The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis

FAIN: FEL-257166-18

Melissa J. Homestead
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)

Completion of a book-length study of the personal and professional relationship of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis.

I am applying for support to complete a a biographical study of the relationship between American novelist Willa Cather and Edith Lewis, a magazine editor and advertising copywriter with whom Cather shared a home in New York City for 38 years. Lewis's professional expertise allowed her to act behind the scenes as Cather's editor, making significant changes to her prose in typescript, and to advise Cather on the management of her public persona. Their relationship was also social, familial, and domestic--they shared a home, networks of friends, and social relationships with each other's biological families. I argue that this "creative partnership," which combined the personal and the professional, enabled Cather's emergence as a major novelist.

Associated Products