This biographical directory does not list every person mentioned in the letters by Willa Cather included in this volume. Focusing on individuals most readers will not be familiar with, it omits, for example, well-known writers, artists, politicians, and other people for whom basic information is readily available elsewhere (such as Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, or Prosper Mérimée). People mentioned in the letters whose identities are not known beyond a name or a partial name are also not included, and identifications made in the text are often not repeated here.
ABBOTT, EDITH (1876–1957): Graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1901; became dean of the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
ACKROYD, ROSE: Granddaughter of Mary Ann Anderson, of the Back Creek area in Virginia; niece of Enoch and Marjorie Anderson, who accompanied the Cathers to Nebraska.
ADLER, ELMER (1884–1962): Book designer and master of fine printing; designed and supervised the printing of some of Cather’s books.
AKINS, ZOË (1886–1958): Playwright and also writer of poetry, fiction, criticism, screenplays, and radio and television scripts; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1935 for her adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Old Maid.
AMES, MARY H. (MAYSIE): Classmate of Cather and of Mariel Gere.
AMES, WINTHROP (1870–1937): American dramatist, producer, director, and theater owner.
ANDERSON, EDWIN H. (1861–1947): Director of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh while Cather lived there; director of the New York Public Library, 1913–1934.
ANDERSON, MARJORIE (MARGIE) (1854–1924): Accompanied the Cathers from Virginia to Nebraska as household help; prototype for Mahailey in One of Ours and Mandy in “Old Mrs. Harris.”
ANDREWS, SARAH (“AUNTIE” OR “AUNTIE SISTER”) (1834–1925): Sister of Mary Virginia Cather, Willa Cather’s mother.
ARCHER, WILLIAM (1856–1924): Scottish playwright and drama critic.
ARLISS, GEORGE (1868–1946) and FLORENCE (1871–1950): Well-known British actors who had major successes in American theater and film.
AULD, CHARLES: Son of Jessica Cather Auld and James William Auld.
AULD, JAMES WILLIAM: Banker in Red Cloud; married to Jessica Cather but divorced from her in 1933; often called “Will.”
AULD, JESSICA CATHER (1881–1964): Sister of Willa Cather.
AULD, MARY VIRGINIA (b. 1905): Cather’s adored niece, the daughter of her sister Jessica Cather Auld; married name Mellen.
AULD, WILLIAM THOMAS: Son of Jessica Cather Auld and James William Auld; sometimes called “Tom” or “Will.”
“AUNTIE” OR “AUNTIE SISTER”: see Andrews, Sarah.
AUSTIN, MARY HUNTER (1868–1934): American writer and naturalist, author of The Land of Little Rain, The Ford, and numerous other works.
AXTELL, JAMES W. (1852–1909): publisher and editor in chief of the Home Monthly Magazine.
BAIN, READ (b. 1892): A professor of sociology at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; editor of the American Sociological Review from 1938 to 1942.
BAKST, LÉON (1866–1924): Russian painter and designer of stage sets.
BARR, AMELIA E. (1831–1919): British American writer of popular historical fiction.
BARRIE, JAMES M. (1860–1937): British playwright and novelist, best known for Peter Pan.
BATES, HERBERT (1868–1929): A professor of English at the University of Nebraska who placed some of Cather’s earliest writings; later a music critic in Cincinnati.
BEACH, REX ELLINGWOOD (1877–1949): Writer of manly adventure novels.
BECKER, SADIE: A talented musician and accompanist who moved from New York to Red Cloud with her parents as a young woman; possible prototype for Cather’s character Lucy Gayheart.
BEECHER, GEORGE ALLEN (1868–1951): Bishop of Western Nebraska from 1910 to 1943; confirmed Cather and her parents in the Episcopal Church.
BENDA, WLADYSLAW THEODOR (1873–1948): Magazine and book illustrator chosen by Cather for My Ántonia.
BENNETT, ARNOLD (1867–1931): English novelist.
BERNHARDT, SARAH (1844–1923): Celebrated French actress.
BESSIE: see Seymour, Elizabeth.
BLOOM, SARAH J.: Cather’s personal secretary from about 1923; managed much of Cather’s correspondence and typed some of her manuscripts.
BOAK, RACHEL ELIZABETH SEIBERT (1816–1893): Cather’s maternal grandmother, the model for Mrs. Harris in “Old Mrs. Harris.”
BOURDA, JOSEPHINE: Cather’s housekeeper and cook for many years.
