Review of \u3ci\u3eCritical Essays on Willa Cather\u3c/i\u3e Edited by John J. Murphy

John J. Murphy\u27s volume in G. K. Hall\u27s series Critical Essays on American Literature is a significant contribution to Cather studies. In a substantial introduction, Murphy, who presently contributes the annual bibliographical essay Fiction: 1900-1930 to American Literary Scholarship, has collaborated with Kevin Synnott in surveying Cather scholarship over the years. Both negative and positive reviews as well as important articles and books are chronologically presented and succinctly characterized. Murphy and Synnott give considerably more attention to the reviews than did Bernice Slote\u27s fine bibliographical contribution to Sixteen Modern American Authors (1973); in so doing, they call attention to a vast amount of material not readily available and, except for a few of the more famous reviews, not generally cited by Cather scholars. After a section of General Essays, including two original pieces prepared for the volume, Murphy devotes at least two essays, always beginning with what he considers a significant review, to each of the novels from Alexander\u27s Bridge through Shadows on the Rock. The books thereafter are represented by only one review each and by David Stouck\u27s well-known article, Willa Cather\u27s Last Four Books. Whereas James Schroeter\u27s Willa Cather and Her Critics (1967), the only other such compilation of secondary material, seemed to seek out well-known critics who often presented general commentaries on Cather\u27s work, Murphy seems to have sought out in his thirty-five selections those essays he considers most significant and/or influential in elucidating specific works. His task, I suspect, was formidable, and no doubt every Cather devotee will find a favorite essay (or perhaps even one\u27s own!) regrettably omitted. Indeed, I would personally have preferred Murphy\u27s own essay on Shadows over his piece on 0 Pioneers! specifically written for this volume. Then, too, it is a bit disconcerting to see four articles on Death Comes for the Archbishop and only two on My Antonia (the same number devoted to Alexander\u27s Bridge and Shadows on the Rock). Such minor quibbles aside, what is included are substantial contributions to Cather scholarship, including original essays by David Stouck, Paul Comeau, and James Woodress, who treats with his usual good sense the presently volatile subject of Cather\u27s sexual orientation. What is more, the book itself is handsome: quality paper and binding, attractive layout, clear typography. In short, Murphy\u27s book has been done with care and integrity, those very values that Cather herself so much admired