FREE ESSAY ON WILLA CATHER: AMERICA'S FINEST FEMALE AUTHOR

WILLA CATHER: AMERICA'S FINEST FEMALE AUTHOR

There are few female authors that have had an impact on literature as great as that of
Willa Cather. Not only was she an exquisite author, but she broke through into writing
during a time when few female authors were successful. Her life, which was directly
influential to her writing, was of a simple nature. However, she was able to over come a
drab, mundane life, and turn her experiences into stories that would be enjoyed by many
generations. 
Willa Siebert Cather was born in her maternal grandmother's home in 1873 in the western
region of Virginia (Robinson). Cather's name was originally Willela (after her father's
younger sister who died as a child), but the family always called her Willie. They did
this because as a child Willa altered her name in the family Bible and insisted that she
was named after her uncle William Sibert Boak (Woodress).
In the spring of 1883, when Willa was nine, the Cathers moved to a farm near Red Cloud,
Nebraska. Cather described her thoughts of this land to an interviewer. She said, As we
drove further and further out into the country , I felt a good deal as we had come to the
end of everything. (Cather quoted in Woodress). They came to Nebraska by train because
the journey by wagon would have been long and tiring. Cather's first home in the state of
Nebraska was with her Grandfather. (Robinson). Its most characteristic feature which she
described faithfully in My Antonia was a basement kitchen and dining room. (Robinson)
However, a year later the Cather's left the farm to live in the town of Red Cloud, so the
children could attend school. 
Red Cloud was a town of 2,500 people. The people of Red Cloud played an important part in
the life and work of Willa Cather. There were many people in the town who inspired her
and she sought interesting adults wherever she could find them. (Woodress). Two of Red
Cloud's doctors became friends with Willa, and sometimes let her come along on their
calls. Cather also medically experimented on animals with a set of medical instruments,
this upset and disgusted some of the citizens of Red Cloud. (Robinson). 
In high school Willa Cather had greatest ambition was to become a doctor, a profession in
which few women excelled. Cather graduated from high-school in June of 1890, at the age
of sixteen (Woodress). She was the only student of the three who graduated who intended
to pursue college. She would enter the University of Nebraska at Lincoln the following
September (Robinson). Cather was also inspired by the actors and actresses who came to
perform at the town's Opera House. The children of Red Cloud would put on their own shows
where Willa seemed to be an adequate actress, but she always played a boy (Robinson).
This was a great surprise because at the time, many women did not perform. Rather younger
boys would play the female roles in a play. 
She expressed a vast dislike for skirts and dresses (Woodress) and later when she
attended the University of Nebraska she continued to dress in a boyish manner (Daiches).
She wore suspenders, starched shirts and insisted while in college to continue trying out
for the male roles in college theater (Woodress). 
Cather went to Lincoln with the intent of studying science. She was very interested in
botany, astronomy and chemistry (Woodress). However, the event that changed her heart
toward writing occurred in March of 1891. A professor of Cather's assigned an essay to be
written, and the professor was so impressed with Cather's work that without telling her,
he sent it to the Journal, the towns paper. He also sent it to a literary magazine for
students called The Hesperian (Robinson). Cather opened the Sunday paper to find her
essay in print and from that time on she forgot about medicine and concentrated on
writing (Woodress). 
Throughout her college years Cather continued to write for the Journal and took any
chance to earn money writing for the paper. Even if that meant putting aside her school
work to do it. In the two years she wrote for the Journal she produced over 300 pieces,
many of which were essays (Woodress). Cather became the Journal's drama critic and she
quickly made a name for herself. Her work showed a maturity and poise not expected in so
young a critic, and her knowledge of drama and literature, continental and classic, as
well as English was extensive (Robinson). 
During her last two semesters at the University, Cather wrote over 100 pieces for the
Journal . A full time reviewer might not have produced much more than she did.
