Willa Cather 1873 - 1947

Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873 and moved with her family to live in Webster County at the age of nine. After graduating from Red Cloud High School in 1890, she attended the university in Lincoln, Nebraska for five years, then moved to the east coast for the remainder of her life. She died in 1947 and was buried in New Hampshire.

The years in Red Cloud were important and formative years in the writer's life. Six of her twelve novels are set in the Red Cloud and Webster County of her..

THE HAWTHORN TREE

ACROSS the shimmering meadows--
Ah, when he came to me!
In the spring-time,
In the night-time,
In the starlight,
Beneath the hawthorn tree.

Up from the misty marsh-land--
Ah, when he climbed to me!
To my white bower,
To my sweet rest,
To my warm breast,
Beneath the hawthorn tree.

Ask of me what the birds sang,
High in the hawthorn tree;
What the breeze tells,
What the rose smells,
What the stars shine--
Not what he said to me!