The Letters of Willa Cather.

The New York Times reports on publication (finally) of The Selected Letters of Willa Cather, the first time much of her correspondence will be available publicly:

For scholars it’s a major literary event, a chance at last to flesh out the understanding of a writer often seen as a remote bluestocking in big skirts and old-fashioned hats. Cather, the letters reveal, was a powerfully engaged literary businesswoman who corresponded with H. L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other notables of the day — and once playfully took those skirts off, as a charming youthful letter recounts, to clamber down a windmill in a thunderstorm.

I myself am particularly interested in any correspondence she may have had with Hamlin Garland. This also makes me—a fellow Nebraskan—want to get out to Red Cloud and visit the Cather-related sights.

Update: Page Turner has a nice essay about what’s actually in the letters, including a decent discussion of the controversy over Cather’s sexuality. Meanwhile, at my alma mater, there is a great video series on the letters.