"The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor..."

May 22, 2008 11:23 AM

The Willa Cather Archive is an incredible resource provided by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including biographies, letters, photos, and even full (often annotated) text of much of her writing, including scholarly editions of two of her greatest (and most famous) works, My Antonia and O Pioneers. About the archive.
posted by dersins (8 comments total)

NB: Post title is a quote from an article Cather wrote for The Home Monthly in 1897. [cite]
posted by dersins at 11:25 AM on May 22, 2008

Bookmarked for next year. Maybe I can find something in here to help my high school sophomores enjoy O Pioneers! a little more...
posted by kozad at 11:54 AM on May 22, 2008

willa cather is one of my favorites. thanks for this!
posted by dagnabbit at 11:56 AM on May 22, 2008

Thanks dersins! O Pioneers! was bday-gifted to me the year I turned 15 and it's been one of my favourite books ever since, one I've read several times over the years.
posted by zarah at 12:20 PM on May 22, 2008

This is excellent. Thanks!
posted by mothershock at 4:13 PM on May 22, 2008

Cool post, thanks; Cather's one of my faves, too. "A Wagner Matinée" is such an amazing, soulful story - feminist on its own terms and filled with heart.

I also really liked New Yorker critic Joan Acocella's brilliant little book, Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism, a sharp, informative look at how Cather's work has been received over the years, from condescending male critical guardians to excited lesbian feminists. It's a quick 100-page must-read for anyone interested in Cather - or, hell, literature and criticism in general (and not nearly as reactionary as some of the Amazon reviews might lead you to believe).
posted by mediareport at 7:26 PM on May 22, 2008

Thanks for the post! I haven't thought about Willa Cather's books in quite a long time... makes me want to pick them up again.
posted by pril at 10:32 PM on May 22, 2008

A bittersweet endeavor, as it reminds me that the driving force behind it and the pre-eminent scholar of all things "Cather", Sue Rosowski, died before really seeing it take off. But I'm pretty sure she caught a good glimpse of possibilities and would certainly be excited watching it develop.
posted by RavinDave at 7:41 AM on May 23, 2008