WRITER

Willa Cather

1873 - 1947

Photo of Willa Cather

Icon of person Willa Cather

Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I. Willa Cather and her family moved from Virginia to Webster County, Nebraska, when she was nine years old. The family later settled in the town of Red Cloud. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Willa Cather has received more than 1,820,686 page views. Her biography is available in 45 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 39 in 2019). Willa Cather is the 3,277th most popular writer (down from 3,224th in 2019), the 4,161st most popular biography from United States (up from 4,246th in 2019) and the 351st most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 52.16

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 45

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.20

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.55

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

One of ours
Fiction, World War, 1914-1918, Farm life
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 the circus today?" "Car's all right. Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut out the light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows. Claude rose and dressed, - a simple operation which took very little time. He crept down two flights of stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb. He went through the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with running water. Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.
1922
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Fiction, Clergy, History
1926
The song of the lark
Fiction, Opera, Women singers
1915
O pioneers!
Fiction, Women pioneers, Women farmers
1913
My Ántonia
Fiction, Farmers' spouses, Farm life
My Antonia is a classic tale of pioneer life in the American Midwest. The novel details daily life in the newly settled plains of Nebraska through the eyes of Jim Burden, who recounts memories of a childhood shared with a girl named Antonia Shimerda, the daughter of a family who have emigrated from Bohemia. As adults, Jim leaves the prairie for college and a career in the east, while Antonia devotes herself to her large family and productive farm. When he returns Jim sees that although Antonia is careworn, she remains "a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races". Full of stirring descriptions of the prairie's beautiful yet terrifying landscape, and the rich ethnic mix of immigrants and native-born Americans who chose to restart their lives there, My Antonia mythologized a period of American history that was lost before its value could be understood. - Publisher.
1918
My Ántonia
Literature, Frontier and pioneer life, Czech Americans
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 out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Antonia. The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he goes to live with his grandparents after his parents have died. Jim develops strong feelings for Antonia, something between a crush and a filial bond, and the reader views Antonia's life, including its attendant struggles and triumphs, through that lens.
1918

Page views of Willa Cathers by language

Over the past year Willa Cather has had the most page views in the with 270,246 views, followed by Spanish (9,277), and German (6,491). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Javanese (429.55%), Hungarian (297.37%), and Czech (280.80%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Willa Cather ranks 3,277 out of 7,302. Before her are Julius Obsequens, Curt von Bardeleben, John Brunner, Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh, Duarte Barbosa, and Mariano Azuela. After her are Joanna Chmielewska, Wallace Stevens, Mahmoud Shabestari, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Licinius Macer Calvus, and Juan Fernández de Heredia.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1873, Willa Cather ranks 102. Before her are Gustaf John Ramstedt, Michele Besso, Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde, Leo Baeck, Ford Madox Ford, and Mariano Azuela. After her are Nikolai Tcherepnin, E. D. Morel, Leo Fall, Barnum Brown, Henri Rabaud, and Rudolf Charousek. Among people deceased in 1947, Willa Cather ranks 120. Before her are Tristan Bernard, Elias Katz, Georg Kolbe, Stepan Petrichenko, Princess Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and Gyula Károlyi. After her are Maxwell Perkins, Marc Mitscher, Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena, Rosalia Zemlyachka, Giuseppe Volpi, and Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller.

Others Born in 1873

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1947

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Willa Cather ranks 4,161 out of 20,380. Before her are William Larned (1872), Frank Carlucci (1930), Eddie Bracken (1915), Albert George Wilson (1918), Jane Toppan (1854), and Lawrence Kasdan (1949). After her are Charles Francis Hall (1821), John D. Rockefeller III (1906), Horace Greeley (1811), John Lloyd Stephens (1805), Ansel Adams (1902), and Belle Starr (1848).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Willa Cather ranks 351. Before her are Jim Carroll (1949), Peter Benchley (1940), Hubert Selby Jr. (1928), Mickey Spillane (1918), Edward Bellamy (1850), and Gregory Benford (1941). After her are Wallace Stevens (1879), Douglas Preston (1956), Robert McKee (1941), Morgan Robertson (1861), Rose Wilder Lane (1886), and Fanny Crosby (1820).

American born Writers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous