Willa Cather (1873–1947)
Author of My Ántonia
About the Author
Willa Siebert Cather was born in 1873 in the home of her maternal grandmother in western Virginia. Although she had been named Willela, her family always called her "Willa." Upon graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1895, Cather moved to Pittsburgh where she worked as a journalist and show more teacher while beginning her writing career. In 1906, Cather moved to New York to become a leading magazine editor at McClure's Magazine before turning to writing full-time. She continued her education, receiving her doctorate of letters from the University of Nebraska in 1917, and honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of California, Columbia, Yale, and Princeton. Cather wrote poetry, short stories, essays, and novels, winning awards including the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, One of Ours, about a Nebraska farm boy during World War I. She also wrote The Professor's House, My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Lucy Gayheart. Some of Cather's novels were made into movies, the most well-known being A Lost Lady, starring Barbara Stanwyck. In 1961, Willa Cather was the first woman ever voted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in Oklahoma in 1974, and the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, New York in 1988. Cather died on April 24, 1947, of a cerebral hemorrhage, in her Madison Avenue, New York home, where she had lived for many years. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Series
Works by Willa Cather
Early Novels and Stories: The Troll Garden / O Pioneers! / The Song of the Lark / My Antonia / One of Ours (1987) 534 copies
Later Novels: A Lost Lady / The Professor's House / Death Comes for the Archbishop / Shadows on the Rock / Lucy… (1990) 479 copies
Set of 3 Book of the Month Club (Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Ántonia, O Pioneers!) (1996) 13 copies
Willa Cather: Four Great Novels—O Pioneers!, One of Ours, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia (2014) 11 copies
The Kingdom of Art: Willa Cather's First Principles and Critical Statements, 1893-1896 (1967) 9 copies
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather "The Annotated Classic Edition" Uniquely Epic American Novel (2020) 6 copies
Classic American Literature: 5 novels and 2 collections by Willa Cather, in a single file, improved 8/16/2010 (2008) 5 copies
My Ántonia: 100th Anniversary Edition with introduction, context, biography and analysis (2018) 5 copies
Death Comes for the Archbishop with Related Readings (The Glencoe Literature Library) (2002) 4 copies
The Best Years [short story] 3 copies
Willa Cather: Three Novel & Selected Stories (O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, Alexander's Bridge) (1993) 3 copies
Old Mrs. Harris 3 copies
Before Breakfast [short story] 2 copies
Willa Cather's Collected Works: My Ántonia, Song of the Lark, One of Ours, O Pioneers, The Profile, And More! (2013) 2 copies
Works of Willa Cather. Alexander's Bridge, O Pioneers!, Song of the Lark, My Antonia, One of Ours, Stories & more… (2009) 2 copies
Willa Cather Collection (My Ántonia, The Song of the Lark, O Pioneers!, and One of Ours) (2012) 2 copies
The Clemency of the Court 1 copy
Prarie Trilogy, The 1 copy
Two Friends 1 copy
Selected Short Stories 1 copy
The Essential Willa Cather: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia, and One of Ours with an Introduction… (2017) 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
The Troll Garden And Other Stories (Mint Editions (Short Story Collections and Anthologies)) (2020) 1 copy
Katherine Mansfield 1 copy
Willa Cather - The Library of America Set Complete in 3 Volumes (1. Early Novels & Stories; 2. Stories, Poems and Other… (1987) 1 copy
Consequences 1 copy
Joseph and His Brothers 1 copy
Miss Jewett 1 copy
148 Charles Street 1 copy
The Novel Démeublé 1 copy
Cather, Willa Archive 1 copy
Associated Works
The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (1985) — Contributor — 860 copies
Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the 17th Century to the Present (1994) — Contributor — 447 copies
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Contributor — 265 copies
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown: A Treasury of Bizarre Tales Old and New (1993) — Contributor — 196 copies
Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914 (1998) — Contributor — 171 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 133 copies
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Expanded 10th-Anniversary Edition) (2008) — Contributor — 93 copies
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contributor — 83 copies
Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life (1997) — Contributor — 47 copies
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Contributor — 42 copies
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 2: Love, Marriage, and the Family (1966) — Contributor — 39 copies
Published and Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, and Remembrances of American Writers (2002) — Contributor — 37 copies
