Knopf publishing house has scored another coup.  The Selected Letters of Willa Cather , a collection of personal letters that most Cather fans thought would never be seen in print, will be published in April.  I haven't been this excited since Mark Twain's autobiography was published.

While it is always interesting to read the musings of talented and widely admired authors, it is especially so in the case of Willa Cather.  Miss Cather not only destroyed most of her personal correspondence during a low period prior to her death, but also specified in her will that information of this type would never

be shared in print.  Now, after the death of the last direct relative of Willa Cather and with the permission of the Willa Cather Foundation, many long forgotten and never collected letters will be shared with the literary world.  While Miss Cather wrote wonderful stories set on the Great Plains, her personal relationships have also garnered some attention.  She was actually buried far from the Great Plains that she did such justice to in print, in the gentle mountain town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, a town with special meaning in her personal life.  We who love her writing hope to gain some insight into the woman, her relationships and reactions to the pre and post WWI world around her.  Thank you Knopf for shining a light on Willa Cather.