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Author photo. Courtesy of the <a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?102806">NYPL Digital Gallery</a> (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

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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 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) — biography from My Ántonia… (more)
My Ántonia 12,998 copies, 279 reviews
O Pioneers! 5,997 copies, 165 reviews
Death Comes for the Archbishop 5,611 copies, 139 reviews
The Song of the Lark 1,885 copies, 52 reviews
The Professor's House 1,843 copies, 46 reviews
A Lost Lady 1,527 copies, 38 reviews
One of Ours 1,138 copies, 37 reviews
Shadows On The Rock 813 copies, 20 reviews
Sapphira and the Slave Girl 649 copies, 17 reviews
My Mortal Enemy 568 copies, 21 reviews
Lucy Gayheart 526 copies, 16 reviews
Alexander's Bridge 441 copies, 25 reviews
Collected Stories 279 copies, 4 reviews
The Troll Garden 244 copies, 4 reviews
Obscure Destinies 195 copies, 3 reviews
Youth and the Bright Medusa 170 copies, 3 reviews
Five Stories 157 copies, 3 reviews
Paul's Case and Other Stories 93 copies, 1 review
Not Under Forty 90 copies, 3 reviews
Paul's Case {story} 57 copies, 3 reviews
The Willa Cather Reader 24 copies, 1 review
O Pioneers! [1992 TV movie] (Author) 14 copies
A Wagner Matinee 13 copies, 2 reviews
The Best Years [SS] 3 copies, 1 review
Scandal 3 copies
The Old Beauty 3 copies, 1 review
Before Breakfast [SS] 2 copies, 1 review
[No title] 1 copy
F... 1 copy
PATRA 1 copy
On the Gulls' Road 1 copy, 1 review
The Best American Short Stories of the Century (Contributor) 1,516 copies, 10 reviews
The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories (Preface, some editions) 1,016 copies, 28 reviews
The Country of the Pointed Firs (Preface, some editions) 895 copies, 22 reviews
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (Contributor) 712 copies, 3 reviews
The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (Contributor) 437 copies, 7 reviews
Great Short Stories by American Women (Contributor) 395 copies, 5 reviews
Women & Fiction: Short Stories By and About Women (Contributor) 355 copies, 7 reviews
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Contributor) 265 copies, 4 reviews
The Treasury of American Short Stories (Contributor) 254 copies, 1 review
Christmas Stories 236 copies, 1 review
Maiden Voyages: Writings of Women Travelers (Contributor) 186 copies, 1 review
The Penguin Book of American Short Stories (Contributor) 180 copies, 1 review
Sixteen Short Novels (Contributor) 169 copies
This Is My Best (Contributor) 168 copies
New York Stories (Everyman's Pocket Classics) (Contributor, some editions) 143 copies, 5 reviews
The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (Contributor) 142 copies, 3 reviews
The Norton Book of Personal Essays (Contributor) 141 copies, 1 review
An Anthology of Famous American Stories (Contributor) 129 copies, 1 review
Haunted America: Star-Spangled Supernatural Stories (Contributor) 108 copies, 1 review
American Fantastic Tales: Boxed Set (Contributor) 90 copies, 2 reviews
American Short Stories (Contributor, some editions) 87 copies
More Stories to Remember, Volume I (Contributor) 80 copies, 1 review
The Gender of Modernism: A Critical Anthology (Contributor) 62 copies, 1 review
200 Years of Great American Short Stories (Contributor) 62 copies, 1 review
Infinite Riches (Contributor) 53 copies
The Faber Book of Gardens (Contributor) 43 copies, 2 reviews
The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett (Editor, some editions; Editor, some editions) 42 copies
A Quarto of Modern Literature (Contributor) 38 copies
Fifty Best American Short Stories 1915-1965 (Contributor) 37 copies, 1 review
Medusa's Daughters (Contributor) 30 copies
Studies in Fiction (Contributor) 22 copies, 1 review
Roundup: A Nebraska Reader (Contributor) 21 copies
Love Stories (Contributor) 18 copies
Family: Stories from the Interior (Contributor) 16 copies
Modern American Short Stories (Contributor) 15 copies
She Won the West (Contributor) 11 copies
Great Western short stories (Contributor) 9 copies
Dangerous Ladies (Contributor) 8 copies
Famous Stories (Contributor) 8 copies
Classic Women's Literature (Contributor) 5 copies
Teen-Age Treasury for Girls (Contributor) 5 copies, 1 review
Great Classic Ghost Stories (Contributor) 4 copies, 1 review
American Short Stories (Contributor) 3 copies, 1 review
Child's Ploy (Contributor) 3 copies
A Modern Galaxy: Short Stories (Contributor) 2 copies
Enjoying Stories (Contributor) 2 copies
Whole Pieces (Contributor) 1 copy

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Short biography
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.
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Legacy Library: Willa Cather

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