Abstract
In 1909 when Willa Cather wrote for McClure's her account of the cemeteries of Europe, she made special note of the inscription above the tomb of Alexandre Dumas, the younger: "I am keenly interested in my life, which pertains to time, but I am more interested in my death, which pertains to eternity." Judging from her own preoccupation with these subjects, the statement might have suited her equally well. George Kates in commenting on this essay has said that this was "a subject that was never afterward to leave her: the mystery and meaning of life and its end."