Willa Cather documentary 

This was an interesting documentary. I had never heard of this woman. My grandmother lived the life of "My Antonia". She was raised in a dugout near a lake in Iowa. She married and raised 9 children. One was my Father. I was raised next door to my grandmother in the 1950-60's. She then lived in a regular house and tho she had no running water her house was spotless. She had a garden, canned vegs and made bread. She was a quiet pleasant woman. Never complained.Just did her work as if it was just the way it is and you do what you had to do. I wish I had asked her more questions about growing up in that dugout. But I imagie she would have had a different outlook on it than I did. When I think I have it rough I think about my granny and my gr grandmother who rased my granny and her 7 siblings in that dugout. And wondeer what I'm complaining about..

I am struck by this careful, respectful look at the art and life of Willa Cather. Thank you.

I wrote my undergraduate senior thesis on Willa Cather. I read most of her books. I really love her work. She had a unique voice for women. My Antonia was the focus but I just loved all of her female characters.

I read “My Antonia” in college, and I love that book ever since.

When I visit Mabel Dodge Lujan House in Taos, I always stay in Willa Cather's room to soak up the vibes.

A wonderful documentary. She was hugely brave multiple times to leave a pleasant "sure thing" and jump into the unknown again and again. And she succeeded in something many artists aspire to, she managed to erase her personal life and leave us only with her written work.

What strikes me about this very introspective and highly gifted writer is her humbleness and true grit to follow her path for writing. I am touched by her love for women who grant her wish of destroying their letters so their love and true selves are strictly private. A fascinating woman indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed the bio pic of Willa. Marvellous! Thank you.

Reading her books took me back to a time and place that lived again through her writing...so moving.

It's because of Willa Cather that I took up writing. I love (and still own) the ancient copy of My Antonia from which I studied Cather's writing, word for word. She was able to make you feel the heat of the train car rumbling across the prairie, and feel the cloud of dust as your hand hit the hot, fading red velvet covered car seats. The Shimerdas - the life of the immigrants, the Swedes - she made it all come to life. I was always sad to read the ending of when Antonia was a mother with missing teeth due to her harsh life, so would always go back and read when she was a bright and sunny girl again, with chestnut cheeks. I must have read that book once a year for at least 3 decades - just to keep my own writing fresh. She, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," and Robert Nathan's "Portrait of Jenny," are the go-to books to study for any aspiring writer. As Anton Chekhov - another must-read writer, wrote, "Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

I must say I really enjoyed this biography of Willa Cather. I had never heard of her but now I'm going to go and pick up one of her books. Thank you for introducing her to us

I wrote my Masters thesis (1987) on Willa Cather's southwest novels, Death Comes for the Archbishop, mainly and the two parts about the Southwest in The Professor's House and Song of the Lark. My thesis was that she treated landscape as a character in all of her novels, using all of these as examples. I read all of her novels and a great deal of the research on her. I had a fabulous Professor who taught a seminar class on her work, who was also a famous author, William Dickey, which sparked a love of her work; I had lived in both Nebraska and New Mexico (my favorite state) , as a military brat, as well as in Europe.

I've been a fan of Cathers' work for almost 30 years. This film has made me fall in love all over again. Thanks for this gift for lovers of enduring literature.

Beautiful documentary. Truly moving picture of her life.

Loved this documentary, what an amazing woman and writer!! Thank you.

I loved this. Rest in peace Ms.Cather, you are not forgotten.

You can smell, feel, taste, the world she paints artfully, each sentence crafted keenly, with beautifully chosen words. Her personal life was superfluous to her work and she knew it, God love her, and saw to it, it remain so. Smart lady.

This is one of the best programs of its kind that I have had the pleasure of viewing. Thank you, to all involved with creating this and getting it to us.

