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=**Willa Cather by Charlie Brittain Meeks**= Willa Cather was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Cather was unlike most writers of her time, writing several very unique, uncatigorizable short stories and collections of poetry. Willa Cather began with publishing her first book, //April Twilights,// which was a brilliant volume of poetry, in 1903. Cather's masterpiece __My Antonia__ is a good example of the many themes acting as a foundation for Cather's writings and ideas. Willa Cather has strong ideas and views on love that she often includes in her writings. Being a follower of lesbianism, Cather had a unique and unusual standpoint on love that many readers and reviews find captivating and entertaining. Cather had a devastating break-up with her long time "partner" Isabelle McClung that was an inspiration for the plot of __My Antonia__. Willa Cather's history of being raised in the vast landscapes inspired her to write very often about the sublime beauty of the mid-west and prairie life. __O Pioneers__! , published in 1913, is a great example of Cather's love for and wonderful depictions of life on the prairie and the wonder of the landscapes. Cather was a well known author, though she was never considered one in the "Big Leagues", such as writers like Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway actually once commented on Cather's World War One novel //One of Ours// as "hopelessly inauthentic, transparently derived from a movie rather than experience (Hemmingway)". Though the novel //One of Ours// received a lot of negative criticism, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922. Many people believe that Willa Cather is more popular today than when she was still writing because critics gave her bad reviews because of a lack of understanding in Cather's bold statements made in her writings. For example, in a number of her writings, Willa Cather made blunt condemnations of materialism in particularly //A Lost Lady// and //The Professor's House.// These statements were thought to be inspired by thoughts of socialism in a time were the politics were on thin ice in America. Willa Cather was just as popular now as she was when she was alive, but in these times, her person and literature is much better understood and appreciated. Willa Cather's experimentation with new types of writing, her exceptional technical literary skills, and the excellent prose style seen in most of her writings have guided new age critics to write much more positive views of Cather than the critics of the early 20th century. For her 1930 novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather received the Howells Medal from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Cather was awarded many other awards such as the Prix Femina Americaine of 1932 for distinguished literary accomplishment, the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1944, and she earned honorary degrees from University of Michigan, University of Nebraska, University of California, and the universities of Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Creighton. Cather has a distinct look on many aspects of American lifestyle in the early 1900's that offered insight to many readers of her time as well as readers of the present day. Willa Cather is truly a foundation piece of the American literature structure and her writings will be studied and valued for many years to come.

=Annotated Bibliography=

Smith, Jennifer. “Death comes for the Arch Bishop”. __Novels for Students Volume 19__, 2004. The reference book __Novels for Students Volume 19__ is a great resource for students; this reference book is very well organized, making it easy to use. There was more than enough information and it was presented very professionally while remaining student friendly.

Bloom, Harold. “Willa Cather” New York: Chelsea House Publishers 1985. Bloom’s biography of Willa Cather was a great contribute to the information I obtained and used on my research project. The author had a vast knowledge and understanding of Cather and her ideas. This gave me a clear path to understanding Cather myself and finding out who she really was.

Seaton, James. "The prosaic Willa Cather” American //Scholar.// v67 (Winter 1998): p146 //Student Resource Center - Gold//. Gale. Fuquay-Varina High School/WCPS/. 23 May. 2008. This article by James Seaton does an awesome job of explaining some of Cather’s underlying ideas, greatly focusing on feminism and romance. The on-line article is of good length and contains many valuable facts.

Cather, Willa Sibert (1873-1947). // DISCovering Authors. // Online ed. Detroit : Gale, 2003. This biographical insert in // DISCcovering Authors // was a fantastic resource I used to discover more about Cather's lifestyle and ideas. This article was less about Cather's works, but more about her personality and her way of thinking. These details are critical when studying a particular author and // DISCovering Authors // did