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 5: Community Responsibility (1969) — Contributor — 30 copies
Three Classics by American Women: The Awakening; Ethan Frome; O Pioneers! (1990) — some editions — 25 copies
Classic American women writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather (Perennial library ; P 502) (1980) — Contributor — 25 copies
Best-Loved Short Stories: Flaubert, Chekhov, Kipling, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Poe and Others (2004) — Contributor — 23 copies
Great American Ghost Stories: Chilling Tales by Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne and Others (2008) — Contributor — 10 copies
Pulitzer Prize Winning Works Collection: One of Ours, His Family, Miss Lulu Bett, Cornhuskers, Anna Christie, Alice… (2013) 4 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1929 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1929) — Contributor — 3 copies
Ode to Boy: Vol. 2: An Anthology of Same-Sex Attraction in Literature from the 19th Century Through the First World War (2014) — Contributor — 2 copies
A Modern Galaxy: Short Stories — Contributor — 2 copies
The Song of the Lark [2001 TV movie] — Original book — 1 copy
La nueva mujer: Relatos de escritoras estadounidenses del siglo XIX — Contributor — 1 copy
Avon Modern Short Story Monthly No. 7 (14 Great stories by 14 Great Authors) (1943) — Contributor — 1 copy
Trumps: A Collection of Short Stories — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Cather, Wilella
- Birthdate
- 1873-12-07
- Date of death
- 1947-04-24
- Burial location
- Old Burying Yard, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Back Creek Valley, Virginia, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Cause of death
- cerebral hemorrhage
- Places of residence
- Winchester, Virginia, USA
Willow Shade, Virginia, USA
Back Creek Valley, Virginia, USA
Red Cloud, Nebraska, USA
Catherton, Nebraska, USA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (show all 9)
New York, New York, USA
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada - Education
- University of Nebraska (1895)
- Occupations
- novelist
short-story writer
poet
essayist
drama critic
editor (show all 8)
teacher
reporter - Organizations
- National Institute of Arts and Letters
Pittsburgh Daily Leader
Allegheny High School, Pittsburgh
McClure's Magazine (managing editor)
Bread Loaf School of English - Awards and honors
- Gold Medal, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1944)
Nebraska Hall of Fame (1962)
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1943)
Prix Fémina Américain (1933)
New York Writers Hall of Fame (2011) - Short biography
- Wilella "Willa" Cather was born on her maternal grandmother's farm in Back Creek Valley, near Winchester, Virginia. In 1883, when she was nine years old, the family moved to the Nebraska frontier, eventually settling in Red Cloud. She graduated in 1895 from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. A year later, she moved to Pittsburgh to work as a magazine editor and theater critic. From 1901 to 1906, she taught high school English. During this time, she published April Twilights (1903), a book of poems, and The Troll Garden (1905), a collection of short stories. At age 33, she moved to New York City.
Members
Discussions
December 2023: Willa Cather in Monthly Author Reads (February 7)
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather 1983 in George Macy devotees (February 2023)
September 2021 Group Read - O! Pioneers by Willa Cather in Geeks who love the Classics (October 2021)
May Read: Willa Cather in Virago Modern Classics (August 2017)
Willa Cather reading week December 7th - 14th in Virago Modern Classics (December 2014)
Willa Cather- American Author Challenge in 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (November 2014)
September 2014: Willa Cather in Monthly Author Reads (November 2014)
drneutron's 2014 Reading - Fourth Reel in 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (July 2014)
labwriter reads Death Comes for the Archbishop in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (December 2011)
Reviews
Willa Cather: Later Novels by Willa Cather
Here Cather's later novels written between 1925 & 1940. These 6 novels came out of the shadow of Henry James' dominance of the time & established Willa Cather as a novelist in her own right. Of the 6 novels, her topics explored the religious aspects of her characters except for the last novel "Sapphira & the Slave Girl," which was set just before the Civil War in which her female character was unable to escape the debilitating impact of slavery on a plantation as the wife of a plantation owner. Cather was actually a rare author who managed to escape H. James' shadow & produced excellent novels. Readers will enjoy her later works.… (more)
read this as a shared read in TIOLI, "family". I have had this on my phone it was a free audiofile Sync program. This one explores the experience of American Chinese, adopted Chinese, and Chinese illegal immigrant. Very interesting to look at these different perspectives. I fault this book for sexual detail and not sure that I would recommend this as a young adult book. I gave it 3 stars. Besides a book about family/siblings, it is also a mystery.
