Hello! Welcome to the May reminder for the Willa Cather Short Story Project. Cather published “Ardessa” in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine in May 1918.

You can read “Ardessa” and see the delightful original illustrations by Reginald Birch on the Willa Cather Archive: https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss048

Willa Cather’s own short story project

In 1917, Cather was working on a story collection titled Office Wives. “Ardessa” is one of these stories. Last month’s “The Bookkeeper’s Wife” and next month’s “Her Boss” sandwich “Ardessa.” I wonder if there is any significance in the order in which these stories appeared or if they were simply published as Cather completed them.

I have not yet read “Ardessa,” but the 1918 illustrations accompanying the story make it look like we’re in for an interesting tale. Here are two to whet your appetite with their original captions:

The caption of the second illustration made me smile. Is Becky’s savagery hyperbole referring to her ignorance of office protocol and culture, or is something darker lurking between the lines?

What’s next

Read “Ardessa” sometime this month, then come back to discuss it in the response post I’ll share on May 22nd. Or, feel free to read it now and comment here if you can’t wait until then!

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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!