Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Burglar’s Christmas | - | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 2 | On the Divide, and Eric Hermannson’s Soul | 1900 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 3 | A Death in the Desert | 1903 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 4 | A Wagner Matinee | 1904 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 5 | The Sculptor’s Funeral | 1905 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 6 | The Enchanted Bluff | 1909 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 7 | The Bohemian Girl | 1912 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 8 | The Diamond Mine | 1916 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 9 | A Gold Slipper | 1917 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 10 | Scandal | 1919 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 11 | Coming, Aphrodite! / Coming, Eden Bower! | 1920 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 12 | Paul’s Case | 1920 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 13 | Neighbour Rosicky | 1932 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 14 | Ardessa | 2004 | Willa Cather | Buy |
| 15 | El Dorado | 2004 | Willa Cather | Buy |
This list covers 15 of Willa Cather’s individually published short stories and novellas, from her early work On the Divide (1900) through later reissues. Several of these stories originally appeared in magazines before being collected in book form. A few, like Ardessa and El Dorado, were not widely available until 2004 reissues. The Burglar’s Christmas has an uncertain original publication date, as it was published anonymously and only later attributed to Cather.
Many of these stories deal with the same themes as Cather’s novels: the tension between artistic ambition and small-town life, the immigrant experience on the Great Plains, and the gap between outward respectability and inner longing. Paul’s Case, A Wagner Matinee, and The Sculptor’s Funeral are among the most frequently taught, while The Bohemian Girl and Coming, Aphrodite! show Cather working at novella length with more complex plots.