Obscure Destinies

Last updated January 19, 2026

Obscure Destinies
First edition book cover
Author	Willa Cather
Language	English
Genre	Short story collection
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	1932
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print

Obscure Destinies is a collection of three short stories by Willa Cather, published in 1932.^[1] Each story deals with the death of a central character and asks how the ordinary lives of these characters can be valued and how "beauty was found or created in seemingly ordinary circumstances".^[2]

This collection contains the following stories:^[3]

"Neighbour Rosicky"
"Old Mrs. Harris"
"Two Friends"

References

↑ "And Death Comes for Willa Cather, Famous Author". Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph . April 25, 1947.
↑ Stout, Janis P. Willa Cather: The Writer and Her World. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press, 2000. p. 256.
↑ Project Gutenberg, table of contents, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201131h.html

v t e Willa Cather
Novels	Alexander's Bridge O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark My Ántonia One of Ours A Lost Lady The Professor's House My Mortal Enemy Death Comes for the Archbishop Shadows on the Rock Lucy Gayheart Sapphira and the Slave Girl Hard Punishments
Short stories	"Peter" "Lou, the Prophet" "The Elopement of Allen Poole" "A Tale of the White Pyramid" "A Son of the Celestial" "The Clemency of the Court" "The Fear That Walks by Noonday" "On the Divide" "A Night at Greenway Court" "Tommy, the Unsentimental" "The Princess Baladina – Her Adventure" "The Count of Crow's Nest" "The Burglar's Christmas" "The Strategy of the Were-Wolf Dog" "A Resurrection" "The Prodigies" "Nanette: An Aside" "The Way of the World" "The Westbound Train" "Eric Hermannson's Soul" "The Dance at Chevalier's" "The Sentimentality of William Tavener" "The Affair at Grover Station" "A Singer's Romance" "The Conversion of Sum Loo" "Jack-a-Boy" "El Dorado: A Kansas Recessional" "The Professor's Commencement" "The Treasure of Far Island" "A Death in the Desert" "A Wagner Matinee" "The Sculptor's Funeral" "Flavia and Her Artists" "The Garden Lodge" "The Marriage of Phaedra" "Paul's Case" "The Namesake" "The Profile" "The Willing Muse" "Eleanor's House" "On the Gulls' Road" "The Enchanted Bluff" "The Joy of Nelly Deane" "Behind the Singer Tower" "The Bohemian Girl" "Consequences" "The Bookkeeper's Wife" "The Diamond Mine" "A Gold Slipper" "Ardessa" "Scandal" "Her Boss" "Coming, Eden Bower!" "Uncle Valentine" "Double Birthday" "Neighbour Rosicky" "Two Friends" "The Old Beauty" "Before Breakfast" "The Best Years"
Short story collections	The Troll Garden Youth and the Bright Medusa Obscure Destinies The Old Beauty and Others Five Stories
Collection of poems	April Twilights
Collaborations	The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science
Adaptations	A Lost Lady (1934 film) O Pioneers! (1992 film) My Antonia (1995 film) The Song of the Lark (2001 film) O Pioneers! (2009 opera)
Related	Willa Cather Birthplace Willa Cather House Edith Lewis Willa Cather Foundation WILLA Literary Award

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Obscure Destinies

Contents

References