We have only eight stories left! That’s right. The Willa Cather Short Story Project will wrap up in August with “Uncle Valentine.”
“Behind the Singer Tower” was published in Collier’s magazine on May 18, 1912.
Our story this month is “Behind the Singer Tower.” Read it for free over on the Willa Cather Archive: https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss045. If you are reading this story via a different resource, do check out the story on the Willa Cather Archive, as it includes the original magazine illustrations by George Harding.
Engineering disasters
When “Behind the Singer Tower” was published in 1912, Cather had been working for six years at McClure’s Magazine, a popular periodical known for its literary and muckraking content. She had also just published her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge. The novel was serialized in McClure’s Magazine as Alexander’s Masquerade before publication.
I mention Alexander’s Bridge because the novel and this month’s story deal with engineering failures. Sheryl Meyering includes this connection, initially made by Marilyn Arnold, in A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Willa Cather. She also offers connections between “Behind the Singer Tower” and a half dozen of Cather’s other short stories. (I told myself I wouldn’t consult Meyering before reading a short story, but I couldn’t help myself.)
What’s next?
Read “Behind the Singer Tower” sometime this month, then come back to discuss it in the response post I’ll share on January 24th. Or, feel free to read it now and comment here if you can’t wait until then!
New to this blog? Learn more about the Willa Cather Short Story Project here. In a nutshell, we read one Cather short story a month. I remind everyone what story we’re reading on the second Wednesday of the month and then share a response on the fourth Wednesday. Jump in anytime!