BOURNE, RANDOLPH (1886–1918): Influential progressive thinker, critic, and essayist; died at age thirty-two in the influenza epidemic of 1918–1919.
BREWSTER, ACHSAH BARLOW (1878–1945) and EARL (1878–1957): American expatriate painters who lived in Italy, France, and India; Achsah was Edith Lewis’s Smith College roommate and friend.
BROOKS, VAN WYCK (1886–1963): Literary historian, critic, and biographer; won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1937 for The Flowering of New England.
BROWN, E. K. (1905–1951): Canadian academic who wrote the first biography of Cather, completed by Leon Edel and published in 1953.
BURROUGHS, LOUISE GUERBER: Librarian at the Denver Public Library who later moved to New York and worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
BUTCHER, FANNY (1888–1987): Bookseller and writer; reviewed books, music, and art for the Chicago Tribune for almost fifty years.
BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY (1862–1947): President of Columbia University 1902–1945; president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 1928–1941.
BYNNER, WITTER (1881–1968): Poet; worked as an office boy and editor at McClure’s after graduating from Harvard in 1902.
CALVÉ, EMMA (1858?–1942): Popular French operatic soprano.
CANBY, HENRY SEIDEL (1878–1961): American editor, critic, and literary biographer; a professor at Yale, helped launch the Yale Review; edited the New York Evening Post Literary Review and the Saturday Review of Literature; chaired the selection committee of the Book-of-the-Month Club from 1926 to 1954.
CANBY, MARION (1885–1974): American poet whose verses appeared in various magazines and were collected in High Mowing (1932) and On My Way (1937); wife of Henry Seidel Canby.
CANFIELD, FLAVIA (1844–1930): A painter and socialite greatly interested in the arts; mother of Cather’s friend Dorothy Canfield Fisher; prototype for Flavia Hamilton in “Flavia and Her Artists.”
CANFIELD, JAMES HULME (1847–1909): Chancellor of the University of Nebraska during Cather’s student days; later president of Ohio State University; father of Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
CATHER, CHARLES EDWIN (1922?–2011): Cather’s nephew, son of James Cather and Ethel Garber Cather; became Cather’s literary executor.
CATHER, CHARLES FECTIGUE (1848–1928): Father of Willa Cather.
CATHER, DOUGLASS (1880–1938): Cather’s brother, to whom she was very close.
CATHER, ELIZABETH (1915–1978): Cather’s niece, daughter of Roscoe and Meta Schaper Cather, twin to Margaret Cather and sister to Virginia Cather; married Lynn S. Ickis in 1938.
CATHER, ELSIE (1890–1964): Cather’s sister; sometimes called “Bobbie.”
CATHER, ETHEL MAY GARBER (d. 1975): Cather’s sister-in-law, married to brother James; related through her father to Silas Garber.
CATHER, FRANCES (FRANC) SMITH (1846–1922): Strong-minded aunt married to Cather’s father’s brother George.
CATHER, GEORGE P. (1847–1938): Cather’s paternal uncle, the first member of the family to migrate from Virginia to Nebraska; married to Frances (Franc) Smith Cather.
CATHER, GROSVENOR P. (“G. P.”): (1883–1918): Cather’s first cousin, son of George and Frances (Franc) Smith Cather; died in France during World War I; prototype for Claude Wheeler in One of Ours.
CATHER, HELEN LOUISE (1918–2004): Cather’s niece; daughter of James Cather and Ethel Garber Cather, sister to Charles Edwin Cather.
CATHER, JAMES (1886–1966): One of Cather’s younger brothers, married Ethel Garber.
CATHER, JOHN (JACK) (1892–1959): Cather’s youngest brother.
CATHER, MARGARET (1915–1996): Cather’s niece, daughter of Roscoe and Meta Schaper Cather, sister to Virginia Cather and twin sister of Elizabeth Cather; married Richard Shannon in 1938.
CATHER, MARY VIRGINIA (JENNIE) BOAK (1850–1931): Mother of Willa Cather.
CATHER, META SCHAPER (1884–1973): Cather’s sister-in-law, married to brother Roscoe; graduate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln; taught high school before marrying Roscoe in 1907.
CATHER, ROSCOE (ROSS) (1877–1945): Cather’s brother, to whom she was very close; her next younger sibling.
CATHER, VIRGINIA (b. 1912): Cather’s niece, the daughter of Roscoe and Meta Cather; sometimes called “West Virginia.”
