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=Willa Sibert Cather by Brian Keith Stanford, Jr.= Willa Sibert Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia on December 7, 1873. Her father Charles F. Cather and her mother Mary Virginia Boak Cather raised Willa on their family farm in Virginia. The family moved in 1884 to the Great Plains in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Willa Cather attended school in Red Cloud on a regular basis. She was mainly interested in science but she also showed a gift in acting. Willa had first planned on becoming a physician before starting a career in writing. Abruptly before Willa reached her thirteenth birthday, she started to act and dress in a masculine fashion. She started going by the alias of "William Cather, Jr." or "William Cather M.D.". Some people either believed that the reason for her sudden change was because she was showing her true expression of her individuality or that the change was brought about because of the limitations and criticism of women in the 1800's. Willa Cather later disregarded this dress and began to dress in a normal fashion. In 1891 Willa Cather attended the University of Nebraska where she succeeded greatly in her language and literature studies. She acquired many achievements in her life time. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for her novel, __One of Ours__, and the Howells Medal from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1930. Willa also received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska, University of Michigan, University of California, and Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Creighton universities. In Willa's early literary career, she mainly wrote short stories which many believe her to be master of. "She is best known for such novels as //O Pioneers!// (1913) and //My Antonia// (1918)–evocative, realistic portrayals of pioneer life that celebrate the courageous endurance of the early midwestern settlers and the natural beauty of the prairie landscape." (DISCovering Authors). In many of her works, the focus was on individuals that were estranged or sensitive. Some of Willa’s themes were old world vs. new world, east vs. west, and the corrupting effect of materialism. Willa Cather wrote mostly about the areas in Nebraska because she enjoyed her childhood memories and quiet life that she experienced from living there. Also, many of the settings and characters of her stories were influenced by her life in Nebraska. Cather's views were considered by some to be romantic because she believed in the importance of love, creativity, and imagination. Cather's influences for writing came from things such as the frontier life, WWI, and the loss of old values. Willa also was influenced by Henry James of which she believed to be a perfect writer. She even tried adapting his writing style. Her first novel, __Alexander's Bridge__, was greatly influenced by Henry James and is unlike her other novels of the Nebraska background. She was also highly influenced by her life in Nebraska. In her writings, she seemed to capture and portray a realistic view of the 1800's. Willa’s tone reflected the mood of the time from the noble stories of life in the prairies of Nebraska to depressing stories after World War I. Before World War I, she wrote __O Pioneers!__ which portrayed the pioneer life. After World War I, her writings began to reflect the life after war with a sense of hopelessness. Willa preferred the old way of life and rejected the materialistic ways of the modern world. This was a common theme in her novels that some critics didn't accept while others praised her for it. She was considered not only a writer but also an artist with her works. Willa Sibert Cather seemed to educate the world on how she felt about the modern world and the materialistic ways that started to take place during her time. She also portrayed the lifestyle and feelings she had experienced and witnessed during the 19th and 20th centuries within her writings. Although originally she planned on being a pharmacist, her college years at the University of Nebraska helped her realize her great talent in literature. Willa Cather wrote short stories, essays, novels, and poems making her a true literary artist.

"Cather, Willa Sibert (1873-1947)." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit : Gale, 2003. //Student// //Resource Center// //- Gold//. Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/WCPS/. 24 May. 2008 < http://www.galenet.com/servlet/srcx >. The database which included information about Willa Sibert Cather from //__DISCovering Authors__// provides a biography with various facts about Cather's life, personal information, awards, information on her career, and a broad list of her works. The information is organized very neatly in sections with headings and paragraphs which allows for faster findings of specific information. I learned more about Willa Sibert Cather's background, influences, and views which I plan on using in my Wiki entry to explain her views. I would recommend this resource to students who are looking for background information about Willa Sibert Cather. It is also a great source of information about her accomplishments. O'Brien, Sharon "Willa Cather 1873-1947" __American Writers Retrospective Supplement I__. Eds. A. Walton Litz, Molly Weigel, Sylvia K. Miller, Margaret Alison Sabin, Laura Snider, and Stephen Wagley. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1998, 1-23. The reference book __American Writers Retrospective Supplement I__ edited by A. Walton Litz and Molly Weigel contains information on a selection of American writers and their works. The book is organized in an essay like format with the paragraphs labeled with headlines. This book contains information about various American authors' careers as writers and information on how they began. This book also contains information about their reputation, education, early stories, people who helped or influenced them, and information and criticism of some of the author's literary works. I plan on using this information to learn more about Willa Cather's views and influences. This information will also be used for my Wiki entry. This book contains a lot of useful information but the way that the information is organized makes it harder to find specific information. I recommend that they add more spacing between the paragraphs and increase the font size of the headings to the paragraphs to allow for easier reading. I would recommend this book to other students that are looking to find information about Willa Cather because it contains useful information about the author's views and other interesting facts about her. Skaggs, Merrill. "Death Comes for the Archbishop: Cather's Mystery and Manners." __American Literature__ (1985). Literary Reference Center. . The database "Death Comes for the Archbishop: Cather's Mystery and Manners." from the __American Literature__ contains literary criticism on Willa Cather's works, "My Mortal Enemy" and "Death Comes for the Archbishop". It also has information about her narrative style, and her motivation that allowed her to complete both these novels in one year. The information is well organized in an essay format with paragraphs that separate the subjects of the essay. I plan on using this information to get a better idea of Willa Cather's writing style, to learn more about her works and views as a writer and then use the information for my Wiki entry. I would recommend this database information to other students who are looking for good literary criticism on Willa Cather's works. This informational content was very useful; however, the print was hard to read because it was a photocopy of a page. Woodress, James "Willa Cather." __Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography 1865-1917__. Eds. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1988, 36-51. The reference book __Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography 1865-1917__ edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman contains large amounts of information about American novelists. For each author, there is a chart of information that includes categories about Places, Influences and Relationships, Literary Movements and Forms, Major Themes, Cultural and Artistic Influences, and Social and Economic Influences. This reference book also contains various facts about the author such as their birth, death, awards, and books written by the author. I plan on using this information for finding facts about Willa Sibert Cather who was an American author. This information will be used for my Willa Sibert Cather trading card. I found this book to be a great source of information with a good amount of content and great organization. I recommend that they add some larger headings in bold to separate the information more clearly. I would recommend this reference book to other students that need to find information about Willa Sibert Cather, an American novelist, because the information is easy to access, well organized, and useful.
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