Willa Cather (1873–1947)
Forfatter af My Ántonia
Om forfatteren
Willa Siebert Cather was born in 1873 in the home of her maternal grandmother in western Virginia. Although she had been named Willela, her family always called her "Willa." Upon graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1895, Cather moved to Pittsburgh where she worked as a journalist and vis mere teacher while beginning her writing career. In 1906, Cather moved to New York to become a leading magazine editor at McClure's Magazine before turning to writing full-time. She continued her education, receiving her doctorate of letters from the University of Nebraska in 1917, and honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of California, Columbia, Yale, and Princeton. Cather wrote poetry, short stories, essays, and novels, winning awards including the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, One of Ours, about a Nebraska farm boy during World War I. She also wrote The Professor's House, My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Lucy Gayheart. Some of Cather's novels were made into movies, the most well-known being A Lost Lady, starring Barbara Stanwyck. In 1961, Willa Cather was the first woman ever voted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in Oklahoma in 1974, and the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, New York in 1988. Cather died on April 24, 1947, of a cerebral hemorrhage, in her Madison Avenue, New York home, where she had lived for many years. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Serier
Værker af Willa Cather
Early Novels and Stories: The Troll Garden / O Pioneers! / The Song of the Lark / My Antonia / One of Ours (1987) 532 eksemplarer
Later Novels: A Lost Lady / The Professor's House / Death Comes for the Archbishop / Shadows on the Rock / Lucy… (1990) 477 eksemplarer
Delphi Collected Works of Willa Cather (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Ten Book 5) (2019) 14 eksemplarer
Set of 3 Book of the Month Club (Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Ántonia, O Pioneers!) (1996) 13 eksemplarer
Willa Cather: Four Great Novels—O Pioneers!, One of Ours, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia (2014) 11 eksemplarer
The Kingdom of Art: Willa Cather's First Principles and Critical Statements, 1893-1896 (1967) 9 eksemplarer
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather "The Annotated Classic Edition" Uniquely Epic American Novel (2020) 6 eksemplarer
December Night: A Scene from Willa Cather's Novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop" (1933) 6 eksemplarer
My Ántonia: 100th Anniversary Edition with introduction, context, biography and analysis (2018) 5 eksemplarer
Classic American Literature: 5 novels and 2 collections by Willa Cather, in a single file, improved 8/16/2010 (2008) 5 eksemplarer
Death Comes for the Archbishop with Related Readings (The Glencoe Literature Library) (2002) 4 eksemplarer
Minha Ántonia (Portuguese Edition) 4 eksemplarer
The Best Years [short story] 3 eksemplarer
Old Mrs. Harris 3 eksemplarer
Willa Cather: Three Novel & Selected Stories (O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, Alexander's Bridge) (1993) 3 eksemplarer
The Ultimate Christmas Collection: 150+ authors & 400+ Christmas Novels, Stories, Poems, Carols & Legends 2 eksemplarer
The World and the Parish, Volume 2: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews, 1893-1902 (1970) 2 eksemplarer
Before Breakfast [short story] 2 eksemplarer
Works of Willa Cather. Alexander's Bridge, O Pioneers!, Song of the Lark, My Antonia, One of Ours, Stories & more… (2009) 2 eksemplarer
On Writing: Critical Studies on Writing as an Art 2 eksemplarer
Willa Cather Collection (My Ántonia, The Song of the Lark, O Pioneers!, and One of Ours) (2012) 2 eksemplarer
Willa Cather's Collected Works: My Ántonia, Song of the Lark, One of Ours, O Pioneers, The Profile, And More! (2013) 2 eksemplarer
O Pioneers! Riverside Edition 1 eksemplar
Poranek wagnerowski : opowiadania 1 eksemplar
Willa Cather: The Complete Novels (My Ántonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, O Pioneers!, One of Ours...) 1 eksemplar
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (Annotated): illustrated Original Hardcover Book (1927) 1 eksemplar
The Big Book of Christmas: 140+ authors and 400+ novels, novellas, stories, poems & carols 1 eksemplar
The Troll Garden And Other Stories (Mint Editions (Short Story Collections and Anthologies)) (2020) 1 eksemplar
The World and the Parish, Volume 1: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews, 1893-1902 (1970) 1 eksemplar
