WILLA CATHER

by Rachel Millard and Lauren Orsini

Willa Cather was born in Back Creek ValleyVirginia on December 7th1873. She was the first of 7 children. In1883, her family moved to Catherton in Webster County, Nebraska. The following year, the family relocated to Red Cloud. When she was 11, Cather took a job delivering mail. This job allowed her to get to know her immigrant neighbors to a degree unusual in her community. One of them, a Bohemian immigrant named Annie Sadilek, was the inspiration for My Antonia.

After graduating from high school in 1890, Catherattended college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln until 1895. Originally, she wanted to be a surgeon, until a teacher published one of Cather’s essays in a local paper – according to Cather, that was the moment she decided to become a writer. In college, she edited her school newspaper, continued writing short stories, and wrote for two local newspapers as well.

After she graduated, Cather took a job editing Home Monthly magazine in Philadelphia. She then went on to work for Pittsburg’s Courier and Daily Leader newspapers, writing music and theatre reviews as well. In 1903, her first book April Twilights, a collection of poems, was published, and in 1905 her first collection of short stories, The Troll Garden, was also published. Cather then got a job editing McClure’s Magazine. After publishing her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge in 1912, Cather quit her job as a magazine editor and devoted herself to writing.

Cather was an immensely respected writer. In 1917, she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Nebraska. In 1923, she won the Pulitzer for One of Ours. In 1929, she was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and in 1931, she was the first woman given an honorary degree by Princeton. In 1938, she entered the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters. In 1944, she received a Gold Medal from the National Inst. of Arts and Letters.

Throughout her life, Cather subverted gender norms and challenged traditional notions of sexuality. During her early years in Red Cloud, Cather defied gender norms by wanting to be a surgeon and referring to herself as “Willie,” “William,” and “Dr. Will.” She also cut her hair short and dressed in masculine clothing.

The most important and intimate relationships of Cather’s life were with women, especially Isabelle McClung and Edith Lewis. Cather lived with IMcClung in Pittsburgand, from 1912 until Cather’s death, Cather and Lewis lived together in New York. Lewis was the literary trustee for Cather’s estate.

Cather spent the last several years of her life in near seclusion, during which she only stayed close to a few friends and Edith Lewis. Cather passed away on April 24th, 1947 of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She was buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

LITERARY WORKS

Cather’s first collection of short stories was published in 1892. Her stories were published frequently in magazines between 1905 and 1916. In 1905, Cather published the collection The Troll Garden and the collection Youth and Bright Medusa in 1915. The stories she wrote from 1915-1929 were not collected into a volume until 1973, in Uncle Valentineand other stories.

Cather’s first novel, Alexander’s Bridge, was published in 1912. It is about a bridge maker who suffers a midlife crisis and was inspired by Henry James. It had a weak reception: critics said she lacked emotional involvement in the novel. Others said it was too consciously contrived. Later, Cather claimed she hadn’t even written it!

O Pioneerswas published in 1913. It is about a Swedish immigrant family who struggles to make a profit on their farm in Hanover, Nebraska. The book deals with the relationship between Alexandra and a friend, and the one between her brother Emil and a married woman. Feminism is a major theme, as Alexandra is the one the farm is entrusted to after her father dies. She is seen by other characters as unfit for this role because of her sex. Early on, the book was well received by critics. Later, they began to find faults in the book, such as, that the novel was actually two different and unrelated stories. As with her first novel, Cather denied writing this one.

The novel My Antonia was published in 1918. It is about immigrant families in Nebraska, with focus on the Shimerdas, whose oldest daughter is Antonia. Contemporary critics were flattering in their reviews. The New York Call, for example, found the book “vivid and stirring.” Today, critics consider this book to be her masterpiece. Some argue that this book is the best argument out of all of her works that Cather was a lesbian. The fact that the story of a woman is told by a man, and the constraints on the women in the novel themselves, shows Cather’s unease with female sexuality.

The novel One of Ours was published in 1923. The story was inspired by Cather’s reading of her cousin G.P. Cather’s wartime letters home to his mother. It was very well received and won the Pulitzer Prize the year it was published. One of Ours is still well received today: critically, it shows a man’s unease of being born too late, after the frontier has been tamed. The front line in WWI resembles the frontier that his parents dealt with- a chaotic untamed space.

Death Comes for the Archbishop was published in 1927. It is about the struggles of a Catholic bishop and a priest as they try to set up a diocese in the New Mexican frontier. Cather’s portrayal of the Hopi and Navajo Indians was surprisingly progressive and sympathetic. The novel was well-liked by critics and Cather herself considered this book to be her masterpiece her whole life. Today it is one of Cather’s most critically acclaimed and widely read works.

Sapphira and the Slave Girl was published in 1940. It is Cathers last novel, and Cather’s only novel to take place in Virginia. It is about a pre-civil war woman, Sapphira Colbert, who becomes jealous of a young slave named Nancy, with whom she believes her husband is having an affair. Lesbian overtones in this book include how Sapphira’s name is very close to “Sappho”, and the anticipation with which she prepares Nancy’s sexual torture. Many critics find Cather’s treatment of the races ‘dated.” The novel was neglected for a while; today, it causes varied critical reactions.

Other works by Cather:

  • The Song of the Lark: a novel published in 1915.
  • A Lost Lady: published in 1923, a novel.
  • The Professor’s House: a novel published in 1925
  • My Mortal Enemy: a novel published in 1926
  • Shadows on the Rock: published in 1931, a historical fiction novel.
  • Obscure Destinies: published in 1932, a collection of three short stories.
  • Lucy Gayheart: a novel published in 1935.

WORKS CITED & CATHER CRITICISMS

O’Brien, Sharon. “Being Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Cather.” American Quarterly 40.1 (1988): 110-126. JSTOR. Simpson Lib., Fredericksburg, VA. 20 March 2008 <

O’Brien, Sharon. “ ‘The Thing Not Named’: Willa Cather as a Lesbian Writer.” Signs 9.4 (1984): 576-599. JSTOR. Simpson Lib., Fredericksburg, VA. 20 March 2008 <

Reynolds, Guy. Cather studies : Willa Cather as cultural icon. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Salas, Angela. “Willa Cather's Sapphira and the slave girl: Extending the boundaries of the body.” College Literature FindArticles.com. 28 Mar. 2008. <

Stout, Janis. Willa Cather: The writer and her world. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000.

The Willa Cather Archive. Ed. Andrew Jewell. Oct. 2007. U of Nebraska-Lincoln. 17 March 2008. <

“Willa Cather Foundation.” < 18 March 2008.

Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1987.