Willa Cather author page

Willa Cather biography

Willa Cather (1873–1947) was an American novelist noted for her depictions of frontier life on the Great Plains. She was born on 7 December 1873 in Gore, Virginia, and moved with her family to Nebraska in 1883.

She studied at the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1895. While a student she began publishing short fiction and worked as a journalist and teacher before devoting herself to writing.

Cather’s early novels include O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915) and My Ántonia (1918), now considered classics of American literature for their portrayal of immigrant communities and prairie landscapes.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), a novel about a Nebraska man serving in the First World War. Later works include A Lost Lady (1923), Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) and Shadows on the Rock (1931).

Cather published her final novel, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, in 1940. She died in New York City on 24 April 1947.