Farmář Rosický 1 eksemplar
Prarie Trilogy, The 1 eksemplar
Two Friends 1 eksemplar
Death comes for the Archbishop r 1 eksemplar
A Lost lady 1 eksemplar
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 069 1 eksemplar
The Selected Letters of Wlla Cather 1 eksemplar
April Twilights (1903); poems 1 eksemplar
The Essential Willa Cather: O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia, and One of Ours with an Introduction… (2017) 1 eksemplar
Alexander’s Bridge 1 eksemplar
The Joy of Nelly Deane [short story] 1 eksemplar
The Clemency of the Court 1 eksemplar
Selected Short Stories 1 eksemplar
Obscure Destinies / Literary Encounters 1 eksemplar
Cather Willa (Cather Sibert Wilella) 1 eksemplar
The Novel Démeublé 1 eksemplar
148 Charles Street 1 eksemplar
Miss Jewett 1 eksemplar
Joseph and His Brothers 1 eksemplar
Katherine Mansfield 1 eksemplar
Consequences 1 eksemplar
Willa Cather - The Library of America Set Complete in 3 Volumes (1. Early Novels & Stories; 2. Stories, Poems and Other… (1987) 1 eksemplar
The Willa Cather Archive (online) 1 eksemplar
O Meu Inimigo Mortal 1 eksemplar
Cather, Willa Archive 1 eksemplar
Works of Willa Cather (8 Works) 1 eksemplar
[No title] 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories (1896) — Preface, nogle udgaver — 1,057 eksemplarer
The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (1985) — Bidragyder — 849 eksemplarer
Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the 17th Century to the Present (1994) — Bidragyder — 448 eksemplarer
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Bidragyder — 264 eksemplarer
Women on Women: An Anthology of American Lesbian Short Fiction (1990) — Bidragyder — 250 eksemplarer
Wise Women: Over Two Thousand Years of Spiritual Writing by Women (1996) — Bidragyder — 201 eksemplarer
Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown: A Treasury of Bizarre Tales Old and New (1993) — Bidragyder — 194 eksemplarer
Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914 (1998) — Bidragyder — 170 eksemplarer
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Bidragyder — 132 eksemplarer
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Expanded 10th-Anniversary Edition) (2008) — Bidragyder — 93 eksemplarer
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Bidragyder — 83 eksemplarer
Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life (1997) — Bidragyder — 47 eksemplarer
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Bidragyder — 42 eksemplarer
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 2: Love, Marriage, and the Family (1966) — Bidragyder — 39 eksemplarer
Published and Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, and Remembrances of American Writers (2002) — Bidragyder — 37 eksemplarer
60 WESTERNS: Cowboy Adventures, Yukon & Oregon Trail Tales, Famous Outlaws, Gold Rush Adventures: Riders of the Purple… 33 eksemplarer
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 5: Community Responsibility (1969) — Bidragyder — 30 eksemplarer
Three Classics by American Women: The Awakening; Ethan Frome; O Pioneers! (1990) — nogle udgaver — 25 eksemplarer
Classic American women writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather (Perennial library ; P 502) (1980) — Bidragyder — 25 eksemplarer
Best-Loved Short Stories: Flaubert, Chekhov, Kipling, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Poe and Others (2004) — Bidragyder — 23 eksemplarer
Great American Ghost Stories: Chilling Tales by Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne and Others (2008) — Bidragyder — 10 eksemplarer
Pulitzer Prize Winning Works Collection: One of Ours, His Family, Miss Lulu Bett, Cornhuskers, Anna Christie, Alice… (2013) 4 eksemplarer
The Best Short Stories of 1929 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1929) — Bidragyder — 3 eksemplarer
Ode to Boy: Vol. 2: An Anthology of Same-Sex Attraction in Literature from the 19th Century Through the First World War (2014) — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
A Modern Galaxy: Short Stories — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
The Song of the Lark [2001 TV movie] — Original book — 1 eksemplar
La nueva mujer: Relatos de escritoras estadounidenses del siglo XIX — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Avon Modern Short Story Monthly No. 7 (14 Great stories by 14 Great Authors) (1943) — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Trumps: A Collection of Short Stories — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Juridisk navn
- Cather, Wilella
- Fødselsdato
- 1873-12-07