CHANDLER, WILLIAM E. (1835–1917): Government official and U.S. senator from New Hampshire.
CLEMENS, CYRIL (1902–1999): Founder of the International Mark Twain Society and editor of the Mark Twain Quarterly.
COATES, FLORENCE EARLE (1850–1927): A poet from Pennsylvania.
CRAWFORD, F. MARION (1854–1909): Financially successful American novelist.
CREIGHTON, MARY MINER (b. 1873): Second daughter of James and Julia Miner of Red Cloud; married Red Cloud physician E. A. Creighton; a lifelong friend of Cather’s and prototype for Sally Harling in My Ántonia.
CROSS, WILBUR (1862–1948): Professor at Yale and editor of the Yale Review; governor of Connecticut from 1931 to 1939.
DAMROSCH, WALTER (1862–1950): German American conductor and composer, elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1898 and to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1932; president of the Academy from 1941 to 1948.
DELAND, MARGARET CAMPBELL (1857–1945): American writer of fiction, poetry, and autobiography.
DEVOTO, BERNARD (1897–1955): Historian, essayist, and literary critic; faculty member at Harvard; edited “The Easy Chair” for Harper’s Magazine from 1930 to 1955; editor of the Saturday Review of Literature from 1936 to 1938.
DORÉ, PAUL GUSTAVE (1832–1883): Successful French painter, engraver, and illustrator with a highly dramatic style.
DOS PASSOS, JOHN (1896–1970): American novelist of the post–World War I period; associated with the Lost Generation.
DUCKER, WILLIAM: A well-educated Englishman who worked in his brother’s dry-goods store in Red Cloud when Cather was a child; read Latin and Greek with her and encouraged her curiosity about many subjects.
DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (1867–1936): Creator of popular newspaper character “Mister Dooley.”
DWIGHT, HARRISON G.: Writer of fiction and poetry whose work Cather accepted (and sometimes declined) for McClure’s.
EDDY, MARY BAKER (1821–1910): Founder of the Christian Science movement and the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.
ENGEL, ZOLTAN: A graduate of Columbia University, a collector of artworks, rare books, and manuscripts; donated a rich collection to Columbia.
FARRAR, GERALDINE (1882–1967): American soprano and film actress.
FARRAR, PRESTON COOKE: A friend of Cather’s in Pittsburgh and teacher at Allegheny High School; later a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
FERRIS, MOLLIE (c. 1864–1941): A friend of the Cather family in Red Cloud.
FEUILLERAT, ALBERT G. (1874–1953): Born in Toulouse, France; Sterling Professor of French at Yale, 1929–1943.
FIELDS, ANNIE ADAMS (1834–1915): Celebrated hostess, widow of the noted Boston publisher James T. Fields; wrote poems, edited Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was active in reform efforts.
FISHER, DOROTHY CANFIELD (1879–1958): A prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction, a member of the original editorial board of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and a friend of Cather’s from her student days on.
FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865–1932): Noted actress interviewed by Cather in 1899.
FLORANCE, BEATRIX (“TRIX”) MIZER (1875–1963): Childhood friend of Cather’s, studied music in Chicago; a possible model for the character Lucy Gayheart’s music career.
FLORANCE, SIDNEY: Banker in Red Cloud; married to Beatrix Mizer Florance.
FOE, HOWARD: Lawyer in Red Cloud with whom the Cather family worked.
FOERSTER, NORMAN (1887–1972): A student of Cather’s in Pittsburgh who became a professor and critic; established a creative arts doctoral program at the University of Iowa.
FOOTE, KATHARINE (later Katharine Foote Raffy) (b. 1881): Daughter of American musician and composer Arthur William Foote; began correspondence with Cather after reading The Song of the Lark.
FOOTE, MARY HUBBARD (1872–1968): A painter well known for her portraits; a frequent visitor at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s home in Taos, New Mexico.
FORD, ELSIE MARTINDALE: Wife of Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer); separated from him in 1908 but never officially divorced.
FORD, FORD MADOX (PSEUD.) FORD MADOX HUEFFER (1873–1939): British novelist and critic.
FREMSTAD, OLIVE (1871–1951): Swedish American soprano; made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1903; specialized in Wagnerian roles.
GALE, ZONA (1874–1938): Essayist, novelist, and playwright; won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921 for Miss Lulu Bett; active in social issues and Progressive politics.
GALSWORTHY, JOHN (1867–1933): British novelist and playwright.
