Cather on Poe, James, and Hawthorne

Posted on July 26th, 2010

In 1895, Willa Cather, as a young college student, read a paper on Poe to a meeting of literary societies at University of Nebraska, and she claimed:

“With the exception of Henry James and Hawthorne, Poe
is our only master of pure prose.”

To my mind, though, as I read about this paper slightly more than a century later while browsing through the chronology in the back of the Library of America edition of her later novels, I am not sure what to think of Cather’s youthful assessment. Perhaps the definition of “pure prose” lies at the root of my concern about Cather’s comment. Certainly Cather herself was a master of “pure prose” in much of her work, at least as I would define “pure prose,” but I do not really think that James, Hawthorne, or Poe properly deserve Cather’s hyperoblic praise.

What do you think the phrase “pure prose” could possibly mean, especially in terms of the three authors Cather cites?

Perhaps I could ask the question in a different way: What authors (either past or present) do you credit with writing “pure prose”?

Tags: Authors, Chronology, Hawthorne, Henry James, Library Of America, Literary Societies, Novels, Phrase, Poe, Prose, University Nebraska, University Of Nebraska, Willa Cather
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