- Dødsdag
- 1947-04-24
- Begravelsessted
- Old Burying Yard, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, USA
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Fødested
- Back Creek Valley, Virginia, USA
- Dødssted
- New York, New York, USA
- Dødsårsag
- cerebral hemorrhage
- Bopæl
- Winchester, Virginia, USA
Willow Shade, Virginia, USA
Back Creek Valley, Virginia, USA
Red Cloud, Nebraska, USA
Catherton, Nebraska, USA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (vis alle 9)
New York, New York, USA
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada - Uddannelse
- University of Nebraska (1895)
- Erhverv
- novelist
short-story writer
poet
essayist
drama critic
editor (vis alle 8)
teacher
reporter - Organisationer
- National Institute of Arts and Letters
Pittsburgh Daily Leader
Allegheny High School, Pittsburgh
McClure's Magazine (managing editor)
Bread Loaf School of English - Priser og hædersbevisninger
- Gold Medal, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1944)
Nebraska Hall of Fame (1962)
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1943)
Prix Fémina Américain (1933)
New York Writers Hall of Fame (2011) - Kort biografi
- Wilella "Willa" Cather was born on her maternal grandmother's farm in Back Creek Valley, near Winchester, Virginia. In 1883, when she was nine years old, the family moved to the Nebraska frontier, eventually settling in Red Cloud. She graduated in 1895 from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. A year later, she moved to Pittsburgh to work as a magazine editor and theater critic. From 1901 to 1906, she taught high school English. During this time, she published April Twilights (1903), a book of poems, and The Troll Garden (1905), a collection of short stories. At age 33, she moved to New York City.
Medlemmer
Discussions
December 2023: Willa Cather i Monthly Author Reads (februar 7)
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather 1983 i George Macy devotees (februar 2023)
September 2021 Group Read - O! Pioneers by Willa Cather i Geeks who love the Classics (oktober 2021)
May Read: Willa Cather i Virago Modern Classics (august 2017)
Willa Cather reading week December 7th - 14th i Virago Modern Classics (december 2014)
Willa Cather- American Author Challenge i 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (november 2014)
September 2014: Willa Cather i Monthly Author Reads (november 2014)
drneutron's 2014 Reading - Fourth Reel i 75 Books Challenge for 2014 (juli 2014)
labwriter reads Death Comes for the Archbishop i 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (december 2011)
Anmeldelser
My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, 3) af Willa Cather
I applaud the ethereal quality of the prose and Cather's talent in beautifying a seemingly vapid scene on the prairie, shrouded in a rustic mistiness which is tailored to a wistful resonance of an age long gone by, but what ruined it all was the ever-platonic and flabby narrator, stifling me with his misguided zeal. I would not have opted for Jim's schmaltzy narration, which felt unsuitable and degrading at times, and particularly presumptuous to Ántonia's character, walking around goggle-eyed as a second-hand observer with no intentions of actually living his own life. I think Antonia might have sufficed for a spirited puppy instead of a loitering loafer.… (mere)
This deceptively simple tale contains depths of heart, empathy, and grace. The story is told by Jim Burden, a young boy being raised by his grandmother and grandfather on a remote Nebraska farm in the 1880s, but he shares protagonist duties with Antonia (pronounced an-toe-nee-ah), the daughter of an immigrant family struggling, like so many others immigrant at that time, to realize the American Dream.
Jim and Antonia are thrown together by proximity, but end up forging a friendship that is sweetly innocent and that endures over decades. The key is the depth of respect they have for each other, Antonia admiring Jim for his intelligence and character, Jim admiring Antonia for her transparent generosity and goodness.
Along the way Cather introduces us to the denizens of Black Hawk, a rural township populated by a melting pot of Americans and immigrants, primarily Scandinavians, Bohemians (modern day Czechia), and Russians. Make no mistake, the lives they live can be harsh: grueling (seemingly ceaseless) physical labor, bitter weather, poverty, homesickness, disappointment, loss. Yet somehow Cather's characters also find time to laugh, sing, dance, and acknowledge the profound beauty of the natural world that surrounds them.
