Bécat, Paul-Émile (1885-1960). French painter and engraver. Paul-Émile Bécat studied under Gabriel Ferrier and François Flameng and exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1913. In the early 1920s he was known for his portraits of literary figures, including Sylvia Beach, Paul Valery, Sherwood Anderson, and James Joyce. On returning from travels in Africa in 1933, he specialized in drypoint engravings of erotic subjects.

Bakst, Léon (1866-1924). Russian painter and theatrical designer. Born in Russia, Lejb-Khaim Rosenberg decided to become an artist when he was twelve. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1889 he took the surname Bakst. In 1893 Bakst went to Paris to study for four years, becoming a part of Sergei Diaghilev’s avant-garde artistic group. He became known as a portraitist in the early twentieth century, then in 1909 turned to stage and costume design for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, the work for which he is now best known. In 1922 he visited the U.S., where his friend and patron Alice Warder Garrett had organized exhibitions of his work. Willa Cather met Bakst in Paris in 1923. When a women’s federation in Omaha was raising funds to have a portrait painted of her, Bakst suggested he do the portrait. Cather enjoyed talking with Bakst during the sittings, but, like other viewers, she had mixed reactions to the finished portrait.

Hitchcock, Gilbert Monell (1859-1934). Nebraska senator and newspaper publisher. Born in Omaha, NE, elder son of Senator Phineas W. Hitchcock and Annie Monell Hitchcock, Gilbert Hitchcock graduated from the University of Michigan law department in 1881, and began law practice in Omaha. In 1885 he founded the Omaha Evening World, combining it with the Nebraska Morning Herald in 1889. He married Jessie Crounse in 1883; they had two daughters. Hitchcock was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1902 and 1906; he was elected to the Senate in 1910, serving until 1923. It is unclear how Cather knew the Hitchcocks, but she met with them in Paris in 1923.

Newbranch, Harvey E. (1875-1959). Newspaper editor; Cather’s university classmate. Harvey Newbranch was born in Iowa; his family moved to Nebraska and in 1892 he entered the University of Nebraska, following Cather as editor of the Hesperian student newspaper and graduating in 1896. That same year he married classmate Evalena Rolofson; they had four daughters. In 1898 Newbranch began working for the Omaha, NE, World-Herald as its Lincoln correspondent. Subsequently he worked in Omaha as reporter, editorial writer, and finally editor beginning in 1910. In 1920 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorial condemning the mob that lynched an African American man. Cather kept in occasional touch with the Newbranches, and in 1929 her letter to Newbranch as editor about the demise of small town opera houses was published in the World-Herald’s diamond jubilee edition.

Newbranch, Evalena Pearl Rolofson (1875-1962) (“Eva”). Civic activist; Cather's college friend. Born in Missouri, daughter of Wilber and Katharine Dubravsky Rolofson, Evalena Rolofson grew up in Wilbur, NE, and Lincoln, NE. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1896, the same year she married Harvey Newbranch. They had four daughters, Katharine, Isabel, Evelyn, and Eleanor. She worked for the State Red Cross during World War I, was director of the Family Welfare Association for ten years, was on the Omaha Public Library board, and was a member of the Nebraska State Democratic committee. Both Cather and Rolofson were active in the Union Literary Society while in college, and both appeared in Louise Pound’s satirical play, Shakespeare Up to Date.