A truly great writer. Those two central novels "The Professor's House" and "Death Comes For the Archbishop" are as good as anything in American fiction. They deal masterfully with universal themes, so that they speak even to me, a reader sitting in south west London. There can be no greater accolade, and hopefully, with many of her titles now appearing in Penguin Modern Classics, she will regain the wide readership she deserves.

this showed up in my youtube recommendations! i am so happy! this was an incredible documentary! I look forward to watching more, especially women writer's.

I watched this from Ireland and applaud you for a most beautifully crafted documentary

I read Death comes to the Archbishop 45 years ago and it remains strongly fixed in my memory. A truly great novel.

An amazing writer who led an equally amazing life. Thank you for a truly wonderful documentary!

This was a superb documentary in all its aspect from the writing, the narration, the photography, even the accompanying music

"Hell, even I thought I was dead once...'til I found out that I was just in Nebraska." ( Little Bill Dagget, _Unforgiven_ ).

Of course, I've known about her "forever," but just realized I have never actually read her books. This fine documentary has spurred me to do just that.

This was a brilliantly conceived and executed documentary. The selection of the people who commented or criticized was faultless, as was the editing of their thoughts with the passages from Cather’s books. I would go so far as to say that this is one of the finest and most revealing biographical docs I have ever seen. Even the musical interludes were sympathetic to the content. Never before have I felt so inclined to find without delay and read the works of any author. bravo to the entire team who constructed this flawless portrait.

Very thorough biography; I am truly impressed

A thoroughly enjoyable documentary. I really enjoyed learning about Willa Cather. A true artist!

PBS, of course! Awoke at 3am, ciuldnt slerp, found this delight and now a new fan! What a fantastic bio. Looking forward to reading her works. Loved the excerpts.

I absolutely love her writing. Willa Cather surpasses others.

My high school literature teacher introduced her work to me in the 70’s. I grew up on the prairie of ND. Never knew much about her life until now. Fascinating. Thank you for this gem.

What a brilliant and gifted lady . Ahead of her time. By the way , to whoever who made this documentary , you did an excellent job . Support PBS .

Only 10 minutes in and being reminded of Will and Abby Deal that also moved to Nebraska after the Civil War. They are written about by Bess Streeter Aldrich in her book called, "A Lantern in Her Hand (1928)". I always wondered if Will and Abby Deal were her grandparents but have never really researched. Bess was born in Iowa in 1881 and died in Lincoln, Ne. in 1954. Her pen name was Margaret Dean Stephens but I never knew that until grabbing facts for this post. In any case I read that book at least 5 or 6 times as a pre-teen and teen. And a few others written by Bess. Just learning about Willa Cather and thinking that I'll be looking for some of her books. GREAT documentary thus far. Back to Willa Cather!

What a beautiful presentation -the music, the presenters, and of course the subject. I knew nothing of the lady. Thank you.

Thank you for this! Willa Cather is my favorite American novelist!

Brilliant, elucidating, moving, documentary. I felt her so deeply and found it changed me. Thank you.

Like many people, I had not heard of this woman; another great PBS job, dramatic but without hysteria, a well held line.

My spirit connected to the first book I read by Miss Cather. Our journeys all start with that first step,we explore,we experience,we gain knowledge and understanding. Whether we ever gain success...we were here and then we move to our next life enriched. Willa conveyed that very well. Thank you.

What a splendid documentary. Thank you for introducing me to this fascinating person.

“My Antonia” is available for free in PDF form. Just google the title and put pdf. Happy reading. 🥀

I happened upon "O Pioneers" in a library years ago. I remember it being one of those stories in which I lost myself. I was inspired with the hope the main character was able to find in love and in the prairie, but I absolutely bawled at the senseless deaths of the people she loved. The depth of thought and feeling Cather brought out in me is hard to describe. I'd need Cather's talent to do that!

Extraordinary - thank you. “My Antonia” has been one of my favorite books for decades, read and reread it many times, but never knew anything at all about the author, now I know more….

IMO....Willa Cathers' concrete imagery is amazing. And I love her view of things she thought was fascinating. I feel like she is a part of my own spirit.

So beautifully written and illustrated. Thank you for posting this!

