February Reminder #WCSSP2024
Up this month for the Willa Cather Short Story Project is “The Bohemian Girl.” It was published in McClure’s Magazine, issue 39, in August 1912.
Read it over on the Willa Cather Archive: https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss004, where you can also see the magazine illustrations by Sigismond de Ivanowski.
The image above has nothing to do with “The Bohemian Girl.” It is one of Ivanowski’s most famous works. Teddy Roosevelt walks down steps as snakes, wolves, and demons watch him, looking ready to attack. Creepy and fascinating. Image source: The Norman Rockwell Museum’s Illustration History.
“As romantic a plot as Cather ever devised”
“The Bohemian Girl” is about Nils Ericson, a farm boy from Nebraska, the son of immigrants, who went back to the old country to make his way in the world. We catch up with him as he’s on the train heading home to visit for the first time in years. He walks from the train station to the family farm. An old man in a wagon offers Nils a ride and tells him that there are now 14 automobiles in town — his mother has a car of her own and is seen driving around throughout the day, running errands or visiting. Nils’s brothers all have farms of their own.
One of his brothers married the young woman Nils had been in love with before he left, Clara Vavrika. It is not a happy marriage. The story revolves around Nils trying to woo Clara. Biographer James Woodress writes it is “as romantic a plot as Cather ever devised” (Willa Cather: A Literary Life 227).
What’s next?
Read “The Bohemian Girl” sometime this month, then come back to discuss it in the response post I’ll share on February 28th. 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!