Virginia Faulkner

Brad Bigelow is a writer, instructor, and editor living in Missoula, Montana. He is the editor of the Recovered Books series for Boiler House Press and has been writer of the Neglected Books website since 2006. With more than six hundred articles, the site celebrates the work of little-known writers.

List of Illustrations Prologue Act 1. To Bohemia 1. The Meyers and the Faulkners 2. Ginny and Eddie 3. Rome 4. Limbo 5. Radcliffe 6. Washington 7. New York City 8. Hollywood 9. All in Fun 10. Dana 11. It Takes Two 12. The Haven 13. A House Is Not a Home 14. Pacific Grove Act 2. Back to Lincoln 15. Roundup 16. Hostiles and Friendlies 17. Bernice 18. The Literature of Possibility 19. The Road Is All 20. "Anniversary" 21. The Kingdom of Art 22. The World and the Parish 23. Willa Cather's Imagination 24. The Art of Willa Cather 25. Out to the Wind 26. Breaking Down A Note on Sources

"Bigelow sketches an intimate portrait of Faulkner and makes a convincing case that her efforts were foundational to future Cather researchers. This restores Faulkner to her rightful place in literary history."-Publishers Weekly "Intimidating, brilliant, and scathingly funny, Virginia Faulkner is a true American original. She fled her corn-fed Midwestern childhood in 1928 and reinvented herself as an international sophisticate and renowned wit. . . . Famous for her impeccable taste and stubborn eccentricities, Faulkner masterminded the literary reputations of authors ranging from Polly Adler to Willa Cather, but her own fascinating story has been forgotten until now. Brad Bigelow brings this complex, trailblazing woman back to life and restores her to her rightful place in American history."-Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age "Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts is a fascinating tribute to literary obsession. Not only does Brad Bigelow offer a captivating tale of Virginia Faulkner's mad devotion to Willa Cather; he provides a portrait of how profoundly one scholar, one editor, can amplify one writer's voice."-Timothy Schaffert, author of The Titanic Survivors Book Club and The Perfume Thief "I'm a bit embarrassed to confess that I'd never even heard of Virginia Faulkner before I met her in this engrossing biography, and now I wish I could have met her in person."-Nancy Pearl, author of the best-selling Book Lust and More Book Lust "This is a tale of struggle, uncertainty, and commitment, but it is mostly one of triumph. Brad Bigelow brings Virginia Faulkner and her partner, the distinguished, pathbreaking Willa Cather scholar Bernice Slote, alive on the page. This biography is a significant contribution."-Robert Thacker, historical editor of Willa Cather's Complete Poems and author of Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives; A Biography "In this impeccably researched and entertaining biography, Virginia Faulkner emerges as a waspish, Dorothy Parker-like novelist and newspaper columnist, whose glamorous (if sometimes rackety) life has the makings of a Hollywood motion picture. In pages of lucid prose, Brad Bigelow does this neglected American writer full justice. Terrific."-Ian Thomson, author of Primo Levi: A Life and Dante's Divine Comedy: A Journey Without End