The Pittsburgh Stories of Willa Cather

In these six stories, Willa Cather vividly captures the character of early 1900s Pittsburgh, a place she called home during her formative years as a writer. She depicts a city a where culture is beginning to take root, rising from the harsh industrial landscape. Her characters, ranging from a skinny young usher boy to an elderly doctor, seek meaning in music, art, and human connection. Through them, Cather explores the dual nature of art as a higher purpose. Art tugs at the edges of human emotion, inspiring a sense of wonder, but also instilling an insatiable longing for beauty in a disorderly world. Cather deftly captures transient moments of brilliance and pain to convince us of this fundamental truth.

After graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1895, WILLA CATHER obtained a position in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on a family magazine. Later she worked as copy editor and music and drama editor of The Pittsburgh Leader. PETER ORESICK is a scholar of Western Pennsylvania literature, and a poet whose works include Iconoscope, Warhol-O-Rama, and Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Emerson College.