GARBER, LYRA WHEELER (1855(?)–1921): Second wife of Silas Garber; social leader in Red Cloud during Cather’s childhood and adolescence; the model for Marian Forrester in A Lost Lady.
GARBER, SILAS (1833–1905): Captain of Company D, the 27th Iowa Infantry, during the Civil War; homesteaded in Nebraska in 1870 and in 1871 founded the town of Red Cloud; governor of Nebraska, 1874–78; the model for Captain Forrester in A Lost Lady.
GARNETT, EDWARD (1868–1937): Influential British critic, editor, and writer.
GAYHARDT, ANNA: A teacher at the Blue Hill School when Cather met her, a graduate of Peru Normal School.
GEOGHEGAN, HAROLD: Art history professor at Carnegie Technical School (later Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh in the 1910s, where he taught Jack Cather.
GERE, CHARLES (1860–1904): Publisher of the Nebraska State Journal; befriended Cather during her years at the university.
GERE, MARIEL: Friend of Cather’s from her college days in Lincoln, Nebraska.
GERE, MARIEL CLAPHAM: Wife of Charles Gere and mother of Mariel, Frances, and Ellen.
GERWIG, GEORGE: Cather’s predecessor as drama critic for the Nebraska State Journal; in 1892 moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he became secretary to the city’s board of education.
GILDER, JEANNETTE LEONARD (1849–1916): Pioneering woman journalist who cofounded and edited the Critic.
GOLDMARK, JOSEPHINE (1866–1939): Protective labor law activist, research director of the National Consumers League; author of Fatigue and Efficiency, which advocated shorter labor hours.
GOLDMARK, PAULINE (1874–1962): Secretary of the National and the New York State Consumers Leagues, and assistant director of social research for the Russell Sage Foundation; adviser on the employment problems and health of women for AT&T from 1919 to 1939; author of Women and Children in the Canning Industry (1908).
GORE, JAMES HOWARD (1856–1939): Cather’s cousin, son of her great-aunt Sidney Cather Gore; a professor of mathematics at Columbian University in Washington, D.C., and author of many books on mathematics, politics, art, and travel; married to Lillian Thekla Brandthall (1868–1913), daughter of a former Norwegian ambassador.
GORE, SIDNEY CATHER (AUNTIE GORE): Willa’s great-aunt, sister of her grandfather William. The town of Gore, Virginia, is named for her and she appears briefly in Sapphira and the Slave Girl as Mrs. Bywater.
GOUDY, ALEXANDER K.: Principal of Red Cloud High School when Cather attended; later superintendent of Nebraska public schools.
GOUDY, ALICE E. D.: A friend from Cather’s youth, wife of Alexander K. Goudy.
GRANT, JUDGE ROBERT (1852–1940): Member of the Department of Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters, elected in 1915.
GREENSLET, FERRIS (1875–1959): Associate editor for the Atlantic Monthly 1902–1907; then, for thirty-five years, literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, where he championed Cather’s early novels; author of Under the Bridge, a memoir of his life in publishing, among other works.
GRIGGS, NELLY (1875–1943): A singer from Nebraska; later married Hartley Burr Alexander, a writer, scholar, and iconographer also from Nebraska.
GUINEY, LOUISE IMOGEN (1861–1920): American poet and essayist and a friend of Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett.
GUND, MARGIE MINER (1875–1936): Third daughter of James and Julia Miner of Red Cloud; married Blue Hill banker Charles Frederick Gund; prototype for Julia Harling in My Ántonia.
HAMBOURG, ISABELLE MCCLUNG: A socialite from a prominent Pittsburgh family and Cather’s devoted longtime friend.
HAMBOURG, JAN (1882–1947): Violinist and husband of Isabelle McClung Hambourg.
HARRIS, SARAH (1860–1917): Newspaperwoman Cather met while a student at the University of Nebraska; co-owner and editor of the Lincoln Courier in the late 1890s.
HENDRICK, BURTON J. (1870–1949): Writer at McClure’s and later editor and writer of many books of nonfiction and biography.
HESS, MYRA (1890–1965): Well-known British concert pianist who toured in the U.S.
HOGAN, PENDLETON (b. 1907): Writer of fiction and nonfiction.
HOWE, MARK ANTONY DEWOLFE (1906–1967): Writer, editor of the memoirs of Annie Adams Fields.
HOWLAND, JOBYNA (1880–1936): Actress and “Gibson Girl” who starred in silent films in the 1910s; famous for her role in the Broadway production of The Gold Diggers; friend of Cather’s friend Zoë Akins.
