Willa Cather and the American Southwest

Willa Cather was at the height of her career as a New York magazine editor when she abruptly quit in 1912 to write fiction. That year she made her first trip to the American Southwest to visit Arizona and New Mexico. Cather traveled repeatedly to the Southwest which inspired much of her famous writing. In this class, we will explore three of her novels that derived from her Southwestern travels. We'll read The Song of the Lark and The Professor's House. We'll also study her best book titled Death Comes for the Archbishop. She researched and wrote this masterpiece during her 1925 and 1926 travels. Join us as we analyze how this unique landscape transformed her literary career and American fiction.