I applaud the ethereal quality of the prose and Cather's talent in beautifying a seemingly vapid scene on the prairie, shrouded in a rustic mistiness which is tailored to a wistful resonance of an age long gone by, but what ruined it all was the ever-platonic and flabby narrator, stifling me with his misguided zeal. I would not have opted for Jim's schmaltzy narration, which felt unsuitable and degrading at times, and particularly presumptuous to Ántonia's character, walking around goggle-eyed as a second-hand observer with no intentions of actually living his own life. I think Antonia might have sufficed for a spirited puppy instead of a loitering loafer.… (more)
This deceptively simple tale contains depths of heart, empathy, and grace. The story is told by Jim Burden, a young boy being raised by his grandmother and grandfather on a remote Nebraska farm in the 1880s, but he shares protagonist duties with Antonia (pronounced an-toe-nee-ah), the daughter of an immigrant family struggling, like so many others immigrant at that time, to realize the American Dream.
Jim and Antonia are thrown together by proximity, but end up forging a friendship that is sweetly innocent and that endures over decades. The key is the depth of respect they have for each other, Antonia admiring Jim for his intelligence and character, Jim admiring Antonia for her transparent generosity and goodness.
Along the way Cather introduces us to the denizens of Black Hawk, a rural township populated by a melting pot of Americans and immigrants, primarily Scandinavians, Bohemians (modern day Czechia), and Russians. Make no mistake, the lives they live can be harsh: grueling (seemingly ceaseless) physical labor, bitter weather, poverty, homesickness, disappointment, loss. Yet somehow Cather's characters also find time to laugh, sing, dance, and acknowledge the profound beauty of the natural world that surrounds them.
I loved everything about this novel. I loved the authenticity of the characters. I loved the vignettes of small town rural life - the dress shops and dance tents, clotheslines and cowhands, sod houses and sleighs. I love Cather's bold choice to make her tale character- rather than plot-driven. Her respect and empathy for the the immigrants she portrays. Her effortless storytelling and gorgeous portrayals of the beauty of midwestern prairies. Most of all, I loved witnessing the beautiful relationship between Jim and Antonia, and how their friendship helps to forge their characters.
Part coming-of-age tale, part homage to the American Dream (hard work = prosperity), part celebration of the beauty of the American Midwest, part panegyric to the power of human connection, this truly is an American classic.… (more)
Jim and Antonia are thrown together by proximity, but end up forging a friendship that is sweetly innocent and that endures over decades. The key is the depth of respect they have for each other, Antonia admiring Jim for his intelligence and character, Jim admiring Antonia for her transparent generosity and goodness.
Along the way Cather introduces us to the denizens of Black Hawk, a rural township populated by a melting pot of Americans and immigrants, primarily Scandinavians, Bohemians (modern day Czechia), and Russians. Make no mistake, the lives they live can be harsh: grueling (seemingly ceaseless) physical labor, bitter weather, poverty, homesickness, disappointment, loss. Yet somehow Cather's characters also find time to laugh, sing, dance, and acknowledge the profound beauty of the natural world that surrounds them.
I loved everything about this novel. I loved the authenticity of the characters. I loved the vignettes of small town rural life - the dress shops and dance tents, clotheslines and cowhands, sod houses and sleighs. I love Cather's bold choice to make her tale character- rather than plot-driven. Her respect and empathy for the the immigrants she portrays. Her effortless storytelling and gorgeous portrayals of the beauty of midwestern prairies. Most of all, I loved witnessing the beautiful relationship between Jim and Antonia, and how their friendship helps to forge their characters.
Part coming-of-age tale, part homage to the American Dream (hard work = prosperity), part celebration of the beauty of the American Midwest, part panegyric to the power of human connection, this truly is an American classic.… (more)
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 146
- Also by
- 108
- Members
- 40,765
- Popularity
- #431
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 945
- ISBNs
- 1,757
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 205
