WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author renowned for her portrayal of the lives of pioneer settlers in the U.S. Heartland, was honored Wednesday with the unveiling of a bronze statue in her likeness in the U.S. Capitol鈥檚 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Statuary Hall.
The statue's creator, Littleton Alston, a professor of sculpture at Creighton University, is the first Black artist to have work represented in the national collection.
Cather, whose works include 鈥淢y 脕ntonia鈥 and 鈥淥 Pioneers,鈥 spent her young years in Red Cloud, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1895. She won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel 鈥淥ne of Ours."
U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, a Republican from Nebraska, noted that Cather was a trailblazer in the literary world who has earned a lasting place among the great American writers.
And U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska said Cather's fiction 鈥渢ruly feels like it grew from the soil of Nebraska.鈥
鈥淔or decades until her death in 1947, Cather was unable to shake her creative spirit away from its home on the open plains of the Heartland,鈥 Fischer said.
Officials also recognized Alston.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e work inspires us, and hopefully this experience can inspire all of us in this room to go home and to do a little bit more than we ever thought we could," Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the crowd that Cather's prose is still celebrated because it gave a voice to pioneers who chose to take a chance for a better life.
鈥淣ebraskans are lucky to call Willa Cather one of their own,鈥 McCarthy said. 鈥淏ut ultimately, her work belongs here because it is American to the core. Her authenticity, emotion, artistry spoke of Americans' fundamental values. Ultimately, it reminds us that this is a land of opportunity."
Each state has two statues at the U.S. Capitol, with many in the Statuary Hall. Nebraska鈥檚 other statue, of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, was unveiled in 2019.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader of the House, said Cather was the first Pulitzer Prize winner and 12th woman recognized in the collection. He said she and Standing Bear captured "the heart and soul of the great state of Nebraska."
鈥淗er stories are the stories of people who risked everything,鈥 Jeffries said. 鈥淪he captured in such a powerful way the story of America and our country's exceptionalism.鈥
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This story has been edited to correct the spelling of U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries' first name.
