Willa Cather

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an American novelist, most famous for her works My Antonia, O Pioneers!, and The Song of the Lark. Born in Virginia, Cather's family moved west to Nebraska when she was a child. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Cather worked as a school teacher and editor of a Pittsburgh newspaper, the Daily Reader. After traveling to France, Cather became managing editor for McClure's magazine in New York City.http://www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/ Much of Cather's early writing was based on the style of author Henry James. She would go on to write several novels and essays, inspired by her life on the prairie and her travels to France.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather

Cather was a feminist and a very private person, known to have burnt many of her personal letters. Her most significant relationships were with women, but she never labeled herself as a lesbian. The subject of her sexuality remains a subject of debate among scholars today.

Cather's writing career began when a professor submitted one of her writings to the school newspaper, the Nebraska State Journal.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather She wrote her first novel, Alexander's Bridge while working in New York. She would write eleven more novels, as well as essays and short stories, throughout her life. Cather was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her 1922 work One of Ours. She died in 1947 in New York City of a brain hemorrhage.http://www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/ She was also memorialized on a U.S. postage stamp in 1973 and on a gold coin in 1981. Today, the Willa Cather Foundation promotes the study of her life and works.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather

"Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/willa_cather.html

"Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/willa_cather.html

"That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/willa_cather.html

• Alexander's Bridge (1912)

• O Pioneers! (1913)

• The Song of the Lark (1915)

• My Ántonia (1918)

• One of Ours (1922)

• A Lost Lady (1923)

• The Professor's House (1925)

• My Mortal Enemy (1926)

• Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

• Shadows on the Rock (1931)

• Lucy Gayheart (1935)

• Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)