Light from Arcturus

by Mildred Walker, Mary Swander (Introduction)

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.

 

Recent Bison Book reprints of Winter Wheat , Fireweed , and The Curlew’s Cry have renewed interest in the novels of Mildred Walker. Light from Arcturus , originally published in 1935, is introduced to a new generation of readers by Mary Swander, author of Driving the Body Back and Heaven and Earth House .

Genres: Fiction

343 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mildred Schemm Walker (May 2, 1905 – May 27, 1998) was an American novelist who published 12 novels and was nominated for the National Book Award. She graduated from Wells College and from the University of Michigan. She was a faculty member at Wells College from 1955 to 1968. Walker died in 1998 in Portland, Oregon.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jim Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

What started out as a wonderful look at a woman's reaction to moving to the Plains in the 1870's (she hates it), and a feminist look at a frustrated woman's limited path in the Victorian Era, turns into a snooze fest. by the end of the book. It could have been shorter and sharper, but I do give it props for showing accurately how most women from the East must have felt moving to the prairie. Willa Cather does this much, much better.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normal lives provide interesting reading...

It was the last sentence in the book that set my teeth on edge, however:

"See, we're crossing the Mississippi; that's Nebraska down there!"

Ahhhh....no, it might be Iowa though!!! If they just crossed a river and it's Nebraska below the airplane, they would have just crossed the Missouri River!!!

Very surprised that this detail is so wrong!!!!

[Danna]

Set in a World's Fair.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring but good boring

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms Walker is one of my favorite authors. This book follows the life of one midwestern woman as it is measured in World's Fairs.. She attends the 1876 WF in Philadelphia as a newlywed, attends the 1893 Chicago World's fair as a a wife and mother and the 1933 Chicago WF as an elderly woman. As with all Ms Walker's books, it is an absorbing and wonderful read.

[Saltlakecityhardys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia Hauser is living in the middle of Nebraska but longs for the things that she saw at the World's Fair on her honeymoon in Europe. Be careful what you wish for Julia!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pioneer historical....1870s-90s Nebraska, Chicago....isolation of pioneer towns, longing for world fair excitement, then reality. 3.5

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably my least favorite book she wrote but it was still good.