Willa Cather

Willa Sibert Cather was a American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, works such as O Pioneers , My ntonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I. It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native around the turn of the 20th century. The son of a successful Midwestern farmer and an intensely pious mother, he is guaranteed a comfortable livelihood. Nevertheless, Wheeler views himself as a victim of his father's success and his own inexplicable malaise.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is Willa Cather's best known novel. This epic, is a dream like, mythic story of a life lived simply in the southwestern desert. Father Jean Marie Latour is transferred to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. He finds a vast territory of hills, arroyos, and lonelness. Cather delivers a story of a simple life lived well and full in this her tour de force.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is Willa Cather's best known novel. This epic, is a dream like, mythic story of a life lived simply in the southwestern desert. Father Jean Marie Latour is transferred to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. He finds a vast territory of hills, arroyos, and lonelness. Cather delivers a story of a simple life lived well and full in this her tour de force.

The narrative is based on two historical figures of the late 19th century, Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf, and rather than any one singular plot, is the stylized re-telling of their lives serving as Roman Catholic clergy in New Mexico. The narrative has frequent digressions, either in terms of stories related to the pair (including the story of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the murder of an oppressive Spanish priest at Acoma Pueblo) or through their recollections. The narration is in third-person omniscient style. Cather includes many fictionalized accounts of actual historical figures, including Kit Carson, Manuel Antonio Chaves and Pope Gregory XVI. In the prologue, Bishop Ferrand, an Irish bishop who works in the New World, solicits three cardinals at Rome to pick his candidate for the newly created diocese of New Mexico (which has recently passed into American hands). Bishop Ferrand is successful in getting his candidate, the Auvergnat Jean-Marie Latour, recommended by the cardinals over the recommendation of the Bishop of Durango (under whose territory New Mexico had previously fallen). One of the cardinals, a Spaniard named Allende, alludes to a painting by El Greco taken from his family by a missionary to the New World and lost, and asks for the new Bishop to search for it.

The Professor's House is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, "Tom Outland's Story," and then later wrote the two framing chapters "The Family" and "The Professor." When Professor Godfrey St. Peter and wife move to a new house, he becomes uncomfortable with the route his life is taking. He keeps on his dusty study in the old house in an attempt to hang on to his old life. The marriages of his two daughters have removed them from the home and added two new sons-in-law, precipitating a mid-life crisis that leaves the Professor feeling as though he has lost the will to live because he has nothing to look forward to. The novel initially addresses the Professor's interactions with his new sons-in-law and his family, while continually alluding to the pain they all feel over the death of Tom Outland in the Great War. Outland was not only the Professor's student and friend, but the fianc of his elder daughter, who is now living off the wealth created by the "Outland vacuum." The novel's central section turns to Outland, and recounts in first-person the story of his exploration of an ancient cliff city in New Mexico. The section is a retrospective narrative remembered by the professor. In the final section, the professor, left alone while his family takes an expensive European tour, narrowly escapes death due to a gas leak in his study; and finds himself strangely willing to die. He is rescued by the old family seamstress, Augusta, who has been his staunch friend throughout. He resolves to go on with his life. (wikipedia.org)

The Professor's House is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, "Tom Outland's Story," and then later wrote the two framing chapters "The Family" and "The Professor." When Professor Godfrey St. Peter and wife move to a new house, he becomes uncomfortable with the route his life is taking. He keeps on his dusty study in the old house in an attempt to hang on to his old life. The marriages of his two daughters have removed them from the home and added two new sons-in-law, precipitating a mid-life crisis that leaves the Professor feeling as though he has lost the will to live because he has nothing to look forward to. The novel initially addresses the Professor's interactions with his new sons-in-law and his family, while continually alluding to the pain they all feel over the death of Tom Outland in the Great War. Outland was not only the Professor's student and friend, but the fianc of his elder daughter, who is now living off the wealth created by the "Outland vacuum." The novel's central section turns to Outland, and recounts in first-person the story of his exploration of an ancient cliff city in New Mexico. The section is a retrospective narrative remembered by the professor. In the final section, the professor, left alone while his family takes an expensive European tour, narrowly escapes death due to a gas leak in his study; and finds himself strangely willing to die. He is rescued by the old family seamstress, Augusta, who has been his staunch friend throughout. He resolves to go on with his life. (wikipedia.org)

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and author of O Pioneers (1913) comes this collection of poetry, published between 1892 and 1933. Willa Cather experiments in style and theme, with many of her poems drawing from her own experiences. Willa Cather is known for her remarkable fiction, most notably her Great Plains trilogy and One of Ours (1922), a World War I novel for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. This collection of her poetry highlights Cather's unrivalled attention to the small sensory details of everyday life. Utilising traditional Romantic language and often using abstract imagery, Cather's poetry can be compared to the work of writers who championed the previous century. She explores different forms and styles, experimenting with sonnets, iambic pentameter, and ABAB rhyme schemes. Despite never quite finding her own distinctive voice, Cather's poetry includes many beautiful passages. The 'father' of American literature and author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Mark Twain, praised Cather for her poem 'The Palatine', which is featured in this volume. This collection is divided into three sections: - Uncollected poems from 1892 to 1900 - April Twilights (1903) - April Twilights and Other Poems (Poems added in 1923 and 1933) With its name taken from the famous line in Cather's autobiographical poem 'Macon Prairie' (1923), Under Far Horizons - Selected Poetry of Willa Cather has been proudly published by specialist poetry imprint Ragged Hand. The volume features an introductory excerpt by H. L. Mencken and would make the perfect gift for collectors of Cather's work and those who enjoyed her marvellous novel O Pioneers (1913).

Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy is a poignant character study of an extraordinary woman of commanding personality named Myra who gives up a fortune to marry for love. But was it the right choice? In her portrait of Myra and in her exquisitely nuanced depiction of her marriage, Cather shows the evolution of a human spirit as it comes to bridle against the constraints of ordinary happiness and seeks an otherworldly fulfillment.

Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy is a poignant character study of an extraordinary woman of commanding personality named Myra who gives up a fortune to marry for love. But was it the right choice? In her portrait of Myra and in her exquisitely nuanced depiction of her marriage, Cather shows the evolution of a human spirit as it comes to bridle against the constraints of ordinary happiness and seeks an otherworldly fulfillment.