Willa Cather, 1873-1947

Willa Sibert Cather was born near Winchester, Virginia, the eldest of seven children. At nine, the family moved to frontier Nebraska, settling in the town of Red Cloud. There, she began attending school and became an avid reader and writer, publishing in the local newspaper.

After graduating at 16, she attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, aspiring to become a physician. Cather wrote essays, which got published in the Nebraska State Journal and the Lincoln Courier, served as the editor of the university’s student newspaper, and as literary editor of her class yearbook. Realizing she wanted to become a writer, she changed from science to English, graduating in 1895 with a Bachelor of Arts.

The following year, at 23, Cather moved to Pittsburgh, where she wrote for the women’s magazine Home Monthly, publishing journalistic pieces, poetry, and short stories; among them was Tommy, the Unsentimental. In 1897, she worked as a telegraph editor and music critic for the Pittsburgh Leader and contributed some of her own poems and short stories.

At the time, she also worked as a Latin, English, and Algebra teacher in several high schools, serving as head of the English department at Allegheny High School.

In 1903, at 30, Cather published her first poetry collection, April Twilights, followed by her first short stories collection, The Troll Garden, featuring some of her most renowned stories, such as Paul’s Case, The Sculptor’s Funeral, and A Wagner Matinee.

In 1906, she moved to NYC after receiving an editorial position at McClure’s. There, she met her lifelong friend and domestic partner, the editor Edith Lewis.

In 1912, at 39, she published her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge. Within less than a decade, she published three more books that together often referred to as Cather’s “Prairie Trilogy” – O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In these books, Cather demonstrated her distinctive use of plainspoken language that authentically portrays the lives of ordinary people.

Cather’s most significant acclaim came in 1922 after publishing the WW1 novel One of Ours, for which she won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize. Her success continued in her next three novels, A Lost Lady (1923), The Professor’s House (1925), My Mortal Enemy (1926), and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

Cather became known for portrayals of the frontier, pioneering settlers, and their relationships with the western landscapes, often drawing inspiration from her own experiences and the people she encountered while growing up in Nebraska.

Despite her commercial success, she was criticized and dismissed for being nostalgic and overdramatic and for not addressing contemporary issues.

In 1931, her Shadows on the Rock was the most-read novel in the US; the 1932 Obscure Destinies collection included one of her most-known stories, Neighbour Rosicky, and the novel: Lucy Gayheart, published in 1935, was a bestseller.

Overall she wrote 12 novels, two poetry books, and seven short story collections (three were published post-mortem). She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 73.