Writing for Her Life: The Novelist Mildred WalkerU of Nebraska Press, 2003 M01 1 - 286 pages ?You are either a Mildred Walker enthusiast,? as the Philadelphia Inquirer once declared, ?or you are missing one of the best writers on the American scene.? As Mildred Walker?s daughter, Ripley Hugo was in the latter category. This biography of the author of thirteen celebrated novels is also Hugo?s search for the writing life of a mother known to her children as a socially correct middle-class doctor?s wife rather than as the ambitious, imaginative, often struggling novelist she was as well. ø Drawing on family memories, letters, diaries, reviews, and, in particular, the notebooks that Mildred Walker (1905?1998) kept for each novel, Hugo fashions an absorbing account of how her mother?s characters emerged in the landscapes that she visited again and again: Vermont, the Midwest, and, most frequently, Montana, the setting for the classic Winter Wheat. Alongside this developing picture of a writer at work?shaping her contribution to western America?s literary history over half a century?Hugo shows us the proper mother and social creature as carefully and consciously crafted; between the two lovingly detailed portrayals, we glimpse the depths of a life thus divided. |
Contents
The Vermont Novels | 17 |
College and Early Years | 43 |
The Midwest Novels | 63 |
Great Falls Montana 19331944 | 93 |
The First Two Montana Novels | 125 |
At Beaverbank on | 155 |
The Last Two Montana Novels | 185 |
Teaching Years Aurora | 217 |
Back in Grafton Vermont 19681986 | 245 |
Common terms and phrases
A. B. Guthrie Arcturus Beaverbank Billy Sunday brewery brothers cabin chapter characters Christopher Curlew's Cry Dad's describes dinner doctor early Ellen entry Eva Le Gallienne Falls father feel felt Ferd Fireweed friends George going Grafton Grandmother Harriet husband interest Joseph Kinsey Howard journal knew later letter Lion Could Talk living look married Medical Meeting Mildred Walker Missoula Missouri River Montana months Mother and Dad Mother told Mother writes never Norton's Wife notebook novel novelist Pamela parents Phyllis porch published Quarry quotations quotes ranch remember river Ryegate Saxtons River Schemm seemed Serena short stories sister Southwest Corner summer teaching tell things thought tion took town trip turned University of Montana University of Wyoming Vermont village walk wanted Wilderness Winter Wheat woman women wonder written wrote young