Bringing the American West to Life

Until Willa Cather, literature in America was dominated by writers from New York and Boston. Immigrants were either ignored or portrayed as objects of derision. Strong women characters didn't exist. This one woman changed all that. Her writing is so vivid you can almost taste the homemade jam from cherries harvested by the creek. You can almost hear the rustling of the grasslands that once stretched forever across Nebraska. As one historian put it, “Suddenly, not only had the West found a lite