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.

Introduction by: Mary Swander