Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
In his 1946 novel All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren names his main character "Jack Burden." We wonder if he got the idea from Cather.Then again, Cather took the name "Jim Burden" from a grocer in the town of Red Cloud, Nebraska. (Source: My Ántonia explanatory notes, Oxford World Classics edition)
In true Czech, the name "Ántonia" would actually be pronounced with the stress on the middle, not first syllable. (Source: My Ántonia explanatory notes, Oxford World Classics edition)
When Cather was a young woman, she cut her hair short, dressed like a man, and went by the name "William." (Source)