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Ma rch is Women's History Month.
\nThe complete quotation on the title of this program is as follows: &ldquo\;the fact that I was a girl never da maged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor." \;
\n"Willa Cath er is Nebraska's foremost citizen\," wrote author and Nobel Prize-winner S inclair Lewis. "The United States knows Nebraska because of Willa Cather's books."
\nToday Willa Cather is one of the most important American novelists of the first half of the \;twentieth century. Seen as a regi onal writer for decades after her passing in 1947\, critics \;have inc reasingly identified Cather as a canonical American writer\, the peer of a uthors like \;Hemingway\, Faulkner and Wharton.
\nThe eldest of seven children\, Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley\, Virginia in 1873. When Cather was nine years old\, her family moved to rural Webster C ounty\, Nebraska. After a year and a half\, the family resettled in the co unty seat of Red Cloud\, where Cather lived until beginning her college st udies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1890.
\nAfter her graduation in 1895\, Cather worked as a journalist and teacher\, living fi rst in Pittsburgh\, and later in New York City. Her first volume of poetry \, "April Twilights\," was published by a vanity press in 1903\, and in 19 12 she was able to leave editorial work and live as a full-time writer and poet. Over the next several decades\, Cather wrote prolifically\; her wor ks include "Alexander&rsquo\;s Bridge" (1912)\, "O Pioneers!" (1913)\, "My Á\;ntonia" (1918)\, and "A Lost Lady" (1923)\, all of which explore d the pioneering experience on the Plains. In 1923\, "One of Ours" (1922) received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Her other well-regarded works inc lude "The Professor&rsquo\;s House" (1925)\, "My Mortal Enemy" (1926)\, "D eath Comes for the Archbishop" (1927)\, "Shadows on the Rock" (1931)\, "Lu cy Gayheart" (1935)\, and "Sapphira and the Slave Girl" (1940).
\nAs one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century\, Willa Cather was gifted in conveying an intimate understanding of her characters in re lation to their personal and cultural environments&mdash\;environments tha t often derived from Red Cloud. Cather died from a cerebral hemorrhage on April 24\, 1947 and was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Jaffrey Center \, New Hampshire. Engraved on her tombstone is this quotation from \;M y Á\;ntonia: &ldquo\;that is happiness\; to be dissolved into someth ing complete and great.&rdquo\; Complex and brilliant\, Willa Cather lives on through her many devoted readers.
\nWilla Cather was the author of twelve novels\, six collections of short fiction\, two editions of her book of poetry\, "April Twilights\," and numerous works of nonfiction\, co llected journalism\, speeches\, and letters.
\nThe National Willa Ca ther Center will delve into the life of Willa Cather\, including \;her childhood\, and her career\, as well as discuss \; some of the female characters in Cather's novels.
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