I loved everything about this novel. I loved the authenticity of the characters. I loved the vignettes of small town rural life - the dress shops and dance tents, clotheslines and cowhands, sod houses and sleighs. I love Cather's bold choice to make her tale character- rather than plot-driven. Her respect and empathy for the the immigrants she portrays. Her effortless storytelling and gorgeous portrayals of the beauty of midwestern prairies. Most of all, I loved witnessing the beautiful relationship between Jim and Antonia, and how their friendship helps to forge their characters.
Part coming-of-age tale, part homage to the American Dream (hard work = prosperity), part celebration of the beauty of the American Midwest, part panegyric to the power of human connection, this truly is an American classic.… (mere)
Jim and Antonia are thrown together by proximity, but end up forging a friendship that is sweetly innocent and that endures over decades. The key is the depth of respect they have for each other, Antonia admiring Jim for his intelligence and character, Jim admiring Antonia for her transparent generosity and goodness.
Along the way Cather introduces us to the denizens of Black Hawk, a rural township populated by a melting pot of Americans and immigrants, primarily Scandinavians, Bohemians (modern day Czechia), and Russians. Make no mistake, the lives they live can be harsh: grueling (seemingly ceaseless) physical labor, bitter weather, poverty, homesickness, disappointment, loss. Yet somehow Cather's characters also find time to laugh, sing, dance, and acknowledge the profound beauty of the natural world that surrounds them.
I loved everything about this novel. I loved the authenticity of the characters. I loved the vignettes of small town rural life - the dress shops and dance tents, clotheslines and cowhands, sod houses and sleighs. I love Cather's bold choice to make her tale character- rather than plot-driven. Her respect and empathy for the the immigrants she portrays. Her effortless storytelling and gorgeous portrayals of the beauty of midwestern prairies. Most of all, I loved witnessing the beautiful relationship between Jim and Antonia, and how their friendship helps to forge their characters.
Part coming-of-age tale, part homage to the American Dream (hard work = prosperity), part celebration of the beauty of the American Midwest, part panegyric to the power of human connection, this truly is an American classic.… (mere)
An odd choice of title, on the face of it, as the central character does not become an archbishop until well into the closing pages of the novel, and his death is one of the gentlest and least dramatic in the whole of modern fiction.
This is essentially a historical novel about the lives of two French missionary priests charged with setting up a new diocese after the US annexation of New Mexico in 1848, where Father Vaillant is the tough lower-class bruiser with the key human skills and sympathies for dealing with people from outside civilised European culture, while his officer-class friend and colleague Father Latour deals with the local gentry and keeps going off on long journeys to attend management conferences.
Both priests are presented as pious, idealistic, self-sacrificing and generally lacking in any interesting human vices (except maybe a taste for French cooking), in a way that might otherwise be rather tedious and even nauseating, but seems to be forgivable — and even appropriate — here, in the context of the epic framework Cather sets up, where the New Mexico scenery and the interplay of Spanish-Mexican and Native American cultures in it is always more foreground than background. Latour and Vaillant spend a lot of the book being tiny dots of black in a widescreen panorama of desert, cactuses and mesas. There isn’t really a direct plot, we learn about Latour and Vaillant and the transitional society of the new Territory through a series of Don-Camilloesque vignettes, and Cather takes the opportunity to remind us along the way of some of the values of Native American culture — particularly when it comes to living in harmony with nature — and the ways that they have often been mistreated by the US authorities (but not, apparently, by the Roman Catholic Church…).
Very odd, and not really my sort of book, but I enjoyed Cather’s writing all the same, and I liked the description of the cosy, lifelong friendship of the two priests, even if it did rely on a few clichés.… (mere)
This is essentially a historical novel about the lives of two French missionary priests charged with setting up a new diocese after the US annexation of New Mexico in 1848, where Father Vaillant is the tough lower-class bruiser with the key human skills and sympathies for dealing with people from outside civilised European culture, while his officer-class friend and colleague Father Latour deals with the local gentry and keeps going off on long journeys to attend management conferences.