HRBKOVÁ, ŠÁRKA B.: Czech American translator, writer, and educator; head of the University of Nebraska’s Department of Slavonic Languages and Literature from 1908 to 1919.
ICKIS, LYNN S. (1913–2003): Married Cather’s niece Elizabeth Cather in 1938.
JEWETT, MARY RICE (1847–1930): Sister of Sarah Orne Jewett.
JEWETT, SARAH ORNE (1849–1909): New England writer; mentor to whom Cather dedicated O Pioneers!
JOHNSON, BURGES (1877–1963): A professor at Vassar and Union colleges, an editor, and an author.
JOHNSON, ROBERT UNDERWOOD (1853–1937): Editor, poet, and ambassador to Italy under President Woodrow Wilson; edited the Century and Scribner’s magazines; secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
JONES, WILL OWEN (1862–1928): Managing editor of the Nebraska State Journal and Cather’s mentor there.
KALEY, CHARLES W. (1846–1917): From Red Cloud; president of the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska at the time Cather sought a teaching job there.
KEEBLE, GLENDINNING: Music critic with the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times; read and provided advice for The Song of the Lark before its publication.
KOHLER, DAYTON M. (1907–1972): Longtime professor of English at Virginia Tech University.
KNOPF, ALFRED A. (1892–1984): Founder of New York publishing house in 1915; published all of Cather’s works from Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) on.
KNOPF, BLANCHE (1894–1966): Wife of Alfred A. Knopf and a partner in the publishing house; traveled widely and was inducted into the French Legion of Honor.
LA FARGE, OLIVER (1901–1963): American anthropologist and novelist; won the Pulitzer Prize for novel Laughing Boy (1929).
LAMBRECHT FAMILY: German immigrant family (including husband Fred Lambrecht, wife Charlotte Preussner Lambrecht, and daughters Pauline and Lydia) who lived near the Cather family homestead outside of Red Cloud. Lydia and Pauline were Cather’s first playmates in Nebraska.
LAVAL, PIERRE (1883–1945): Prominent French politician; served as premier from 1931 to 1935 and later as prime minister.
LEE, VERNON (PSEUD.) VIOLET PAGET (1856–1935): British essayist and fiction writer.
LEMAÎTRE, JULES (1853–1914): French critic and dramatist.
LEWIS, EDITH (1882–1972): Cather’s companion and housemate for nearly forty years; a professional woman in magazines and advertising.
LINDBERGH, CHARLES (1902–1974) and ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH (1906–2001): The celebrity aviator and his wife were both acclaimed authors. Their son, Charles Lindbergh III, was kidnapped and murdered in 1932 in what was called the “Crime of the Century.”
LITCHFIELD, ETHEL JONES: Accomplished Pittsburgh pianist; friendship with Cather began in 1902.
LOTI, PIERRE (PSEUD.) JULIAN VIAUD (1850–1923): Well-traveled French novelist.
LOWELL, AMY (1874–1925): American poet and critic.
LUHAN, MABEL DODGE (1879–1962): A patron of the arts and literature who maintained a salon on Fifth Avenue in New York before moving to Taos, New Mexico, where she hosted many artists and intellectuals.
LUHAN, TONY: Member of Taos Pueblo; married Mabel Dodge in 1923.
MACKENZIE, CAMERON (1882–1921): Son-in-law of S. S. McClure, hired at the magazine in 1906, became general manager in 1908.
MAGEE, CHRISTOPHER L. (1848–1901): Pittsburgh businessman who became one of the most powerful political figures in the city in the late nineteenth century.
MARLOWE, JULIA (1866–1950): English actress.
MASARYK, TOMÁŠ (1850–1937): Czech patriot and philosopher; a founder of Czechoslovakia and its president from 1918 to 1935.
MASTERS, EDGAR LEE (1869–1950): American poet, known for Spoon River Anthology (1915).
MATTHIESSEN, FRANCIS O. (1902–1950): Scholar and critic noted for The American Renaissance (1941); also published books on Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry James, and Theodore Dreiser.
MCCLUNG, EDITH: Sister of Cather’s friend Isabelle McClung Hambourg.
MCCLUNG, SAMUEL (1845–1915): Pittsburgh judge and father of Isabelle McClung Hambourg.
MCCLURE, HATTIE: Wife of S. S. McClure and likely prototype for Myra Henshawe in Cather’s My Mortal Enemy.
