Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873 in Back Creek Valley, near Gore, Virginia (Cyclopedia 367). Cather's dads name was Charles Cather. He was an average farmer. Her mothers name was Mary Virginia Boak Cather. Her mother was the eldest of the couple's four children, who also included brothers Roscoe and Douglass and a second Daughter, Jessica (Magill's Survey 343).
             Cather was a very avid reader. Since she was moving constantly until the age of about nine, she did not stay in any one school for long. When she turned sixteen she went off to the University of Nebraska. She quickly established herself as one of its brightest and most individualistic students there (Magill's Survey 345).
             Cather had many influences. Many of her novels are related to prairie life. The reason why she wrote most of her novels on prairie life is because that is where she grew up. She also got many of her influences from the people she met while on her journeys across the prairie (Magill's Survey 343).
             Cather stayed in the career of writing throughout her life. She had many different jobs as a writer before she became her own writer. Since she established herself as a writer in college, she was offered many jobs. One of the first that she had was that she had published two articles in the Nebraska State Journal, to which she began contributing a regular column during her junior year in college. She then graduated and moved to Pittsburgh, where she stayed for the next ten years and wrote articles for Home Magazine (Magell's Survey 345).
             Cather was given many awards for all of her different writings. Her best award
             was a Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel "One of Ours". There were many other awards.
             One of Willa Cather's many novels is "My Antonia". This novel was published in 1918. Cather portrays Antonia through the telling of her life experiences. Her life is seen and po...