Megan writes:
My Antonia by Willa Cather, an american author from the late 1800's. Most of Willa Cather's novels have the same setting, the Great Plains. Besides My Antonia, some of her other novels that take place in the Great Plains include O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873 in Winchester, Virginia. Her family had lived on the same farm for many generations. Cather was the oldest of six children from her mother Mary Virginia Boak. . When Cather was around ten years old, her mother moved the family to Webster County, Nebraska, a town she commonly uses in her Novels.During Willa's childhood, she was often called William by her classmates due to the fact that she wore boyish clothes and had a manly figure. As she grew older she started to realize that she was attracted to women instead of men. She never confirmed her sexual identity to anyone, however.When Cather was around the age of 20, she was determined to go to college. Since she showed such a strong interest, her parents saved up enough money and she attended the University of Nebraska. Cather had always been interested in writing, however she never really tried to get any of her work published. In her 20's, Cather became a writer for the Nebraska State Journal, which used to be a popular newspaper in Nebraska. McClure's Magazine published her first novel, Alexander's Bridge in the early 1900's. Everything just went uphill after that. In 1922, she published a novel titled "One of Ours". In 1923, she received the Pulizer Prize, a US which is often given for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature, and music composition. She was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature later on in her life. On April 24, 1947, Cather passed away to a hemorrhage and was burried in a small cemetery in New Hampshire. Even though she is no longer with us, her novels are still commonly read around the United States and her legacy will live on forever.