June Reminder “Her Boss”

Can you believe we have only three more stories to go? When I started this project in February 2019, the end seemed so far away. This month had been the original finish line for the project before I realized I’d left off two stories (“Uncle Valentine” and “Double Birthday”), which will be the two we end with. I should probably do another round of research and make sure I haven’t overlooked other short stories.

Onto this month’s story. “Her Boss” was published in the October 1919 issue of Smart Set magazine. You can read it on the Willa Cather Archive: https://cather.unl.edu/writings/shortfiction/ss058.

There were no accompanying illustrations for this story. Perhaps The Smart Set considered them uncouth? Note the magazine’s subtitle, “A Magazine of Cleverness.” The publication was aimed at a particular type of reader, class of person, and aspirants.

Cather still included Sibert, her maternal grandmother’s name. She was four novels into her career at this time. My Antonia had made a splash the year before, helping to grow her name recognition. One of the magazine’s editors, tastemaker H.L. Mencken, greatly admired My Antonia.

You can read through this entire magazine issue on Comic Book +.

Bernice Slote notes in her introduction to Uncle Valentine and Other Stories that although “Her Boss” is uneven in its execution, it is important as an early exploration of what would become one of Cather’s recurring themes. The theme of an older man “who turns for emotional harmony to a youthful figure” (xiv). If you’ve read The Professor’s House (1925), Lucy Gayheart (1935), or Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940), you are familiar with Cather’s portrayal of this theme. We’ll also see it in next month’s story, “Uncle Valentine.”

This is also the last of the three “office wives” stories that Cather published.

What’s next

Read “Her Boss” sometime this month, then come back to discuss it in the response post I’ll share on June 26th. Or, feel free to read it now and comment here if you can’t wait until then!

Works Cited
Cather, Willa. Uncle Valentine and Other Stories: Willa Cather’s Uncollected Short Fiction, 1915-1929. University of Nebraska Press, 1973.

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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!