How am I 59 years old and never heard of this author and her books? And I was a reader all my life. Going to have to catch up...

I love her work and, as much, her fierce privacy and share her feelings. Many Americans, today, feel they are entitled to know public figures intimately and I don't blame their fury upon intrusion. She was truly gifted and under appreciated in today's pseudo intellectual literary landscape.

I was on the mesa in the 1960's with my "Swinger" Camera . I can tell you I got a great picture of my fingertip and a half-a-snap of the cliff-dwelling. Good times were had by all!

I haven't known any daughters who wanted to live a life like their mothers. This includes my friends, my grandmother, mother, my aunts, myself and my granddaughters That isn't some rare profound discovery of who a woman wants to be. She wants to be herself, off course.

This documentary was beautifully realized. I'm sure Willa Cather would appreciate it.

I grew up in south-central Nebraska. My father had a trailer on a lake where the nearest 'town' is Red Cloud. My brother-in-law's brother is married to a Cather - directly related to Willa. I love the plains of Nebraska - though I don't live there now. My mother grew up in the Sandhills and was an avid reader - handed down to all of us.

I'm far from a Cather scholar, but I've read a good bit of her stuff. The two, it seems to me, that most people talk about are Death Comes For The Archbishop and, of course, My Antonia. Both great books, but I would highly recommend The Song Of The Lark. That's the one that really got me. Anyone who is pursuing a life in the arts, or any life that is not the normal laid-out path - you would love that book. Her shorts, also, are great. "Neighbor Rossicky" had as much of an influence on my own writing as anything has. Style-wise, pacing-wise, I pretty much just imitated it for years. "The Enchanted Bluff," "The Sculptor's Funeral," "Coming, Aphrodite!" Etc, etc. Her shorts are really something.

My mother had me read My Antonia when I was in grade school. Thank you, Mom. Great call. I am 64 and I still remember being enthralled.

I first read Willa Cather about 50 years ago. She continues to speak to me, though in different avenues...

The best story of an American writer I have ever read. Bravo

I am perhaps one of the few Brits who knows the works of Willa Cather. Inevitably perhaps the first I read was Death Comes for the Archbishop. I think America produced some marvelous writers in the early part of the 20th century. Willa Cather I certainly rank in the top drawer, along with Theodore Dreiser (how relevant is The Trilogy of Desire today), Carson McCullers and so on.

Love this. Thank you for the upload. New Mexico is a very Spiritual place

What a treasure. Thank you for creating the videos!

In the right hands, Cather's masterful "The Song of the Lark" could lend itself to becoming a brilliant epic film. To be successful, the crew and cast involved in its filmic adaptation would need to possess uncommon intelligence and sensitivity. An accomplished director of photography could transform the novel's many highly cinematic passages into spellbinding imagery that would compensate for the narrative challenges involved in depicting 30 years of Thea Kronborg's life as she grows from a small girl living on the edge of the Colorado desert into an internationally renowned opera singer performing Wagner in turn-of-the-century Manhattan.

2 minutes in and I'm in love .

I once did a spoken word where I was being filmed and I asked them to stop filming. I wanted people to remember me as I was and my words, my work. I totally understand what she meant. I got chills as the orator began reading a few lines of her words. Ty.

Thank you so much for uploading this documentary on Willa Cather. Her stories 'The Song of the Lark' and 'My Antonia' have lingered with me for decades.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, thanks for posting. Had never heard of her before and eager to start reading her work. Thanks from Ireland x

Thank you for this, I have appreciated hearing about this amazing writer who lived through challenging times.

Thank you for this wonderful documentary. Such personalities outlive their natural lifespan, and I am reminded of the artist Georgia O’Keefe, who also thrived in New Mexico, who also found inspiration in the untamed environment. I shall certainly endeavour to find her books.

Poignant biography, always was touched by Cather's writing, remember going to the University of Nebraska bookstore and looking for her works...

What an extraordinarily done documentary! What a remarkable life story and work of an amazing writer and woman. I loved listening to the female voice reading Willa Cather's writings... such a hypnotic voice... Thank you so much for this gem!

