Born near Winchester, Virginia, Cather at the age of ten, moved with her family to Red Cloud, Nebraska. She graduated from the University of Nebraska before becoming a newspaperwoman and teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She moved to New York City in 1906 to work as an editor on McClure's Magazine. 

Cather's published works include: a collection of verse, April Twilights (1903); her first published prose was a group of stories, The Troll Garden (1905), and novels, Alexander's Bridge (1912), O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), My Ántonia (1918), One of Ours (1922; Pulitzer Prize, 1923) and A Lost Lady (1923). The theme of urbanization and the achievements of the pioneers is evident. While continuing to create strong, determined female characters. In Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), considered by some critics to be Cather's greatest novel, she deals with the missionary experiences of a Roman Catholic bishop among the Native Americans of New Mexico. Cather's last novel, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, was published in 1940. 

Cather died April 24, 1947 in New York and is buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.