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The Sculptors Funeral

by Willa Cather

This week in the Tales from the Library Book Club we are reading 'The Sculptors Funeral' by Willa Cather. “The Sculptor’s Funeral” relates the story of a sculptor’s return to his hometown—a town he fled as a young man to pursue his art—to be buried. The story was first published in the periodical McClure's Monthly Magazine in 1905. Cather may have taken inspiration for the character of Harvey Merrick from the life and death of real-life artist Charles Stanley Reinhart.

The story takes place in Sand City, a fictional town in Kansas. It opens as a group of townsmen are waiting at the local train station for the body of Harvey Merrick, a famous sculptor. Harvey has died at the age of forty of tuberculosis. He was born and raised in Sand City but was educated on the East Coast, where he became a successful artist. Cather introduces us to Merrick through through the people who are waiting for his funeral. The Story gives a touching look into the world of the small town of Sand City and its narrow minded citizens, a world that Merrick tried and successfully managed to get away from.

You can listen to the audio book above or read the book online.

Read online: 'The Sculptors Funeral' by Willa Cather

About the Author

Willa Sibert Cather was born in 1873 on her maternal grandmother's farm in the Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.

Cather achieved recognition as a novelist of the frontier and pioneer experience. She wrote of the tenacity and spirit of settlers, many of them European immigrants, in the Great Plains in the early to mid-20th century. Common themes in her work include loss, exile, and social isolation. A sense of place is an important element in Cather's fiction; sometimes harsh, often beautiful, physical landscapes and domestic spaces are for Cather dynamic presences against which the characters both struggle and express love.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

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