MCCLURE, S. S. (1857–1949): Founded and ran the widely circulated McClure’s Magazine, where Cather worked as a member of the editorial staff from 1906 to 1911.
MCDONALD, JAMES (1870–1968): Classmate of Cather’s from North Platte, Nebraska; one of the founders of the Lasso.
MCKEEBY, DR. G. E. (1844–1905): Cather family physician, mayor of Red Cloud in the late 1880s; prototype for Dr. Archie in The Song of the Lark.
MCNENY, BERNARD: Attorney in Red Cloud and family friend; husband of Helen McNeny.
MCNENY, HELEN SHERMAN: Friend from Red Cloud, married to Bernard McNeny.
MELLEN, RICHARD HAGER: Married Cather’s niece Mary Virginia Auld in 1935; William Thomas Auld’s roommate at Amherst College; a graduate of Harvard Medical School.
MELONEY, MARIE MATTINGLY (1883–1943): Editor and writer; edited the Delineator from 1920 to 1926, the Sunday Magazine, and This Week Magazine.
MENCKEN, H. L. (1880–1956): American editor and critic, noted for acerbic social comment and for The American Language (1918).
MENUHIN, HEPHZIBAH (1920–1981): American pianist who gave her first recital at age eight; later a linguist and author; sister of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianist Yaltah Menuhin.
MENUHIN, MOSHE (1893–1983) and MARUTHA (1892–1996): Russian immigrants to the U.S., parents of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianists Hephzibah and Yaltah Menuhin.
MENUHIN, NOLA NICHOLAS: First wife of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and mother of Zamira Menuhin; sister of Hephzibah Menuhin’s first husband, Lindsay Nicholas.
MENUHIN, YALTAH (1921–2001): American pianist, poet, and artist, sister of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianist Hephzibah Menuhin.
MENUHIN, YEHUDI (1916–1999): American violinist, debuted with the San Francisco Orchestra at age seven.
MEYNELL, ALICE (1847–1922): British poet and essayist.
MICHELET, JULES (1798–1874): French historian; author of the nineteen-volume History of France.
MINER, HUGH (1871–1951?): Son of James and Julia Miner of Red Cloud; took over his father’s store and later became postmaster in Red Cloud; married Cather’s cousin Retta Ayre.
MINER, JAMES L. (1847–1905): A merchant in Red Cloud; the model for R. E. Dillon in “Two Friends” and Mr. Harling in My Ántonia.
MINER, JULIA ERICKSON (1844–1917): Norwegian-born wife of James L. Miner of Red Cloud; a good amateur musician; the model for Mrs. Harling in My Ántonia.
MONROE, HARRIET (1860–1936): Founder of Poetry Magazine and its editor from 1912 to 1936.
NANSEN, FRIDTJOF (1861–1930): Norwegian Arctic explorer.
NEIHARDT, JOHN (1881–1973): Writer about the Great Plains best known for Black Elk Speaks (1932); became Nebraska’s poet laureate in 1921.
NEVIN, ETHELBERT (1862–1901): American composer of art songs.
NEWBRANCH, HARVEY (1875–1959): An 1896 graduate of the University of Nebraska; editor of the Omaha World-Herald for fifty-six years; won a Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for an editorial condemning lynching.
NORRIS, KATHLEEN THOMPSON (1880–1966): California newspaperwoman and a prolific writer of fiction.
OBER, DR. FRANK ROBERTS (1881–1960): Prominent orthopedic surgeon from Boston who treated Cather’s tendinitis; responsible for Cather’s hand brace.
OSBORNE, EVELYN: A friend and fellow graduate student of Dorothy Canfield whom Cather met in Paris in 1902; the prototype for Virginia Gilbert in “The Profile.”
OTTE, FRED, JR. (1884–1956): One of Cather’s students at Central High School in Pittsburgh, and privately tutored by her; later a businessman and occasional correspondent of Cather’s.
OUIDA (PSEUD.) MARIE LOUISE DE LA RAMEE (1839–1908): English romantic novelist.
PATER, WALTER (1839–1894): English essayist and critic, known as a stylist.
PAVELKA, ANNIE SADILEK (1869–1955): Daughter of Bohemian immigrants to Nebraska, worked as the Miner family’s hired girl in Red Cloud; married a Bohemian farmer and raised a large family in the northern part of Webster County, Nebraska; prototype for Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia.
PEATTIE, ELIA WILKINSON (1862–1935): Columnist for the Omaha World-Herald and literary editor of the Chicago Tribune; wrote fiction for adults and children.
