Why is Willa Cather an American Master and why now?
Geyer: I think the reason that it’s important to us now is the pace of change is so fast in our society that we are all on the frontier of ourselves. We are all immigrants and migrants to new areas and new territories and the only way to approach that is to grow and change and adapt. And Cather has many great lessons for that. And I think that her story of the pioneer, the kind of courage and vision it takes to stand on a new frontier, the frontier of ourselves, if you want to think of it that way and adapt and change and grow, there’s never a better time than now to tell that story. A: Lesiak: Willa Cather’s still a strong, strong woman. We’re living in a society with strong women. But she stands out even today because she did exactly what she wanted to do with her life. She made up her mind as a child she was going to be someone important. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do to make her name. She was going to be a doctor and then later on a writer, but she knew that she
