I don't actually own the book pictured above. My edition is one of the many eBooks I downloaded from my favorite eBook source, The University of Adelaide in Australia. I was dismayed a number of weeks ago to find I was unable to access their library. At first I thought it might have something to do with the fires, as Adelaide is one of the hardest hit areas. Or I thought maybe they were doing an upgrade on their site. I was hesitant to contact them, because somehow eBooks are not important in the midst of the catastrophe they are enduring. I eventually did, and the Adelaide librarian, whose name is Margaret, told me they decided to just discontinue their eBook service, since others, such as Project Gutenberg are so much bigger. I had also expressed my sorrow over all the animals killed in the fires and she said she was part of the koala rescue effort. I replied that it seems such a waste, after they had digitized so many books. I also pointed out that they had hard to find translations that Gutenberg does not, such as Dostoyevsky and Gogol. I suggested that they transfer their digitized library to another source. I also sent her Dane's site, and implored her to educate herself on what is really happening in Australia and the rest of the world. And so, we shall see. If they get enough feedback perhaps they will reconsider. If any of Australia survives. If anyone survives.
    Willa Cather is not one of my favorite authors, but I mostly find her works enjoyable reading. She is one of the many writers whose complete works I have just about finished. There are only two novels I have not read—both which I also have saved from Adelaide. (I am so glad I downloaded all those books!!) Plus a couple story collections and some odds and ends. You may read all my Willa Cather reviews on her Index Page. And I did find her books at Internet Archive, but their editions are sometimes iffy, and many are available only as PDF files, which can be read on a Kindle app.. Here is the download page for A Lost Lady. And you can always buy them at Dover for cheap. Lately they seem to be publishing authors' complete works. I now own all of Dickens novels—a massive collection.
    In any case, Cather is most known for her "Prairie trilogy," and One of Ours, which won her a Pulitzer Prize. My absolute favorite, by far was Death Comes for the Archbishop, No. 61 in Modern Library's top 100 English-language novels in the 20th century. These earlier novels all have to do with the pioneering spirit, and how the land was settled. This one, however, is about the waning after the peak. Towns that were booming suddenly died when a financial crisis hit. This book was written in 1923.
    I want to point out that this is one of the many books I have read or will read concerning railroads. Most people don't realize how railroads made people instantly rich, and many instantly poor. I first became fascinated with them after reading The Money Changers, right around the time I created this site. It was understood by many that the greedy villain in the story who ruined so many others was J.P. Morgan, which in fact he did, and he made his initial wealth from railroads. And he ruined Tesla, too.
    In this story, it is Captain Forrester, but he is not another Morgan. He chooses to go broke rather than ruin his former employees. But the story is not so much about him, but about his wife, Marian, known as Mrs. Forrester. However, the main character is Niel Herbert, the young nephew of Judge Pommeroy of Sweet Water, a "western town" that is still thriving as the story begins. I am under the impression it is in what is now Nebraska, where Cather grew up. The Forresters live on the edge of town, though they are only there during the summer at first. Winters were spent in Colorado. The Captain is much older than his wife, and they are quite well-off. Later on he is no longer able to work on the rail lines because of an injury he sustained after falling off his horse. He spends their time in Sweet Water tending his flower garden. There is a constant stream of visitors, many from high places, and yet the Forresters are not snobbish at all, though some like to think they are. Throughout the novel, we watch the characters age, along with the enthusiasm for the town, as crops fail, and so do the railroads and banks.
    The story begins years earlier. When Niel and some of his friends ask permission to hang out in their woods and fish in the stream one morning, Mrs. Forrester readily agrees. She brings them snacks later on. Unfortunately they are joined by a boy who is intensely disliked, especially by Niel. His name is Ivy Peters, but the other boys call him Poison Ivy because he is cruel and abusive to animals and poisoned Judge Pommeroy's dog. He thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants, even on the Forrester property.
    Though Niel is still young, he has a crush on Mrs. Forrester, and much of the story is about disillusionment—about her and on the larger scale, about the pioneering days and the prosperity it once brought to many. Niel's mother is deceased and his father is not well-off. When he leaves Sweet Water, Neil stays behind to work for his uncle. He eventually goes to college in architecture. The story goes in bits and pieces, and is told mostly through Niel's relationship with Mrs. Forrester. And we see that she is not this vision of perfection that Niel and many others believe she is. She is described as bewitching, always smiling, a real beauty.
    One winter, Mrs. Forrester comes to the Judge's office to invite him and Niel to dinner. The Ogdens will be there, and she is trying to hook Niel up with their daughter, Constance. We will later see why. Neil and Constance do not even remotely hit is off. She pays more attention to another guest, Frank Ellinger, a bachelor of forty, about whom Niel "felt something evil." Later the next day, Mrs. Forrester and Frank go off to cut cedar boughs. Though Constance wants to come along, she is told the big sleigh is broken, and there is no room. Once again Niel is urged to entertain her. A little later, one of the other boys, who was Niel's childhood friend, sees Frank and Mrs. Forrester together in the woods. He says nothing to anyone. But eventually Niel catches on.
    It is in the spring when Captain Forrester receives a telegram that his bank had crashed. Judge Pommeroy, who is his attorney, accompanies him. Niel takes care of his legal work. He also notices that Frank is on the hotel register, but not dining there. One morning, while Mr. Forrester is still away, Neil is filled with the bliss of summer time, and picks flowers to put on the window sill of Mrs. Forrester's room. It is then that he hears the laughter of her and Frank. A huge awakening in him occurs, and he is never able to feel that sense of worship and admiration towards her again.
    But things get worse. The Captain, always living in the highest level of integrity and honesty, refuses to give in the to the bank managers who, as we see here in our present day with the bail-outs that cost the taxpayers, leaving the wealthy even wealthier, are only out to fill their own wallets. The depositors at this bank, where Forrester was an officer, were his many of his former employees, and he refuses to allow them to lose their money, so instead, he takes the loss, returning home a very poor man.