PERSHING, JOHN J. (1860–1948): Leader of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I; taught mathematics at the University of Nebraska when Cather was a student there.
PHELPS, WILLIAM LYON (1865–1943): American critic; professor of English at Yale for forty years.
PHILLIPS, DAVID GRAHAM (1867–1911): A “muckraking” journalist and writer of novels of political and social criticism.
PHILLIPS, JOHN S. (1861–1949): Publisher and editor who cofounded McClure’s Magazine with S. S. McClure.
POUND, LOUISE (1872–1958): College friend of Cather’s who went on to gain recognition as a scholar of folklore; the first woman president of the Modern Language Association.
POUND, STEVEN AND LAURA: Parents of Louise, Roscoe, and Olivia Pound; prominent citizens of Lincoln, Nebraska, while Cather was a student there.
POUND, ROSCOE (1870–1964): Brother of Louise Pound, graduate of the University of Nebraska, and prominent legal scholar; dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936.
PUVIS DE CHAVANNES, PIERRE (1824–1898): French muralist.
RASCOE, BURTON (1892–1957): Editor, author, and critic of drama and literature whose column “The Day Book of a New Yorker” was syndicated in more than four hundred newspapers.
REYNOLDS, PAUL REVERE (1864–1944): The first literary agent in New York; founded his business in 1893 and represented many well-known authors; Cather’s agent beginning in 1916.
RICHARDSON, MARGUERITE (b. 1918): Youngest daughter of W. N. Richardson, prototype for Mr. Trueman of “Two Friends”; half sister of Winifred (Freddie) Richardson Garber.
RICHARDSON, WINIFRED (FRED): Daughter of W. N. Richardson, prototype for Mr. Trueman of “Two Friends”; married Seward Garber, son of Silas Garber and his first wife.
RINEHART, MARY ROBERTS (1876–1958): Prolific American writer well known for her murder mysteries.
RITTENHOUSE, JESSIE B. (1869–1948): Poet, anthologist, and critic who helped found the Poetry Society of America.
ROBERTS, ALTHEA (ALLIE): Classmate of Cather and of Mariel Gere.
ROD, EDOUARD (1857–1910): French Swiss novelist and critic.
ROE, E. P. (1838–1888): A Civil War chaplain who became an author of popular novels with religious themes.
ROSEBORO’, VIOLA (1858–1945): Fiction editor at McClure’s from 1896 to 1906; author of short stories and novels.
SCAIFE, R. L.: Production editor at Houghton Mifflin.
SEDGWICK, ANNE DOUGLAS (1873–1935): American-born English novelist.
SEDGWICK, ELLERY (1872–1960): Editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1908 to 1938.
SEIBEL, GEORGE (1873–1958): A literary and drama critic in Pittsburgh; married to Helen Seibel.
SERGEANT, ELIZABETH SHEPLEY (1881–1965): Author and journalist; wrote for the New Republic and others; met Cather in 1910 and wrote Willa Cather: A Memoir (1953).
SEYMOUR, ELIZABETH (BESSIE) (1857–1934): Cather’s cousin; lived with half brother Will Andrews and their mother, Sarah Andrews, sister of Cather’s mother, on a farm north of Bladen.
SHANNON, RICHARD S.: Married Cather’s niece, Margaret Cather, in 1938.
SHARP, CECIL (1859–1924): Scholar and promoter of English folk music and dancing.
SHERWOOD, CARRIE MINER (1869–1971): Eldest daughter of James and Julia Miner, neighbors of the Cathers in Red Cloud; married Red Cloud banker Walter Sherwood; lifelong friend of Cather and prototype for Frances Harling in My Ántonia.
SILL, PEORIANNA BOGARDUS (1833–1921): Music teacher in Red Cloud who directed the 1889 production of Beauty and the Beast in which Cather took part.
SPRAGUE, HELEN MCNENY: Daughter of Bernard and Helen McNeny, married attorney Leon Sprague.
STEFANSSON, VILHJALMUR (1879–1962): Anthropologist and arctic explorer.
STEICHEN, EDWARD (1879–1973): Photographer famous for portraits, especially fashion and portrait photography for Vanity Fair and Vogue.
TALBOT, FRANCIS, S. J.: Literary editor of America, a Catholic magazine; positively reviewed Death Comes for the Archbishop in 1927.
TARBELL, IDA (1857–1944): Famous “muckraking” writer; preceded Cather as an editor at McClure’s.
