by Willa Cather
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 Progre
ssive 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, JULI
A (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.
