When Willa Cather was writing My Antonia, she visited her friend, the journalist and war correspondent Elizabeth Sergeant, grabbed an old apothecary jar filled with flowers, set it in the center of an antique table, and explained: I want my new heroine to be like this–like a rare object in the middle of a table, which one may examine from all sides. . . . I want her to stand out–like this–like this–because she is the story. <p> This anecdote (recounted in James Woodresss biography of...
