Willa Cather
Literary Author of the Plains wrote O Pioneers! and My Antonia
Willa Cather is strongly associated with the midwest. Her childhood years formed the setting and inspiration for My Antonia, O Pioneers! and other famous works.
Willa Cather was born December 7, 1873, in Back Creek, Virginia. In 1883, the family moved to Nebraska and in 1884 settled in Red Cloud. Cather attended the Nebraska University. Though she didn't live her adult life in the midwest, the immigrant community where she grew up provided fertile grounds for her imagination, which inspired many of her most famous novels. Much of her work is symbolic of the ascendency of spiritual over material values and reflects the hardships of the pioneers. The family home where she grew up can still be seen and toured in Red Cloud.
Later Years
In 1896 Cather moved to Pittsburg, and in 1908 to New York, where she worked at McClure’s Magazine. She continued to live and write in the New York area. In 1912 , her first novel, Alexander's Bridge, was published. From then on she had a well-established writing career . O Pioneers! was published in 1913, and My Antonia in 1918. In 1923, she won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours. She was described as being warm and attractive but strong-willed. She lead a quiet life, and despite her success, disliked publicity.
O Pioneers!
When John Bergson lays dying, he passes on to his daughter Alexandria the struggling farm. Her love for the land causes her to remain and keep the place together. Her materialistic brothers do not share her love of the land and want her to sell out. Their disapproval of Alexandria's prospective husband, Carl Lindstrom, drives him away. Tragedy strikes when first her brother Amedee dies, then her younger brother Emil falls in love with a married woman. The husband, Frank Shabata, shoots and kills both Emil and his unfaithful wife. Emil's death deprives Alexandria of an heir and fills her with despair. She had intended to pass the prospering farm on to him and now her goals have been reduced to ashes. She visits Frank Shabata in prison and tries to come to terms with her broken dreams. Carl Lindstrom, sensing her need for him, returns and provides strength and comfort.
My Antonia
In what is probably her best known novel, My Antonia, farmer’s son Jim Burden and Bohemian immigrant’s daughter Antonia form a strong bond and childhood friendship. Separated by the class distinction of Black Hawk, their lives take them in different directions. Jim goes to university to pursue his goals, while Antonia remains in the close-knit community, marries, and has many children. Despite the vast differences in their lives, when Jim returns to visit Antonia, there remains and enduring bond between them.
Willa Cather published numerous other books and short stories, many with a midwestern setting. In addition to the novels listed below, she was the author of several bound collections of short stories, and stories that appeared in periodicals. An unfinished novel was destroyed according to the instructions of her will.
Novels by Willa Cather
- Alexander’s Bridge (1912)
- O Pioneers! (1913)
- The Song of the Lark (1915)
- My Antonia (1918)
- One of Ours (1922
- A Lost Lady (1925)
- The Professor’s House (1925)
- My Mortal Enemy (1926)
- Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
- Shadows on the Rocks (1931)
- Lucy Gayheart (1935)
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)
Sources:
McFarland, Dorothy Tuck. Willa Cather. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 1984.
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