Cather scholars gather for international symposium

Cather scholars gather for international symposium

June 14, 2017

Article by Marylynne Pitz of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

At age 8, Willa Cather rode a pony around Red Cloud, Neb. and listened as pioneers described the hardships of cultivating flat, grassy prairies. Those stories inspired “O Pioneers,” one of her best novels.

The writer was 22 when she arrived in Pittsburgh in 1896 to edit The Home Monthly, a fledgling magazine aimed at women and modeled after the Ladies’ Home Journal. This journalistic apprenticeship sowed the seeds of Cather’s later, mature work, including “One of Ours,” which received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1923.

Cather’s literary reputation is enjoying a renaissance. Last weekend, 350 people heard remarks by former first lady Laura Bush at the dedication of the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Neb. Civic leaders, donors, historians and scholars celebrated a $7.2 million renovation of the 1887 building, known as “The Moon Block.”

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