Willa Cather (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

Biography

Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, near Gore, Virginia, on December 7, 1873. Christened Wilella and called by the nickname “Willie” throughout her childhood, Cather later adopted the name Willa. The daughter of Charles Cather, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Virginia Boak Cather, she was the eldest of the couple's four children, who also included brothers Roscoe and Douglass and a second daughter, Jessica.

Although the Cather family had long been established in the small Virginia community where Willa was born, a general westward migration of...

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