1873-1947
Novelist

Voice of the Heartland.

Willa Cather, whose best-known novels were published during the 1910s, was one of the few major novelists to emerge during that decade. In period notable for the rise of literary modernism, she wrote fiction that looked back to America's agrarian past. Yet Cather's approach was in accord with the realism of her contemporaries: her celebrations of the pioneer spirit are tempered by compromise, sacrifice, and even suicide.

Early Years.

Though she is usually identified as a midwestern writer, Cather lived in Nebraska for only twelve years, albeit formative ones. She was born on December 1873 in Back Creek, Virginia, the first of six children. In early 1883, when she was nine, the family followed relatives to Red Cloud, Nebraska, where her father farmed and opened an insurance business. At first young Willa Cather found Nebraska lonely and depressing and hid away reading...