My Ántonia
A widely read, representative novel combining Cather's characteristic themes of memory, migration, place, and identity.
Author guide
Willa Cather Books in Order
Willa Sibert Cather (1873–1947) was an American writer whose twelve novels, short-fiction collections, poetry, journalism, essays, and nonfiction established her as a major figure in twentieth-century American literature. Her best-known works include O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia, One of Ours, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Sapphira and the Slave Girl. She also worked as a journalist and editor, ghostwrote S. S. McClure's autobiography, and contributed substantially to Georgine Milmine's biography of Mary Baker Eddy.
novelshort fictionpoetrynonfictionmemoiressaysjournalism
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
O Pioneers!
A concise and influential entry point into Cather's Great Plains fiction.
Death Comes for the Archbishop
A major historical novel showcasing Cather's mature style and interest in cultural encounter and spiritual life.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (13)
- The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science
nonfiction · 1909
This controversial biography of the founder of the Christian Science church was serialized in McClure's Magazine in 1907-8 and published as a book the next year. It disappeared almost overnight and has been difficult to find ever since.…
- O Pioneers!
novel · 1913
"Alexandra, daughter of a Swedish immigrant farmer in Nebraska, inherits the family farm and finds love with an old friend." "The heroic battle for survival of simple pioneer folk in the Nebraska country of the 1880s. John Bergson, a…
- Alexander's Bridge
novel · 1912
Late one brilliant April afternoon Professor Lucius Wilson stood at the head of Chestnut Street, looking about him with the pleased air of a man of taste who does not very often get to Boston. He had lived there as a student, but for…
- The Song of the Lark
novel · 1915
Determined to leave behind the dull values of her small hometown, an opera singer devotes increasing amounts of energy to developing her art.
- My Ántonia
novel · 1918
My Antonia, first published 1918, is one of Willa Cather's greatest works. It is the last novel in the Prairie trilogy, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.My Antonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move…
- One of Ours
novel · 1922
Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed. "Ralph, Ralph, get awake! Come down and help me wash the car." "What for?" "Why, aren't we going to…
- A Lost Lady
novel · 1923
First published in 1923, A Lost Lady is one of Willa Cather's classic novels about life on the Great Plains. It harkens back to Nebraska's early history and contrasts those days with an unsentimental portrait of the materialistic world…
- The Professor's House
novel · 1925
The professor's house was published in 1925, when she was fifty-two. At the time she was an author with a worldwide reputation, having won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of ours. Reaching the top of her profession had produced a…
- Death Comes for the Archbishop
novel · 1927
"What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows—gently, all the…
- Shadows on the Rock
novel · 1931
Set in 18th century Quebec City, this is ostensibly the narration of a year in the life of a widowed apothecary and his young daughter. A gentle tale, full of the small joys and daily struggles of a colonist's life in a harsh and…
- Lucy Gayheart
novel · 1935
Fervently pursuing the life of an artist, a young music student leaves behind her small midwestern town existence and comes to know the elation and heartache of a life in the creative world.
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl
novel · 1940
Sapphira Dodderidge, a Virginia lady of the 19th century, marries beneath her and becomes irrationally jealous of Nancy, a beautiful slave. One of Cather's later works.
Nonfiction (1)
- My Autobiography
memoir · 1914
Short fiction (5)
- The Troll Garden
short-fiction-collection · 1905
- Youth and the Bright Medusa
short-fiction-collection · 1920
Youth and the bright Medusa is a collection of eight short stories about artists and the arts.
- Obscure Destinies
short-fiction-collection · 1932
- The Old Beauty and Others
short-fiction-collection · 1948
- Uncle Valentine and Other Stories: Willa Cather's Uncollected Short Fiction, 1915–1929
short-fiction-collection · 1972
Essays and speeches (1)
- Not Under Forty
essays · 1936
Poetry (1)
- April Twilights
poetry · 1903
This edition reprints Willa Cather's 1903 collection of poems (called April Twilights) along with the additional poems she added in 1923 (in a collection she called April twilights and other poems). In addition it includes many…
Frequently asked questions about Willa Cather
Who was Willa Cather?
Willa Cather (1873–1947) was an American writer best known as a novelist and short-story writer. She also worked as a journalist, editor, critic, poet, and essayist.
Sources: willacather.org (opens in a new tab)home.nps.gov (opens in a new tab)
Where did Willa Cather grow up, and how did it shape her writing?
Born in Virginia, Cather moved with her family to Red Cloud, Nebraska, in 1883. The prairie landscape, local communities, and immigrant neighbors she encountered there became central influences on her fiction.
Sources: plainshumanities.unl.edu (opens in a new tab)willacather.org (opens in a new tab)
What did Willa Cather do before becoming a full-time novelist?
Cather worked as a journalist, editor, theater critic, and teacher. She wrote for Nebraska newspapers, edited McClure’s Magazine in New York, and developed her fiction alongside that career before turning fully to novels.
Sources: willacather.org (opens in a new tab)plainshumanities.unl.edu (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Willa Cather’s fiction?
Her fiction drew on memories of the Nebraska prairie, immigrant communities, music, theater, and the broader Western literary tradition. Personal relationships and encounters with artists and musicians also helped shape her artistic development.
Sources: willacather.org (opens in a new tab)home.nps.gov (opens in a new tab)
Did Willa Cather win a Pulitzer Prize, and what is her legacy?
Yes. She won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for One of Ours, and her reputation has continued to grow; she is now recognized as a major American and Great Plains writer whose work supports extensive scholarship and public commemoration.
Sources: pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)plainshumanities.unl.edu (opens in a new tab)willacather.org (opens in a new tab)