Double Birthday, Willa Cather (1929)

July 10, 2026 · 1h 3m

About this episode

This episode features a reading of Willa Cather's short story 'Double Birthday' and discusses her literary achievements and themes.

I am currently walking 162 miles of the Camino de Santiago with my family. While on this pilgrimage, I am republishing some of my favorites from the archives. Willa Cather’s “Double Birthday” was the very first reading I published on Substack. If you missed these stories the first time around, now is a great time to listen or explore the archives on your own (searchable by date recorded , by author , and by theme ). By the time the short story “Double Birthday” appeared in the pages of The Forum in February of 1929, Willa Cather was already well-known and widely published. One of Ours had earned the author a Pulitzer in 1923, and her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop was released in serial form in The Forum in 1927. In many respects, Cather was approaching the zenith of her career that year, having been awarded an honorary degree from Yale University and elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1931, she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine . Accomplishment can give one a certain level of freedom to move about. It was at this time that Cather departed from the prairie themes found in earlier works ( My Ántonia and O Pioneer) , preferring to explore the…

People in this episode

Host: Ruby Love

Topics covered

Willa Cather
short stories
literary analysis
Camino de Santiago
nostalgia
memory
spirituality

Keywords

Willa Cather
Double Birthday
short story
literature
Camino de Santiago
nostalgia
memory
spirituality

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Forum, Yale University, Time Magazine

Books & works: Double Birthday, One of Ours, Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Ántonia, O Pioneers!