Yours, Willa Cather Documentary Premieres September 21 on NET
Willa Cather wrote some of the most unforgettable fiction of the 20th Century. She also wrote thousands of letters. People thought most had been burned.
Not so.
Yours, Willa Cather is a 30-minute documentary inspired by the recently published Selected Letters of Willa Cather, edited by Andy Jewell and Janis Stout. This companion iBook features eleven letters, read by Nebraska-born actress Marg Helgenberger of China Beach and CSI fame.
Meet the woman who confesses to a friend that she is “paralyzed” by the open spaces of the West. Who is so bored with her job as editor of McClure’s that she compares it to living in a “tepid bath.” Who believes her boss when he tells her she has no talent as a writer. Who writes to F. Scott Fitzgerald, “After all, the only thing one can tell about beauty, is just how hard one was hit by it. Isn’t that so?”
In Yours, Willa Cather, we hear a voice different from that of Willa Cather the great novelist. Instead we meet a person who is vulnerable, funny and at times, ruthless. A fascinating woman who thoroughly mastered the art of letter writing.