Death Comes for the Spirit of Privacy, or O Researchers!

Okay, really, though, should we be reading Willa Cather’s letters? It’s not clear. On one hand, she is dead, so it really doesn’t matter*, and on the other hand, considering the pleasure you may have experienced the first time you read My Antonia (Indiebound | Amazon), could we not grant her this one explicit request for privacy? Personally, I decided not to read the letters. Which is dumb, I guess, because the only people who are going to read the collected letters of Willa Cather are people who genuinely love and appreciate Willa Cather. I don’t think there are people who are going to say “aha! an invasion of privacy! I shall read her letters and laugh evilly.”

*Or does it? Incomplete spiritual awakening wonders!