His was the only well-known name among the bank officers, it was the name which promised security and fair treatment to his old workmen and their friends. The other directors were promising young business men with many irons in the fire. But, the Judge said with evident chagrin, they had refused to come up to the scratch and pay their losses like gentlemen. They claimed that the bank was insolvent, not through unwise investments or mismanagement, but because of a nation-wide financial panic, a shrinking in values that no one could have foreseen. They argued that the fair thing was to share the loss with the depositors; to pay them fifty cents on the dollar, giving long-time notes for twenty-five percent, settling on a basis of seventy-five percent.

    As you can see, the "promising young businessmen" here set the precedent for the way we now do business, multiplied by millions and millions. Get rich by screwing the public. Anyways, Forrester then opens his personal vault, and sells his stocks, bonds, and securities so that no depositor should lose a penny. And it is here that we, the readers, begin to see a little more clearly just which one of the Forresters is really the hero. And it is not the Mrs.. When they return home the Judge says to Mrs. Forrester:

By God, Madam, I think I've lived too long. In my day, the difference between a business man and a scoundrel was bigger than the difference between a white man and a nigger.

    Needless to say, though he is distraught, he is still proud of the Captain. He also mentions Ivy Peters, remember, the boy mentioned above who poisoned his dog and abused animals. He is now preparing for the bar, and the Judge believes he will be just the type to fit in with this new kind of "business ethic." And he is, as we shall see.
    Very soon after the Captain returns home, he has a stroke. But he survives, and eventually can function somewhat. But things go downhill for the couple. And it is here that we learn that Mrs. Forrester, unlike her husband, is not above being a scoundrel herself, to get money. She suddenly becomes rather good friends with Ivy Peters, who is quite detestable. He has found ways to get her some money, and none of it by honesty. Eventually she leases part of their beloved land to him for farming. He drains the marsh and plants wheat. Once again, Niel cannot believe she would even have anything to do with him, but in fact he has encroached into their lives, hers especially. Mrs. Forrester stoops lower and lower, and is also drinking quite a bit. She is still comparatively young and now feels imprisoned, stuck in the dying town of Sweet Water. And once again, another awakening occurs, and another precedent is set for future behavior.

Now all the vast territory they had won was to be at the mercy of men like Ivy Peters, who had never dared anything, never risked anything. They would drink up the mirage, dispel the morning freshness, root out the great brooding spirit of freedom, the generous, vast life of the great land-holders. The space, the colour, the princely carelessness of the pioneer they would destroy and cut up into profitable bits, as the match factory splinters the primeval forest. All the way from the Missouri to the mountains this generation of shrewd young men, trained to petty economies by hard times, would do exactly what Ivy Peters had done when he drained the Forrester marsh.

    And it just keeps getting worse and worse, does it not? As an aside, I must say that I don't particularly side with the "pioneers" either, because they were just as guilty, stealing this land from its rightful owners. Our country has been built on theft and greed. We will sorely pay for it. And I also want to point out that those of us who are older and wiser realize these crashes and financial panics are being orchestrated purposely by the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy. That game may be coming to an end.
    The Captain has another stroke, and this time he dies. Then it becomes obvious that Mrs. Forrester was really not the force that attracted so very many people to them. It was Mr. Forrester, and after his death, she shows her true colors. By this time, Niel has become totally disillusioned of all he believed to be so wonderful about her. He loses touch with her for a long time, but then hears she has remarried. However by the time he finds out, she is already dead.
    This is not a long or difficult book to read at all. It is a good historical novel, which was Cather's specialty, that plainly portrays the birth of the pattern of behavior in this country, which has now turned deadly to anyone paying attention. Recommended. And also very highly recommended is The Money Changers, linked above for anyone that really wants to understand the way wealth is manipulated in this country to serve those in power. You can read it for free at Project Gutenberg.

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