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Willa Cather found success as journalist and novelist
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Around the turn of the 20th century, few women had the opportunity to do anything beyond housework and child care. Willa Cather broke this stereotypical mold and wrote her way to success. Not only that, she did it right here in Pittsburgh.
Willa Cather came to Pittsburgh from Nebraska to work as the managing editor of The Home Monthly, Pittsburgh's women's magazine. While living in Pittsburgh, Cather wrote for several magazines and a newspaper, the Pittsburgh Leader.
After 1901, she grew less interested in journalism and rejected an offer from the New York Sun. Cather turned her attention to poetry and short stories.
While undertaking this new creative path, Cather took teaching jobs at local high schools. She also wrote many of her narratives from the attic of a house on Murray Hill Avenue.
Around 1906, Cather went to New York to write for McClure's Magazine. She didn't leave Pittsburgh for good, though. She returned and wrote three of her best stories here -- "A Gold Slipper," "Uncle Valentine" and "Double Birthday." Many of her stories were set in Pittsburgh. "Paul's Case," set in Oakland, mentions the Carnegie Museum and the Old Schenley Hotel, now the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh.
Cather wrote stories and books that are considered classics in American literature. She didn't write stories for one sex or one race -- she wrote for all people. She wrote in a time when it wasn't proper for a woman to voice her opinion.
-- By Chad Parks, Senator John Heinz Regional History Center intern
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