Willa Cather

-
WC ranks as one of the major American novelists of the earlier twentieth century, and her popularity has remained undiminished while her critical reputation has fluctuated. She was a highly professional journalist and reviewer before she embarked on fiction, and she also published poetry, short stories, and ghosted biographies. Her fame rests on her rendering of the Midwest of pioneer days, but her strong imaginative sense of place also produced memorable novels with different geographical and historical settings.

Milestones

7 December 1873

Wilella Cather (who later renamed herself, most famously as WC ) was born in Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia (a place now called Gore). She was her parents' eldest of many children.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
Urgo, Joseph R., and Willa Cather. “Introduction. Willa Cather: A Brief Chronology. A Note on the Text”. My Ántonia, edited by Joseph R. Urgo and Joseph R. Urgo, Broadview Press, pp. 9-39.
33

June 1890

WC , graduating from high-school, delivered an address entitled Superstition vs. Investigation, in favour of the scientific method.
Urgo, Joseph R., and Willa Cather. “Introduction. Willa Cather: A Brief Chronology. A Note on the Text”. My Ántonia, edited by Joseph R. Urgo and Joseph R. Urgo, Broadview Press, pp. 9-39.
33

21 September 1918

WC published one of her best-known novels, My Ántonia. It is dedicated to Carrie and Irene Miner.
Urgo, Joseph R., and Willa Cather. “Introduction. Willa Cather: A Brief Chronology. A Note on the Text”. My Ántonia, edited by Joseph R. Urgo and Joseph R. Urgo, Broadview Press, pp. 9-39.
39

24 April 1947

WC died of a cerebral haemorrhage at her home in New York, having been very weak for several months, but quite herself on the morning of her death.
Urgo, Joseph R., and Willa Cather. “Introduction. Willa Cather: A Brief Chronology. A Note on the Text”. My Ántonia, edited by Joseph R. Urgo and Joseph R. Urgo, Broadview Press, pp. 9-39.
38
Lee, Hermione. Willa Cather: A Life Saved Up. Virago.
370

Biography

Birth and Family

7 December 1873

Wilella Cather (who later renamed herself, most famously as WC ) was born in Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia (a place now called Gore). She was her parents' eldest of many children.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
Urgo, Joseph R., and Willa Cather. “Introduction. Willa Cather: A Brief Chronology. A Note on the Text”. My Ántonia, edited by Joseph R. Urgo and Joseph R. Urgo, Broadview Press, pp. 9-39.
33