Paul's Case by Wila Cather

6242 Words25 Pages
Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament Willa Cather Context Willa Cather, the oldest of seven children, was born on December 7, 1873. She lived in Virginia until age nine, when her family moved to Nebraska. The shift from the mountains of Virginia to the plains of Nebraska affected Cather strongly, as did the immigrant population she encountered in Red Cloud, the second Nebraska town in which her family lived. Cather attended the University of Nebraska, where she was a star student. Although she initially wanted to be a doctor, she soon decided to concentrate on the classics. During college, Cather discovered her talent for writing and quickly entered the world of journalism. By the time she was twenty, she had a column in the Nebraska State Journal, and during her junior year, she became the paper’s drama critic. After graduation, she took a job in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as managing editor for Home Monthly, a women’s magazine. About a year later, she became a drama critic for a Pittsburgh newspaper called the Leader. Beginning in 1901, Cather did a five-year stint as a high school English teacher, a job she hoped would give her plenty of time for her own writing. In 1903, she published a book of poetry called April Twilights. After she met S. S. McClure, editor of McClure’s Magazine, McClure offered her a job as an editor at the magazine, which was famous for its muckraking journalism. She accepted and moved to New York. Cather’s biography of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy was published serially in McClure’s, and in 1909, it was published as a book. The biography infuriated Christian Scientists, who attempted to buy every copy in an effort to contain the damage. In 1913, Cather followed the advice of her mentor, writer Sarah Orne Jewett, and left the magazine to focus on writing full-time. Cather considered her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge
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