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Page 12®Thursday, September 23,1999
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True pioneer conveys Nebraska to the rest of the world
By Danell McCoy
Staff writer
Editor’s note: In this weekly series, we
explore the lives and works of notable Nebraska
artists of the 20th century.
In the book “My Antonia,” Willa Cather
described the Nebraska prairie by saying:
“As I looked about me I felt that the grass
was the country, as the water is the sea. The red
grass made all the great prairie the colour of
wine stains ... And there was so much motion in
it, the whole country seemed, somehow, to be
running.”
With this type of poetic description, Cather
has become one of the greatest Nebraskan
authors of the 20th century.
“Cather’s work has such lucidity and sim
plicity,” said Sue Rosowski, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln English professor. “But her
writing combines shining lucidity with resonat
ed depth and concentration.”
Chelsea Schlievert, a senior English major at
UNL, agrees. Schlievert is working on an hon
ors thesis about how Cather’s experiences are
reflected in her writing.
“Cather speaks with a sense of place. She
uses her own experiences and brings those out in
Cather, who began her writing career in
1891, was born in the home of her maternal
grandmother in western Virginia. When Cather
was 9 years old, she and her family moved to a
family farm near Red Cloud. It was then that
Cather’s love affair with the rolling prairies of
Nebraska began.
“When Cather immigrated, she was at just
the right age,” Rosowski said. “She was old
enough for this location to make an impact on
her and to keep that impact fresh in her mind.”
Rosowski, who is an Adele Hall
Distinguished Professor of English at UNL,
believes that by immigrating here, Cather got an
impression of the state’s beauty that most
Nebraska natives take for granted.
“She invites us to really pay attention to what
is so ordinary in our lives. She rose to the chal
lenge of seeing this place and being able to give
that experience to her readers,” Rosowski said.
In Cather’s younger years, she became very
interested in medicine and tagged along with
doctors as they made house calls.
She also adored the town’s opera house and
would act in some of the town’s productions.
A non-conformist, Cather preferred to wear
pants and suspenders and kept her hair short. In
plays performed in the Opera House, Cather
would play a boy.
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Cather graduated from high school in 1890
and was the only student out of the three in her
graduating class who intended to pursue a col
lege career.
The following September, Cather began
attending classes at the University of Nebraska
in Lincoln.
Cather taught Latin and English at a high
school in Pittsburgh for five years. During that
time, McClure’s began printing Cather’s stories.
McClure’s offered to publish Cather’s works
in book form, so she moved to New York to
begin working for the magazine. While working
there, she had little time for her own writing, and
Aitnougn sne naa ^ alter six years, earner resigned 10 rocus on
come to the university C 1 her own work,
intending to study medi- Her first novel, “Alexander’s
cine and science, her ) jy Bridge,” was published not long
career goal changed in " JAJ& after.
March 1891. y In 1913, “O Pioneers!” was
One of Cather’s n&U? published. It became one of
professors was so Cather’s most well-known novels
impressed by an essay /Laj. and was later made int0 a movie- “My
she had written that he sent Antonia” was published seven
it to the town’s paper, then ^ years later
called the Journal, with- // It wasn’t long before
out her knowledge. S * Cather’s work became recog
After seeing her nized nationally,
work in print, Cather changed her con- In 1923, her book
centration to writing and torgot about medicine.
Over the next two years, Cather produced
more than 300 pieces of essay-length stories for
the Journal. Because of her extensive knowl
edge of literature and drama, she also became
the Journal’s drama critic.
By the time Cather graduated from UNL in
1895, she had a vast experience in the writing
field.
When she was 22, she received her first big
break.
Cather was offered a job at a magazine in
Pittsburgh called Home Monthly. After a year at
f the magazine, she began writing for the
Pittsburgh Leader.
She continued her newspaper career until
1901. After that, she began to teach.
Une or Uurs was awarded me
Pulitzer prize, and in 1930, “Death Comes for
the Archbishop” was awarded the Howells
medal of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters.
Before Cather died in April 1947, she pub
lished five more books, as well as a collection of
essays titled “Not Under Forty.”
A majority of her novels focused on life in
Nebraska and the people she encountered dur
ing her life in the state.
Although many of her stories are set in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, her writing
purveys a timeless beauty still appreciated in
today’s high-tech world.
Please see CATHER on 13