Willa Cather

Swedish farmer John Bergson's daughter Alexandra encourages the family members to help keep his dream alive after his death.

MY ANTONIA is the wistful tale of an immigrant girl from Bohemia, who has settled in Nebraska. Narrated by Antonia's childhood friend Jim Burden, the novel draws heavily upon Willa Cather's own formative years, as well as, through the persona of Jim, Cather's experience of New York, where she worked as Editor of the MCCLURE magazine. MY ANTONIA is the third in a sequence of Cather's works which deal with immigrant settlers in the USA. Writing as a...

Born into poverty in a small desert town in the American Midwest, Thea Kronborg is one of seven children. But Thea is exceptional, a fact recognized by a discerning few, including Ray Kennedy, who longs to marry her but whose fate it is to set her free. With her rugged will and pioneer spirit, Thea carves her way from Moonstone, Colorado to Chicago, from Dresden to New York, culminating in a triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera. Thea has become...

In the eyes of the middle-aged men who visited the house of Captain Daniel Forrester at Sweet Water, Nebraska, whatever Mrs. Forrester chose to do was "lady-like."

A scholarly professor in a Middle Western university is reluctant to move into a new, more comfortable house, despite the protestations of his wife and daughters. His life has changed too quickly for him to adjust.

The Pulitzer Prize—winning author of O Pioneers! presents a moving study of an ambitious woman and her troubled marriage in this 1926 novella. When young Myra Driscoll is forced to choose between a large inheritance from her great-uncle and marrying the man she loves, she follows her heart. She and Oswald Henshawe leave their small Illinois town to pursue a future together in New York City. Years later, fifteen-year-old Nellie Birdseye meets Myra...

“Not often are we given an opportunity to observe a great American writer arrive for the first time in the Old World from the New, there to record first impressions spontaneously, as they came, subject to no second thoughts, no later, leveling revision,” George N. Kates writes in his Introduction to Willa Cather in Europe.
        “The fourteen travel articles that form the present volume,...

This collection of eight short stories about the struggles and triumphs of artists was published in 1920. Four of the stories originally appeared in Cather's first collection, The Troll Garden (1905), including her best known short story, "Paul's Case." Other stories include "Flavia and Her Artists," "The Diamond Mine," "A Gold Slipper," and "Scandal."

From one of America's major writers of the 20th century: five short stories celebrating the land and its pioneers, including the title story and "A Wagner Matinee," both revised by Cather for publication in 1920; "Lou, the Prophet" (1892), "Eric Hermannson's Soul" (1900), and "The Enchanted Bluff" (1909).

Grade level: S.