Lilies That Fester

The twentieth century promised much in terms of progress. Europe was at peace, and America was poised to become a world superpower. Certain religious leaders envisioned new programs to help the poor, while others pondered plans to evangelize the world. Protestants in America were divided over issues such as biblical authority and social programs, but there was a surface unity, and a widespread agreement (shared with Catholic and Orthodox Christians) about the sanctity of human life, an ethic rooted in the Bible and church history. Seventy nations, responding to medical advances in obstetrics, fetology, and a growing concern for women's health, had moved to prohibit abortion. Today, 120 years later, there is a deep division among Christians, and in American society, about abortion (and much else). The causes are no doubt complex, but several things are clear. Worldwide there have been over one billion unborn children destroyed by abortion. There have been sixty-four million unborn children destroyed by abortion in the United States, over half of them to women who identify as Christians. In a century of massive violence due to war, planned famines, mass executions, and terror, abortion reigns supreme. That the Judeo-Christian ethic of the sanctity of life has been shredded owes much to the scandal of Christian discipleship.

In this definitive account of the life of one of the finest writers of the 20th century, Marrs restores Eudora Welty's story to human proportions, tracing Welty's history from her roots in Jackson, Mississippi, to her rise to international stature.

Willa Cather's novels were neglected after her death, but a new generation of readers has greeted her work with enthusiasm. This feminist study, which draws extensively on Cather's unpublished letters, analyses how she overcame the difficulties which beset a woman writer in the mid-West during the early part of the century. It shows how her absorption in European culture influenced her perception of America and enabled her to produce some of the most compelling literature of modern times. Susie Thomas's highly readable account will be welcomed by all those studying Cather's work. Contents: Willa Cather 1873-1947; To Bayreuth and Back Again: R The Troll Garden, The Song of the Lark, One of Ours, Uncle Valentine; From Horse Opera to Homesteads: O Pioneers ; The Golden Girl of the West: My Antonia; Time's Fool and A Lost Lady; To Speak of the Woe That is in Marriage: The Professor's House; The Chemistry of Colour: Death Comes For the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock; Testimony: Obscure Destinies, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, The Old Beauty and Others