Willa Cather, American Voice

On Wednesday, February 25th, at 6:30pm, Peter Cipkowski, literary historian at UCLA and President of the Board of Governors of the National Willa Cather Center, visits the Coffee House to speak about legendary author, Willa Cather.

Willa Cather wrote many of her greatest works while living at 5 Bank Street between 1912 and 1927. One of the most distinctive and enduring voices in twentieth-century American literature, she was unimpressed by the antics of her fellow artists in Greenwich Village and instead pursued her own path with determination, discipline, and deep reflection on the past. The result was a series of groundbreaking novels—including O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, One of Ours, The Professor’s House, and Death Comes for the Archbishop—that helped define the American literary canon and speak with special urgency today.

Literary historian Peter Cipkowski will offer an overview of Cather’s life and times, drawing on excerpts from her writings to trace her lifelong struggle to shape a distinctly American voice.