Very much enjoyed this documentary. Thank you.

Great documentary--thanks for sharing this. I love that Cather closed the blinds on her private life, even though I wish like crazy that her letters had survived. My introduction to Cather was 'The Bohemian Girl', which is still one of my favourites.

Having moved from a suburb of Dayton, Ohio (6 Target stores with in 20 minutes) to Hastings, Ne (one Target 60 minutes away) my wife absolutely identifies with the feelings of Cather moving to Nebraska.

I'll never understand why Willa Cather has fallen out of fashion. I've read almost everything she ever wrote, including the young adult novel of the French Canadians. IMHO she and Mark Twain are the two greatest American novelists. Her masterpieces are the stories and novels of the westward settling of the the Great Plains. They chronicle an American past that never really was, but that we all believe is true. These works are quintessentially American folklore but must be read with a critical eye. The truth is there, but not readily apparent in the same way the Little House sagas of the same period seem so idyllic but are full of hardship and misery romanticized out of existence.

Wow! I read My Antonia many yrs ago and have never forgotten it. This is wonderful. I am motivated to read others! Thank you!

Can't believe it - but I watched this on April 24, 2022 - 75 years to the day of the anniversary of her death, 75 years to the day of my parents' wedding anniversary, 111 years ago to the day of my father's birthday, a Greek immigrant who came in 1932 and lived in Brooklyn amongst the Jewish, Italian, Polish and Greek immigrant community who made up the new America. Small world.

Beautifully done documentary. Absolutely worth watching.

How wonderful these documentaries are! Thank you.

Beautifully done documentary. Ive always been an avid reader yet somehow lve missed reading any of Willa’s work! I’ll now purpose to find some of her books and enjoy them. There was such beauty in the parts of her writing which were shared in this documentary! So much of what was said of Willa’s reticence to her changing world rings true to me and my own writings of over 50 yrs will probably forever remain in storage as l haven’t the courage Willa possessed! Bravo for Willa!

First read My Antonia in 1990 in form6 literature class. Been re-reading it and enjoying it since then♡

Magnificent documentary. Just exquisite. The story of a beautiful lady and of her life and her gift. Presented in such a perfect way.

Amazing documentary thank you! I'm so inspired and will be buying her novels

Amazing. She lived so much history.

Oh I read a few of her books and yes the energy you feel is so intense, and she flows like no other author I have read! I fell in love, and read Death for the Arch bishop and Oh Pioneer and My Antonia, I think of my Grandma coming to America through Ellis Island, going to North Dakota, in the 1800's. Just amazing How much you feel a part of it, want it crave it, Thank you for the wonderful documentary. She grew up here in Winchester not to far from where I live. I can't imagine how it was back then, Virginia's rolling hills, and valleys..

Wonderful brilliant Thank you so much for your dedication to this subject documentary!

“O Pioneers” was one of the books that I read decades ago and influenced my life so much

Wow!! I have just witnessed a great writer I knew nothing about. Thank you!

I remember the beauty of the prose in Song of the Lark taking my breath away.

My favorite novelist

Willa Cather's MY ANTONIA is one of the best books I ever read.

David Strathairn narrates this. Very good.

Beautifully scripted, narrated, and orchestrated documentary on an exceptionally gifted writer.

This was a documentary that I never knew I needed. I am so glad I clicked to check it out though. Wonderful!

