'Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice'

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There are few female authors that have had an impact on literature as great as that of Willa Cather. Not only was she an exquisite author, but she broke through into writing during a time when few female authors were successful. Her life, which was directly influential to her writing, was of a simple nature. However, she was able to over come a drab, mundane life, and turn her experiences into stories that would be enjoyed by many generations. Willa Siebert Cather was born in her maternal grandmother's home in 1873 in the western region of Virginia (Robinson). Cather's name was originally Willela (after her father's younger sister who died as a child), but the family always called her "Willie." They did this because as a child Willa altered her name in the…show more content…
"She simply had no need for heterosexual relationships, she was married to her art." (Woodress). In her book, Willa Cather : The Emerging Voice, Sharon O'Brien discusses Cather's sexuality. She dwells mainly on Cather's relationship with her best friend Louise Pound and says, "That Willa Cather was a lesbian should not be an unexamined assumption, h owever, but a conclusion reached after considering questions of definition, evidence and interpretation." Yet, after her affair with Pound ended, Cather found "more enduring and supportive relationships," (O'Brien) with Isabelle McClung and later with Edith Lewis, yet she never declared publicly that she was in fact a lesbian. Cather's newspaper career ended in 1901. Her last years at the Leader produced little work, and when she returned from a visit with her brother she became a Latin teacher at Central High School in Pittsburgh. She later taught English and then transferred to Allegheny High School across the river where she taught for three years (Woodress). Cather did not have a natural teaching talent, but her classes were not considered to be boring. In 1903, McClures began nagging Cather for her

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