Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)

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Willa Cather was born in Virginia and moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska early in her childhood. A brilliant student, Cather altered her previous ambitions to become a physician after seeing her name in print. She worked as a journalist, editor, and English teacher before committing to writing fiction. Her novels, especially My Antonia (1918) and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) firmly place her in the American literary canon. Cather was intensely private and burned nearly all of her personal correspondence. Her closest relationships were with women and she lived with her friend and partner, editor Edith Lewis, from 1912 until her death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1947.

Cather’s mentor, Sarah Orne Jewett, encouraged her to reject the well-known literary influences of the day, like Henry James, in order to find her own voice. Drawing on her experiences in Red Cloud, Nebraska, Cather’s fiction paints a rich landscape of prairie life with an astute attention to character development. This focus on setting often positions her in the historical period of American regionalism, although her long and successful career complicates an easy label on her work.