(Robinson). In addition to her school work and writing for the paper, Cather also did
some practice teaching during her senior year. By the time Cather graduated from the
University in 1895, she had a great deal of experience in the writing field (Woodress). 
Cather returned home to Red Cloud after graduation and began to write for the Courier,
another local paper (Robinson). However, her big break came when she was offered a job at
Home Monthly, a magazine in Pittsburgh. Cather was 22 when she left home to begin the
start of her professional career as a writer. In addition to writing stories for Home
Monthly, Cather also helped with editing, writing editorials and also some nonfiction
work.
After a year of writing for Home Monthly, Cather was offered a job at the Pittsburgh
Leader. She took the job, but continued to write for Home Monthly under another name. At
this time Cather was at an age that marriage was typical of. However, she was too
independent and out going to be taken in. There is no proof that Cather ever came close
to marriage. The men she loved the most were her father and brothers. She simply had no
need for heterosexual relationships, she was married to her art. (Woodress). 
In her book, Willa Cather : The Emerging Voice, Sharon O'Brien discusses Cather's
sexuality. She dwells mainly on Cather's relationship with her best friend Louise Pound
and says, That Willa Cather was a lesbian should not be an unexamined assumption,
however, but a conclusion reached after considering questions of definition, evidence and
interpretation. Yet, after her affair with Pound ended, Cather found more enduring and
supportive relationships, (O'Brien) with Isabelle McClung and later with Edith Lewis, yet
she never declared publicly that she was in fact a lesbian. 
Cather's newspaper career ended in 1901. Her last years at the Leader produced little
work, and when she returned from a visit with her brother she became a Latin teacher at
Central High School in Pittsburgh. She later taught English and then transferred to
Allegheny High School across the river where she taught for three years (Woodress).
Cather did not have a natural teaching talent, but her classes were not considered to be
boring. In 1903, McClures began nagging Cather for her stories. McClure offered to
publish her stories in book form. He told her that he wanted to publish everything she
wrote (Robinson). After 5 years of teaching, Cather moved to New York to work full time
at McClures (Woodress). 
At that time, McClure's was considered the most successful reforming magazine in America.
(Robinson). Cather, who had no interest in social work of the magazine was involved in
the magazine because of its literary content. Cather was responsible for reading the
manuscripts that came in and also editing articles sent in by semi- literate people who
knew a lot about the copper mines in the West, but didn't write well (Woodress). During
the years that Cather helped to edit the magazine, she had very little time to write.
During her time at McClures she worked in Boston, Europe and wrote McClure's biography
(Robinson). Cather worked for McClures from 1906 until 1912 and became the leading
magazine editor of her day. 
Working at the magazine changed her life, and the experience was important to her. She
had been a good editor, as she had been a good critic and a good teacher. Now she wanted
one thing only, to be a writer, a good one. (Robinson). She quit her job as editor in
order to devote all her time to writing and in 1912 her first novel, Alexander's Bridge,
was published (Daichess). From that point on, Willa Cather became a great American
author. Willa Cather died in 1947 at the age of 70. 
Willa Cather's primary inspiration was her home town of Red Cloud. Many of her books won
her literary awards, as well as the admiration of authors of every generation. It takes a
great writer to take on the many literary occupations that Cather took on. However, it
takes an even greater writer to raise each of those occupations to an art form. For these
reasons, and many more of which could never be described, are why Willa Cather is one of
America's finest writers.
Bibliography
Daiches, David. Willa Cather a Critical Introduction. Westport, Ct. : Greenwood Press,
1951. 
O'Brien, Sharon. Willa Cather the Emerging Voice. New York : Oxford Up, 1987. 
Robinson, Phyillis C. Willa : The Life of Willa Cather. New York: Doubleday, 1983. 
Schroeter, James, ed. Willa Cather and Her Critics. Ithica : Cornell UP, 1967. 
Woodress, James. Willa Cather Her Life and Art. New York : Pegasus, 1970