"Palmer solidifies throughlines with Cather's work, focusing on how Cather explores gender fluidity; recasts and reimagines the identities of people and places; and blends memory, history, and imagination."
—Kansa History
"In this rigorous consideration of Cather’s early short fiction through the prism of her letters and contemporary newspapers, we gain new perspective on Cather’s artistic emergence from the stuff of Nebraska. In addition, Palmer’s prose is refreshingly lively and engaging, the study further enlivened by a skillful index, illustrations of Red Cloud newspaper layouts, and photos of Cather, her family, friends, and Red Cloud. This book is an important and welcome contribution to Cather scholarship."
—Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
"A masterpiece of meticulous scholarship, exhaustive research, insightful analysis, and featuring a ten page listing of Works Cited, along with a six page Index, Becoming Willa Cather: Creation and Career is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library 20th Century American Literary Biography collections in general, and Willa Cather supplemental studies reading lists in particular."
—Midwest Book Review