Obscure Destinies

About The Author: Wilella Sibert Cather was born on December 7 1873 in the small Virginia farming community of Winchester. When she was ten years old her parents moved the family to the prairies of Nebraska where her father opened a farm mortgage and insurance business. Home-schooled before enrolling in the local high school Cather had a mind of her own changing her given name to Willa and adopting a variation of her grandmother''s maiden name Seibert as her middle name. During Cather''s studies at the University of Nebraska she worked as a drama critic to support herself and published her first piece of short fiction Peter in a Boston magazine. After graduation her love of music and intellectual pursuits inspired her to move to Pittsburgh where she edited the family magazine Home Monthly wrote theater criticism for the Pittsburgh Daily Leader and taught English and Latin in local high schools. Cather''s big break came with the publication of her first short story collection... Name: Willa Cather Also Known As: Wilella Sibert Cather (full name) Date of Birth: December 7 1873 Place of Birth: Winchester Virginia Date of Death: April 27 1947 Place of Death: New York New York Education: B.A. University of Nebraska 1895 Awards: Pulitzer Prize for fiction awarded for One of Ours 1923; Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters 1944 Biography Wilella Sibert Cather was born on December 7 1873 in the small Virginia farming community of Winchester. When she was ten years old her parents moved the family to the prairies of Nebraska where her father opened a farm mortgage and insurance business. Home-schooled before enrolling in the local high school Cather had a mind of her own changing her given name to Willa and adopting a variation of her grandmother''s maiden name Seibert as her middle name. During Cather''s studies at the University of Nebraska she worked as a drama critic to support herself and published her firs