Wednesday 9 September 2009

Lucy Gayheart

Much as I admire Elizabeth Taylor's writing I can only spend so long in her world before longing to escape to the plains and prairies of America with a Willa Cather novel. I've been wanting to read Lucy Gayheart for a long time. There's nothing quite like starting a new novel is there?

I'm feeling all the L M Montgomery love and I particularly liked the anonymous comment from a lady who has a copy of the novel which belonged to her mother. That's what Vintage Reads is all about. Beloved books that are passed down through the generations.

9 comments:

Frisbee said...

Lucy Gayheart is Joanne Woodward's favorite, and in the '90s she talked of making a movie of it. But i learned this summer through my Red Cloud tour that Willa Cather added something in her will about not making movies - she was furious about an adaptation of A Lost Lady!

So perhaps this is why Woodward's movie never came along. Wouldn't Cather be more popular if her works were dramatized?

I love Lucy Gayheart.

Rachel (Book Snob) said...

This is another one on the TBR pile. I am yet to read a Willa Cather but I do own several and should really read them soon.

I want to come across a pile of lovely old L M Montgomery books and immerse myself in them. Elaine's posts on Random Jottings and yours about The Blue Castle have awoken a longing in me to read her. Can you believe I have lived all my 23 years without having read Anne of Green Gables?!

Minervamouse said...

Willa Cather is one of those writers I have always meant to read but have never got around to so far. That will change!
Passing on beloved books is a lovely thing to do - I inherited my late mum's copies of What Katy Did and Little Women as well as a lot of 1920's school stories that absolutely fascinated me growing up in the 1960's and I have duly passed them on to my daughters too (they both loved the first two but were not so keen on the school stories!)
Favourite vintage book though is a Victorian copy of Jane Eyre (a second edition I think) that belonged to my great-grandmother. Reading it is seriously atmospheric.
Lovely blog by the way!

tuesday said...

Nicola, you always seem to read the loveliest (most lady-like) books! You could almost begin your own line of books, like Persephone :)

I've always wondered... is the novelist Elizabeth Taylor the same as the movie star, or a different person altogether?

Minervamouse said...

I am feeling very pleased with myself as I have managed to request both Lucy Gayheart AND The Blue Castle from the library! I did try to find them to buy but The Blue Castle was only available from a very few Canadian retailers and would have cost far more than I could afford for one book! Have bought My Antonia though!
Also bought a compilation of Elizabeth Bowen's short stories as I remember reading some of her novels during my Rosamund Lehmann/Elizabeth Taylor/Katherine Mansfield phase many years ago.

zetor said...

Many thanks for your kind words and prayers following my FIL's death.

Thomas Hogglestock said...

Willa Cather is a goddess of literature and a goddess of the American plains. And wildly under-read.

Vintage Reading said...

Frisbee, what a brilliant book. So nice that Joanne Woodward - a woman of integrity - admires it too. What Cather novel do you recommend I read next? I've read O Pioneers, A Lost Lady, My Antonia, The Professor's House and Song of the Lark.

Rachel, I first came to LM Montgomery in my forties so you have a start on me! I think you would like Willa Cather.

Minervamouse, I love Jane Eyre, too. I'm well overdue for a re-read. How wonderful to have a Victorian edition. I've never persevered with Elizabeth Bowen I really should.

Tuesday, yes, I'm a laydee!! ET is a different person to the violet-eyed movie star. A very good writer but I find a certain coldness in her prose.

Zetor, hi, hope you are OK.
Nicola xx

Thomas, always a delight to 'meet' a Willa Cather reader. My blog is rather dominated with WC reviews because, as you say, she is a goddess of American literature.

Kat at Thornfield Hall Redux said...

You've read all my favorites. I'm planning to reread One of Ours because the Willa Cather Newsletter & Review (from the Willa Cather Foundation) devotes its latest issue to it.

I love your blog on Lucy Gayheart! Nobody reads that, and it's so good.