Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or “Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in the Virginia to William Lee Boak and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and was a schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872. Her husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War while her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa, Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud, NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928 Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932), which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.

Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and One of Ours (1922), partly because she was dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an important personal friendship.

Frost, Robert (1874-1963). American poet and educator. Cather recognized and praised Frost's first two volumes of poetry, A Boy's Will (1913; 1915 in the U.S.) and North of Boston (1914 in both England and the U.S.) as early as 1915. She wrote him a letter of admiration that year in which she recognized the combination of newness with traditional elements that is still regarded as characteristic of Frost's work. After having met Frost and his wife, she attended a dinner in honor of his birthday in 1925. Like Cather, Frost is often seen as a transitional figure between late-Victorian and modernist styles. He used traditional forms and meter and his primary subject matter was rural New England, but he wrote with a directness and use of vernacular that identifies him with the "New American Poetry." Frost taught at Amherst College (Amherst, MA) from 1916 to 1938 and was awarded four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry.

Frost, Elinor Miriam White (1872-1938). Wife of Robert Frost. Born in Lawrence, MA, Elinor White and Robert Frost met in high school. Pledging their devotion to one another soon after graduation, they were married in 1895 after White completed a degree at St. Lawrence University. The couple had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood. A reserved woman, Elinor White Frost did not welcome the fame that came to her husband, but she had considerable impact on his poetry, as Frost incorporated her words and perspectives into his verse.