Willa Sibert Cather 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. Cather admired Henry James's use of language and characterization. While Cather enjoyed the novels of several women—including George Eliot, the Brontës, and Jane Austen—she regarded most women writers with disdain, judging them overly sentimental. One contemporary exception was Sarah Orne Jewett, who became Cather's friend and mentor. Jewett advised Cather of several things: to use female narrators in her fiction (even though Cather preferred using male perspectives), to write about her "own country" (O Pioneers! was dedicated in large part to Jewett), and to write fiction that explicitly represented romantic attraction between women.Cather was also influenced by the work of Katherine Mansfield,praising in an essay Mansfield's ability "to throw a luminous streak out onto the shadowy realm of personal relationships. Contents: The Novels Alexander’s Bridge O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark My Ántonia One of Ours A Lost Lady The Short Story Collections The Troll Garden Youth and the Bright Medusa Obscure Destinies A Collection of Stories Uncollected Short Stories The Poetry April Twilights The Non-Fiction The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science
