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The Body of a Young Man
Copyright © 1997
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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James Cutler, a high school physics teacher, is shattered by the
suicide of his most promising student. Hoping to gain perspective and
peace of mind, he travels with his wife, Phyllis, to Vermont to spend
the summer at the farm of old friends, Josh and Lucy Blair.
The Body of a Young Man is a deeply moving story of four people
whose friendship asks more than they can give and offers more than they
can take. Only in observing another tragedy does James begin to
see vulnerability as a virtue and ambiguity as a source of strength. — from
the jacket
A thoughtful novel, tinged with irony.— Christian Science Monitor
The atmosphere is warm, tense, and sympathetic, and so is the
writing. — New
Yorker
[Walker] has commented on an important subject with sincerity. — New
York Times Book Review
Sensitive and well written. — Library Journal
An understanding and interesting exploration of personalities and emotions. — Booklist
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The Brewers' Big Horses
Copyright © 1996
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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Little Sara Bolster loved the great shining
horses that drew the Henkel brewery wagon through the streets of Detroit in the 1880s.
Those horses came to signify her fate,
for she married the Henkel son and later, as a widow, took over the business.
Sara’s struggle against the intolerance and hypocrisy of
family and friends who disapproved of a woman running a brewery and opening a beer
garden makes her a standout among the characters of Mildred Walker.
The Brewers’ Big Horses
recreates the manners and traditions of Germans in America as Prohibition gets
up steam. — from the jacket
[The Brewers’ Big Horses] has suspense and gripping interest....The story is told quietly,
with balance and realism and with the subtlety which is itself the effortless effect of restraint.
The characters are drawn with few strokes, but increasingly they take on intimacy as well as
significance in the reader’s mind....Mildred Walker has drawn upon assimilated knowledge and
searching individual thought, and the story has substance and vitality, convincing and
unstrained. — New York Times
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Dr. Norton's Wife
Copyright © 1996
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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Dr. Norton's Wife was
praised for its quiet
honesty and artistic integrity when it was first published
in 1938. It stands up firmly as a portrait of a marriage subjected to the
strain of unexpected invalidism. As a doctor's wife, Sue Norton is no
stranger to matters of life and death. But medical shoptalk screens her from
the realities of illness until she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Never
clinical, Walker, herself the wife of a doctor, accurately describes the
disease's progress and the adjustments necessary to cope with it. The
result is a tender story of "the marriage of true minds." — from the jacket
An honest, straightforward little novel....The author has a precise
feeling for the atmosphere, the personalities,
and the intrigues of a small medical college. — New Yorker
[A] disturbing book....For those who
are interested in the world of unuttered thoughts,
Dr. Norton’s Wife will
prove an absorbing study. — New York Times
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Light from Arcturus
Copyright © 1995
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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Stuck in the middle of Nebraska in the late nineteenth century, Julia Hauser felt restless. "The four walls of
her parlor bound her world too securely," writes Mildred Walker. But
what could she do? She was married to a dull small-town merchant and
soon confined by children. She lacked money and social position. Light
from Arcturus shows how Julia stepped beyond sacrifice and duty,
impressed herself on a larger scene, fed her spirit, and grew in dignity.
Grounded in memorable events, this novel illustrates the significance of
the
period's great world's fairs to the early settlers. The milestones in
Julia's
progress are trips to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and to
the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and in 1933. Readers of the early
prairie novels of Willa Cather will recognize Julia Hauser. — from the jacket
You are either a Mildred Walker enthusiast or you are missing one of the
best writers on the American scene. — Philadelphia Inquirer
Walker tells this simple tale with understanding, spirit, and a decent
regard for the rules of English syntax....It is unpretentious and often
charming. — Nation
Substantial and satisfying....She has packed a great deal of life and
color into her book. — New York Times
Excellent reading. Walker has a good gift at narrative and the
ability to make her characters interesting. — Christian
Science Monitor
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Medical Meeting
Copyright © 1997
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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Dr. Henry Baker and his wife, Liz, have spent twelve years developing a cure
for tuberculosis. Working at a lab in their home, they have persisted
without adequate funding and assistance, sacrificing new clothes and
vacations to make their contribution to humanity. Tests have so far proved
very encouraging. At the beginning of Medical Meeting they are ready to
announce their discovery at a convention in Chicago. What promises to be
a reward for years of work, a great moment to savor, turns into a disaster,
professionally and possibly personally. — from the jacket
People who wail "I don’t see any reason why doctors don’t discover a
cure for ———" would do well to read Medical Meeting. Mildred
Walker’s quiet, tragic novel of a young research scientist and his wife is
a penetrating account of one of the major reasons [for failure]. — New
York Times
Walker’s integrity, understanding and unerring dramatic sense plus
sound construction make this superior fiction. — Library Journal
Filled with knowing touches, clear sidelights on human nature, and specific
clinical details, this provides far better than average
reading. — Kirkus
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The Quarry
Copyright © 1995
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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In this family saga,
generations mine the Vermont earth and come to rest in it. Lyman
Converse is too young to fight in the Civil War, but he lives to see his own
son enlist in World War I. Through all the years his closest friend is Easy,
an escaped black slave who took refuge in his father's house. Everything
Converse values most is gradually lost to time, including the family-owned
soapstone quarry. The Quarry
invites readers to escape into private lives
worth caring about — and to feel the national history that they could not
escape. Originally published in 1947 and considered one of Mildred
Walker's richest novels.
A warm, moving book, a touch old-fashioned, and very
American. — New Yorker
A satisfying piece of work, well constructed
and well written. As a regional novel, it gives a convincing delineation of
upstate Vermont in the period between the Civil War and World War
One, and it also leaves the reader with the pleasing consciousness that
maintaining a standard of conduct — such things as tolerance, integrity, and
loyalty — can make good fiction material. — Christian Science Monitor
Walker has done a fine bit of documentation on what might be called the
deflowering of New England. — New York Times
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Unless the Wind Turns
Copyright © 1996
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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John Davis has a "dull aching sense of missing out, of not getting
anywhere." There must be millions like him, he thinks.
His relations with his wife, Serena, are shallow and unsatisfying.
In the late 1930s, he tries to rekindle their marriage by
bringing her to a special place from his past — the Montana mountains.
He is chagrined when she asks other people to join them on the camping trip.
Plans are further disrupted by a catastrophe — a forest fire that rages
uncontrolled for three days. Forced to reach outward to others in this
crisis, the members of the party ultimately have to face themselves as well.
Unless the Wind Turns is fast-moving and psychologically nuanced.
You are either a Mildred Walker enthusiast or you are missing one of the
best writers on the American scene. — Philadelphia Inquirer
Miss Walker knows all about forest fires and this is a monstrous and
murdering one, most graphically described. — New York Times
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Winter Wheat
Copyright © 1992
by Mildred Walker
U of Nebraska P
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Describes a young woman’s emotional and spiritual awakening as she
confronts the disappointments and marvels of love....Walker’s heroine
recognizes that love, like winter wheat, requires faith and deep roots to
survive the many hardships that threaten its endurance. — Belles
Lettres
Her novel Winter Wheat is a classic, a bit in the
vein of Cather's My Antonia. — Charlotte Zoe Walker
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What the Critics Say
Bibliography
