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Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather is considered to be one of America's leading authors. She was born December 7, 1873, and died April 24, 1947. Her family had spent six generations in the Black Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Willa was the oldest of seven children. When she was ten, the family moved to Catherton, Nebraska, and later to Red Cloud. The remainder of her childhood was spent in Nebraska, and it was an important setting in many of her writings.
As Cather got older, the idea of college became important to her, so her family borrowed money in order for her to attend the University of Nebraska. She wrote for the student newspaper, the Hesperian. During college, her English professor submitted an essay she had written to the Lincoln Journal . This one act became the turning point in her career as a writer. While she was still working on her college degree, she began writing for the Nebraska State Journal and the Lincoln Courier.
After Cather graduated in 1895, she returned to Red Cloud but only stayed for a year. She then moved to Pittsburgh and worked for the Home Monthly. While in the big city of Pittsburgh, she thoroughly enjoyed the cultural scene and experienced an active social life. In 1901, she accepted a high school position teaching English. Cather's writing got the attention of one of the best-known editors who quickly secured her a job with McClure's Magazine. It was then that she moved to New York City. This decision transformed her career and her future. During this time in her life, Willa Cather wrote and published many of her works.