TAYLOR, CLARA DAVIDGE (1858–1921): Art gallery owner and promoter of modernist art; married to painter Henry Fitch Taylor.
TENNANT, STEPHEN (1906–1987): British aristocrat famous for his decadent lifestyle; his one novel, Lascar, was never completed.
TYNDALE, DR. JULIUS: Medical doctor in Lincoln during Cather’s college years who also wrote theater reviews; brother of Emma Tyndale Westermann.
UNDSET, SIGRID (1882–1949): Norwegian writer; winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928.
VAN DOREN, CARL (1885–1950): American editor, critic, and novelist; author of The American Novel (1921).
VAN VECHTEN, CARL (1880–1964): American novelist, photographer, and music and drama critic.
VERMORCKEN, ELIZABETH MOORHEAD (1866–1955): An acquaintance from Pittsburgh who later wrote They Too Were Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather (1950).
VINSONHALER, DUNCAN M.: A judge who represented a group of Omaha, Nebraska, citizens in commissioning a portrait of Cather.
WAGENKNECHT, EDWARD (1900–2004): American literary critic and biographer; wrote on Thoreau, Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Abraham Lincoln.
WALPOLE, HUGH (1884–1941): British novelist who wrote several bestselling books in the 1920s and 1930s.
WARD, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (1844–1911): Popular American novelist and proponent of clothing reform for women.
WARD, MARY AUGUSTA (ARNOLD) (1851–1920): Well-known British novelist who wrote under the name Mrs. Humphry Ward.
WEBER, CARL J. (1894–1966): Literary scholar, taught at Colby College for thirty-nine years; wrote a biography of Thomas Hardy.
WEISZ, IRENE MINER (b. 1881): Youngest daughter of James and Julia Miner of Red Cloud; married Chicago businessman Charles Weisz; a lifelong friend of Cather’s and prototype for Nina Harling in My Ántonia.
WELLS, CARLTON F. (b. 1898): Professor in the Department of English at the University of Michigan; wrote or edited a number of books.
WEST, REBECCA (PSEUD.) CICELY ISABEL FAIRCHILD (1892–1983): English author, journalist, critic, and travel writer.
WESTERMANN, LOUIS AND EMMA: Acquaintances of Cather’s in Lincoln; Mr. Westermann was the owner and publisher of the Lincoln Evening News; the family was the prototype for the Erlichs in One of Ours.
WESTON, KATHERINE (KIT): College friend of Cather’s from Beatrice, Nebraska; daughter of the chairman of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
WHEELWRIGHT, MARY CABOT: Founder of the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe.
WHICHER, GEORGE FRISBIE (1889–1954): Graduate of Amherst College, where he subsequently taught from 1915 to 1954; author of a biography of Emily Dickinson (1935) and other literary studies.
WHICHER, HARRIET FOX (1890–1966): A graduate of Bryn Mawr and Barnard; professor of English at Mount Holyoke from 1918 to 1944; afterward a freelance copy editor at McGraw Hill.
WHITE, WILLIAM ALLEN (1868–1944): journalist, novelist, and editor of the Emporia Gazette in Emporia, Kansas; a national spokesman for the American Midwest in the early twentieth century.
WIENER, CHARLES F. (1846–1911): Merchant who lived near the Cathers in Red Cloud; conversant in French and German; he and Mrs. (Fanny Meyer) Wiener (1853–1893) allowed Cather the use of their fine library and were prototypes for the Rosens in “Old Mrs. Harris.”
WILCOX, ELLA WHEELER (1850–1919): American poet, sometimes called “the poet of passion,” from the title of her book Poems of Passion.
WILLARD, MARY AND MAY: Friends of Cather’s in Pittsburgh; May was a librarian.
WING, TOM: Classmate of Cather’s at the University of Nebraska and a cousin of Edith Lewis; married Katharine Weston.
WOOLLCOTT, ALEXANDER (1887–1943): American critic and radio personality, known for his wit; a member of the Algonquin Roundtable.
WYATT, EDITH FRANKLIN (1873–1958): Novelist, journalist, and social reform activist; wrote for McClure’s while Cather was an editor there.
YEISER, JAMES (JIM) (1878–1953): Youngest son of Judge George O. Yeiser, the prototype for Judge Pommeroy in A Lost Lady; became a reporter and worked in San Francisco.
YOURCENAR, MARGUERITE (1903–1987): French novelist and essayist, the first female member of the Académie française.