Story Catcher of the Plains Book Review

Biography of Mari Sandoz, Western Writer & Historian

Feb 14, 2009

Helen Winter Stauffer writes an in depth biography on the top ranked writer of Nebraska's history in fiction and nonfiction.

Not very many people know of Mari Sandoz who started life in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. She was born in 1866 to Jules and Mary Sandoz. Helen Winter Stauffer, a former English Professor at the Kearney State College, writes the only true biography of Mari Sandoz.

Becoming A Writer

Stauffer reveals Sandoz's story through the writer's own personal words from letters and interviews of family and friends. She states the writer's first and most succesful book, Old Jules, based on her father, deals particularly with growing up and living with a man who was determined to have strong control over everyone he could, including and particularly his family.

The book gives details of Mari's early writing life when approximately at the age of twelve she had her first story published in the JuniorSection of the Omaha Daily Times. Stauffer explains how the impact of the publication scarred Mari's life when her father learned of the publication. He whipped her and then sent her to the cellar with mice and snakes as punishment.

Also chronicled is Mari's attempt to escape from her father by marrying Wray Macumber, a local rancher, Stauffer explains the marriage only brought added stress to Mari and after five years she filed for divorce stating mental abuse as the reason.

Comparison to Willa Cather

Through her letters Stauffer sees a writer who believed in the early years of her life she would leave a mark on Nebraska literature and the way she protrayed the western landscape in her writing. Because of this, Stauffer felt the letters would askew the true Mari Sandoz and therefore limited her use of the letters in the biography.

In comparison to Willa Cather, another noted Nebraska writer, Stauffer states that although Mari knew who Cather was and familiar with her work, she reframed from making any statements or judgments of Cather's writings. Cather and Sandoz's writing were very different in technique, one was more interested in Nebraska's true landscape and history, while the other was more interested in telling a fictional story based on history and landscape.

Stauffer lists Mari’s publications as follows:

Stauffer states that Mari’s early writing influences were Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy, with Conrad being her favorite. Stauffer explains that Conrad’s stories of the sea reminded Sandoz of the Nebraska landscape with the tall grass, along with the isolation, and the impoverishment of the Sand Hills. With Hardy, Mari felt a connection to his attitude towards life, which was an enduring struggle.

Overall, Stauffer is able to portray a woman who was passionate about growing up in Nebraska, its history, its people, and writing about the subjects she cared most about.

The copyright of the article Story Catcher of the Plains Book Review in Biographies/Memoirs is owned by Christine Musser. Permission to republish Story Catcher of the Plains Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.