The literary reputation of Willa Cather has steadily risen since her first volume of short stories appeared in 1905, but her present stature as an important American writer rests largely on her twelve novels, most particularly My Ántonia (1918), A Lost Lady (1923), and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). In recent years, however, Cather has also achieved recognition for a substantial body of short fiction, written over the entire period of her literary activity from her teens to her death. This fiction portrays the lives of a diverse group of characters ranging from midwestern immigrants to middle-class easterners to cosmopolitan singers and artists.

The geographical settings of Willa Cather 's fiction reflect her deep attachments to the several areas in the United States which, at one time or another, she called home. Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, to Charles F. and Mary Virginia Boak Cather, Cather (who was baptized...