![]() 440).Ĭather knew how brutal the flu could be - she caught it herself in September 1919 and had a bad time of it. ![]() In a note to her Aunt Frances Smith Cather in November 1919, Cather said that she couldn’t write too much, as she had so many letters of condolence to write “to friends who have been bereaved by this terrible scourge of Influenza” (Letter No. In the same letter, she added that her friend Ethel Litchfield was exhausted from caring for her sick children, so Cather had her over for a respite, complete with a good meal and a little time to rest by the fire. She wrote to her mother that she needed to spend some time in the hospital, but her doctors suggested waiting until the flu had died down (Letter No. At that time, Cather was in her 40s and living in New York City, having left teaching and magazine editing behind to be a full-time writer.Ĭather’s letters describe some things that sound familiar today. ![]() The so-called Spanish flu ripped across the globe from 1918 to 1920, its spread accelerated by the troop movements and combat conditions of World War I. University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumna Willa Cather was not only a famous writer, she also survived a pandemic. ![]()
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