My tribute to my father in law, on the centennial of his birth. He grew up on the Oklahoma prairie, and died 11 years before I met his daughter. I was taught Cather's place in American lit during my sophomore year in high school. 40 years ago, I gave my mother a copy of "Death Comes to the Archbishop," a book she came to respect. "100 years ago today, a boy was born on a small desolate farm in Jackson County, Oklahoma. He was named Gordon. His father had acquired the land in 1904 under the Homestead Act. The land was unsuited to cropping, and mesquite was the only thing that grew easily on it. I've been told that the only "cash crop" on that farm was the few hundred Thanksgiving turkeys the family raised every year. He grew at least some of the corn the turkeys ate. The family also grew its own vegetables, and raised some chickens. I suspect that the family drank milk from a cow who ate whatever grass she could find. "Gordon was the fifth of six siblings, and the fourth of five boys. I am told that he was raised in fair part by his only sister, Inez, who did not spare the rod. I am confident that he wore mostly hand-me-downs. In order to attend high school, he had to bicycle at least 20 miles a day, on unpaved roads. At least the terrain was perfectly flat - a small favour for which Gordon was surely grateful. He did not live in a residence with electric power and plumbing until his freshman year in college. "Like so many men of his generation, Gordon served in WW2, in his case the Signal Corps. Early this century, some of his wartime letters to his folks were found. Those letters revealed that his unit helped liberate the part of France where my mother hailed from and where I was born. He married and had two daughters, one of whom I married. He died more than a decade before I met any of his descent. I never met his widow either; she too died years before I came on the scene. She was the daughter of a Nebraska homesteader, and the second woman to graduate from Oklahoma State in electrical engineering. Thanks to the GI Bill, Gordon too graduated from Oklahoma State in electrical engineering. "Gordon’s father died in 1944; his mother followed suit in 1960. In the summer of 2000, Ruth and I visited the homestead, which is 10 miles east of Eldorado OK. Gordon’s younger brother Doyle was our guide. All that remained of the homestead was an utter ruin, stripped of all paint by the stiff wind and harsh sun, and surrounded by mesquite that ran pretty near to the horizon. Electric wiring was installed in 1947 (traces of that wiring could be seen in 2000), but the house was abandoned a year later and has never been occupied since. Doyle also showed us Eldorado, with its stark rural poverty and decay. Google street confirms that nothing has improved since 2000. Thus many store fronts on Eldorado’s Main Street have been vacant for decades. Eldorado’s population is now about 400, one third of what it was during Gordon’s boyhood. "Dear reader, if you have come this far with me, you can appreciate why some of Larry McMurtry’s (1936-2021) writings mean a lot to me. McMurtry grew up near Archer City, Texas, which is about a 2-3 hour drive from Eldorado. Archer City is larger and somewhat less poor than Eldorado, mainly because one can commute to jobs in nearby Wichita Falls. His father was a two-bit cattle rancher who owned too little land, and whose life was an endless struggle with stubborn livestock and a Mother Nature indifferent to human comfort. For some pioneer families, the American dream never materialised until after WW2, when it finally became the case that anybody with a decent mind could obtain a college degree."

Excellent!

*Thank you for this wonderful documentary! I learned to love Willa Cather's writing in my 20's, and "My Ántonia" was the first book of "serious literature" that I tried to teach when I started working as a college lecturer in Japan. This first course was not an overwhelming success, but I hope to be able to repeat it at least once more--now that I've learned "a thing or two" about conducting literature courses for students whose language and culture is so remote from that of the USA--especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries.*

Willa Cather was assigned reading in high school, Chicago suburb, 1983 graduating class.

Moving and Aesthetic.

One of my favorite writers!

I wish someone would make her books into movies. We need some new fresh material from a different era instead of this current negative stuff that’s being produced!

Brilliant. I loved every minute. I will read Willa Cather.

Love the background music with this documentary!!!!! Perfect!!!!

Excellent, in-depth documentary of a writer that, as mentioned, fell by the wayside after the wars. Upon seeing the Southwest for the first time, like Cather, I felt the enormity of space that is isolating yet comfortably accepting of the misfit or creative. That edition of "Death Comes for the Archbishop" shown in the doc is the same one I have here in New Mexico. Cather, so strong, independent, and creative, should be more widely known than she is now as it is obvious she was a trailblazer in journalism and creative writing.

I too had never heard of her but she brought me to this awesome channel. I'd forgotten the high quality of PBS docs and the storytelling of this amazing writer has given my wings a lift. Thank you for your amazing uploads