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w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
Dorothy
Johnson
A MONTANA
TREASURE
WHO NEEDS
TO BE
REMEMBERED
I
N 1923, WILLA CATHER WON THE
PULITZER PRIZE for literature
for her novel, One of Ours. It was
the first major literary award ever won by
a writer from the West, and I have always
thought it was interesting that this distinc-
tion went to a woman. Because when you
look at the history of literature that's con-
sidered "Western," it's generally been a bit
of a boy's club, dominated by big names
like Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Wallace
Stegner, and A.B. Guthrie.
Cather was really the first writer from the
West, followed closely by fellow Nebraska
writer Marie Sandoz, to write more au-
thentically about people in the West, and
I can't help but think that the reason these
two women blazed that trail is because
they were women, and thus felt less con-
fined by the Western stereotype that was
established early on with The Virginian, a
very good read but a novel that was writ-
ten by a rich Eastern tourist
writing about the West from
his Philadelphia men's club.
Cather depicted men's
struggles with alcoholism,
loneliness, and violence
without turning them into
cardboard cutouts, and it
was after her success that
some of the men, particu-
larly Guthrie, Stegner, and
eventually Ivan Doig, fol-
lowed her lead.
But in Montana, there
were always women writers
who were doing much the
same as Cather, digging
deeper into their characters,
providing moral and ethical
complexity to their stories
rather than spinning tales
that featured clearly defined
heroes and villains.
And I find it puzzling, and even slight-
ly irritating, that many of these names are
fading from the public's attention. You
by RUSSELL ROWLAND
