White, William Allen (1868-1944). American newspaper editor and fiction writer. As the editor and publisher of the Emporia Gazette, White had an audience and influence far beyond the small town of Emporia, KS. He married Sallie Lindsay in 1893 and they bought the Gazette in 1895, with his wife working with him on all aspects of producing the paper. His fiery anti-Populist editorial “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, published during the 1896 presidential campaign, made his national reputation, although his politics later shifted from his early conservative Republicanism. Dubbed the “Sage of Emporia” by H.L. Mencken for his widely reprinted editorials, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for an editorial advocating free speech. He began publishing short stories about small-town life in the 1890s, including in McClure’s Magazine; Cather later remembered reading his “Court of Boyville” stories with her brother Roscoe and marveling that a man from Kansas had been able to publish them in McClure’s (#2242). White stopped writing fiction after the failure of his novel In the Heart of a Fool (1918), however. In the Nation Randolph Bourne praised My Ántonia (1918) while denigrating the “swollen bulk” and “stale brightness of conversation” in White’s fiction. Cather approved Bourne’s comparison, dismissing White’s “jocular, familiar, grapenutsy way” of presenting his subject matter that “really presents…his own essentially vulgar personality” (#2085). Cather’s correspondence with White commenced in 1919. She later asked him to review One of Ours (1922), suggesting that although she had few “readers in Nebraska or Kansas,” the novel was for her “home people,” who would be persuaded by his opinion (#0603). He apparently did not review the novel, but they met when he visited New York City in October 1922 and maintained a cordial correspondence until his death.

Barlow-Brewster, Achsah (1878-1945). Expatriate American painter. Born in New Haven, CT, Achsah Brewster graduated in 1902 from Smith College, where Edith Lewis had become her roommate in 1899, inaugurating a long friendship. After college, Achsah moved to New York City to study painting at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art. After she returned from a year of study in France, fellow student (and later poet) Vachel Lindsay introduced her to Earl Brewster. She may have met Willa Cather as early as 1904, when Cather, visiting New York from Pittsburgh, stayed with Edith Lewis on Washington Square. In 1910, she and Earl Brewster married and moved to Europe, returning to the U.S. only once, in 1923. From 1910 through 1935, they lived in various locations in France (where their daughter Harwood was born in 1912) and in Italy (where they met D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda in 1921), while also traveling widely in Europe and to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India. Edith Lewis visited Achsah and Earl in Ravello, Italy, in 1914 and 1920 and in Cyr-sur-Mer, France, in 1930 (with Cather) and 1935. When Earl, Achsah, and Harwood moved to Paris in the early 1920s, they became friend Isabelle McClung Hambourg and Jan Hambourg. In 1935, Achsah and Earl moved to the Himalayan region of India, where she died ten years later after a long illness.

Brewster, Earl (1878-1957). Expatriate American painter. Born in Chagrin Falls, OH, Earl Brewster attended the Cleveland Institute of Art for a year before moving to New York City in 1899 to study at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art. He married fellow painter Achsah Barlow in 1910. They immediately moved to Europe, returning to the U.S. only once, in 1923. From 1910 through 1935, Earl and Achsah lived in France (where their daughter Harwood was born in 1912) and Italy (where they met D. H. Lawrence in 1921), while traveling widely in Europe and to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India. Edith Lewis visited Achsah and Earl in Ravello, Italy, in 1914 and 1920 and in Cyr-sur-Mer, France, in 1930 (with Cather) and 1935. When Earl, Achsah, and Harwood moved to Paris in the early 1920s, they became friend Isabelle McClung Hambourg and Jan Hambourg. Earl had begun studying eastern religions early in his life, including the Vedanta school of Hindu religious philosophy, and he incorporated Buddhist iconography into his paintings. In 1935, the Brewsters moved to the Himalayan region of India, where he died more than two decades later.