Both priests are presented as pious, idealistic, self-sacrificing and generally lacking in any interesting human vices (except maybe a taste for French cooking), in a way that might otherwise be rather tedious and even nauseating, but seems to be forgivable — and even appropriate — here, in the context of the epic framework Cather sets up, where the New Mexico scenery and the interplay of Spanish-Mexican and Native American cultures in it is always more foreground than background. Latour and Vaillant spend a lot of the book being tiny dots of black in a widescreen panorama of desert, cactuses and mesas. There isn’t really a direct plot, we learn about Latour and Vaillant and the transitional society of the new Territory through a series of Don-Camilloesque vignettes, and Cather takes the opportunity to remind us along the way of some of the values of Native American culture — particularly when it comes to living in harmony with nature — and the ways that they have often been mistreated by the US authorities (but not, apparently, by the Roman Catholic Church…).
Very odd, and not really my sort of book, but I enjoyed Cather’s writing all the same, and I liked the description of the cosy, lifelong friendship of the two priests, even if it did rely on a few clichés.… (mere)
The Song of the Lark - Cather
Audio Performance by Barbara Caruso - (3 stars)
4 stars
This book is part of Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy. It begins with Thea Kronberg’s childhood in a small Colorado town and follows her life as she leaves her small town roots behind her to pursue a successful singing career. The book has Cather’s wonderful descriptions of the landscape and the community, but mostly it is an intense character study.
“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”
I think that quote may be at the root of my mixed feelings about this book. Most of the time I liked Thea. I admired her dedication and her persistence as she continued to grow as an artist. She works hard and sacrifices her own happiness to achieve a level of perfection with no guarantee that she will ever succeed. Her own high standards of perfection leave her frustrated and dissatisfied much of the time.
At other times I disliked her inherent narcissism. This book is said to be Cather’s most autobiographical, so it may be the author’s narcissism that makes me uncomfortable. She seems to say, in more ways than one throughout the story, that anyone who isn’t a great artist cannot possibly understand. Human population is divided between the great artists and ‘the stupid’.
My sympathy lies with the characters who loved and cared for Thea Kronberg; her mother, Dr. Archie, and her lover, Fred Ottenburg. Thea isn’t without feeling for the people who care for her, but she will always put her artistic needs before anything or anyone else.… (mere)
Audio Performance by Barbara Caruso - (3 stars)
4 stars
This book is part of Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy. It begins with Thea Kronberg’s childhood in a small Colorado town and follows her life as she leaves her small town roots behind her to pursue a successful singing career. The book has Cather’s wonderful descriptions of the landscape and the community, but mostly it is an intense character study.
“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”
I think that quote may be at the root of my mixed feelings about this book. Most of the time I liked Thea. I admired her dedication and her persistence as she continued to grow as an artist. She works hard and sacrifices her own happiness to achieve a level of perfection with no guarantee that she will ever succeed. Her own high standards of perfection leave her frustrated and dissatisfied much of the time.
At other times I disliked her inherent narcissism. This book is said to be Cather’s most autobiographical, so it may be the author’s narcissism that makes me uncomfortable. She seems to say, in more ways than one throughout the story, that anyone who isn’t a great artist cannot possibly understand. Human population is divided between the great artists and ‘the stupid’.
My sympathy lies with the characters who loved and cared for Thea Kronberg; her mother, Dr. Archie, and her lover, Fred Ottenburg. Thea isn’t without feeling for the people who care for her, but she will always put her artistic needs before anything or anyone else.… (mere)
Lister
Sonlight Books (1)
Five star books (2)
Elevenses (1)
Read This Next (1)
Sense of place (1)
Read (1)
Unmarried women (1)
Backlisted (1)
Great Audiobooks (1)
Short and Sweet (1)
Isle Royale (1)
My TBR (1)
100 (1)
Carole's List (1)
Women in War (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
1910s (2)
Modernism (2)
Favourite Books (2)
Unread books (3)
1920s (3)
Female Author (3)
Hidden Classics (3)
AP Lit (3)
Pioneers (3)
Overdue Podcast (1)
Ambleside Books (1)
THE WAR ROOM (1)
Read These Too (1)
1930s (1)
Hæderspriser
Måske også interessante?
Associated Authors
Statistikker
- Værker
- 158
- Also by
- 108
- Medlemmer
- 40,508
- Popularitet
- #433
- Vurdering
- 3.9
- Anmeldelser
- 941
- ISBN
- 1,756
- Sprog
- 18
- Udvalgt
- 204
