The Short Stories of Willa Cather: Pulitzer prize winner who wrote about the frontier and pioneer experience in her works

Written by Willa Cather

Narrated by Eric Meyers, Laurel Lefkow and Christopher Ragland

Willa Sibert Cather had Welsh ancestry but like her parents Charles and Mary, was born in Virginia, on 7th December 1873. Despite strong roots in the community, Willa was 9, when the family moved to Nebraska, to work the rich soil and avoid TB of which there were numerous outbreaks in Virginia.

The vastness and drama of the Nebraska prairie and its’ extreme weather conditions as well as the many diverse cultures of the local families proved to be a major influence on her and can be evidenced in much of her later writing.

Her first writing was for the local journal when she was at the University of Nebraska and later became the managing editor of the student newspaper.

In 1896 she obtained work for a woman’s magazine in Pittsburgh and soon after became a regular contributor to the Pittsburgh Leader and wrote poetry and short stories for the Library, another local publication.

Her first collection of short stories, ‘The Troll Garden’, was published in 1905 and contains several of her most famous including ‘A Wagner Matinee’ and ‘Paul's Case.’ As a writer Cather was now taking immense strides forward.

Between 1913 and 1918 Cather wrote her Prairie Trilogy: ‘O Pioneers!’, ‘The Song of the Lark’, and ‘My Ántonia’ and in 1922 the Pulitizer Prize was hers for her novel ‘One of Ours’ set during WWI.

Acknowledged as one of America's greatest writers’ further honours flowed. In 1943 she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The following year Cather received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

A determinedly private person, Cather destroyed many old drafts, personal papers, and letters. Her will would also restrict the ability of scholars to quote from personal papers that remained.

On 24th April 1947, Willa Siebert Cather died of a cerebral haemorrhage at her Manhattan home. She was 73.

01 - Willa Cather - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction

02 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather

03 - The Namesake by Willa Cather

04 - A Wagner Matinee by Willa Catha

05 - On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather

06 - The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781839678998

Willa Cather

Willa Cather (1873-1947) was an award-winning American author. As she wrote her numerous novels, Cather worked as both an editor and a high school English teacher. She gained recognition for her novels about American frontier life, particularly her Great Plains trilogy. Most of her works, including the Great Plains Trilogy, were dedicated to her suspected lover, Isabelle McClung, who Cather herself claimed to have been the biggest advocate of her work. Cather is both a Pulitzer Prize winner and has received a gold medal from the Institute of Arts and Letters for her fiction.

Reviews for The Short Stories of Willa Cather

[Maggie Norris · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have always liked short stories. If I listed my favorite stories and authors, you would notice a pattern. I had read only one of Willa Cather’s stories, in a high-school English class (Paul’s Case). I remembered it, not the details but the emotional color.
Definitely worth a try, if you like short stories. Or even if you don’t yet.