Existing comment:
Willa Cather 1873–1947
Born Back Creek Valley (now Gore), Virginia
At nine year s old, Willa Cather moved from the rolling hills of Virginia to the flat expanses of Nebraska. She spent most of her adulthood inNew York City but regularly returned to her home-town of Red Cloud. There, on the Great Plains, is where she sourced the subject matter for her novels. Following the publication of O Pioneers! (1913) and My Ántonia (1918), Sinclair Lewis remarked: "The United States knows Nebraska because of Willa Cather's books." One of Ours (1922), her fifth of twelve novels, won the Pulitzer Prize. She also published six collections of short fiction, books of poetry, and nonfiction.
In this photograph by Edward Steichen, which ran in a1927 issue of Vanity Fair, Cather is shown wearing her signature white shirt and tie. She eschewed traditional gender roles, and some scholars speculate that she wrote My Ántonia from a male perspective so that she could express her desire for women.
Edward Steichen (1879–1973)
Gelatin silver print, 1927
Acquired in memory of Agnes and Eugene Meyer through the generosity of Katharine Graham and the New York Community Trust, the Island Fund |