Youth and the Bright Medusa

The historical essay and explanatory notes trace the composition of the stories and their roots in the people, events, and places Cather knew, from her family to world-famous sopranos, from Nebraska and Wyoming to New York and Pittsburgh, with new information on the sources for Paul's Case. Historical photographs, including a hitherto unknown portrait of the prototype for Paul, show people and places as Cather knew them. The textual essay and apparatus explore the versions that appeared in her lifetime, from first magazine publication to the final collected edition of her works and describe how the magazine version of Coming, Aphrodite censored by the editors, even to the title. This collection contains eight of Cather's finest stories. One of the most poetical interpretations of American life.