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Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors and a treasured American voice. Her writing explores complicated historical moments through exceptional portrayals of enduring characters—soldiers, settlers, artists, and immigrants. Your gift to the Cather 150 initiative will help the National Willa Cather Center provide classroom resources for teachers, preserve historic sites associated with Cather's life and work, conserve the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie, care for priceless collections, and allow a living memorial to operate for the benefit of generations to come. —Ken Burns, Documentarian
For more than a century, Willa Cather’s writing has transported readers to places they could only imagine—from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the front lines of France. Our work at the National Willa Cather Center does the same—it brings literature and history to life for thousands of people each year. We preserve the places that inspired her novels, share the stories of the people who influenced her well-known characters, and support the next generation of artists.
Cather secured her place in literary history when she won the Pulitzer Prize for ONE OF OURS in 1923, and her likeness is now immortalized in bronze in our U.S. Capitol. Cather is in the national spotlight, and our work to advance her legacy reaches more than 70,000 people annually. To commemorate her 150th birthday, we organized a yearlong celebration with events from California to New Hampshire and many palces in between.
Support from donors across the nation has helped expand our arts and educational programming; curate new exhibits; care for priceless collections; and complete restoration work on four buildings that are part of the largest collection of historic sites devoted to an American author. Rehabilitation is currently underway at the Willa Cather Childhood Home, a National Historic Landmark, which Cather memorialized in THE SONG OF THE LARK.
To continue these efforts and advance Cather’s legacy for the benefit of future generations, we must also expand our network of donors. Will you support our efforts to add 150 new donors and raise an additional $150,000 to commemorate Cather in her sesquicentennial year? We can think of no greater birthday gift for a writer whose stories reach well beyond Nebraska into the depths of the human heart.
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