kansas, as Cather's home at one time.
Comments
Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.