Cather took an active interest in the design of her books. For My Ántonia, she commissioned line drawings from the Bohemian-born artist Wladyslaw Theodor Benda. Cather requested that the illustrations be simple pen and ink drawings that resembled old woodcuts. The pictures in the first edition of My Ántonia are not just simple decorations however, but an essential part of Cather's text. Cather hints that W. T. Benda's series of drawings is her most important addition to the "substance" of the book. Ironically, the Benda illustrations, which Cather independently commissioned, received strong opposition from her publishers at Houghton Mifflin.

Wladyslaw Theodor Benda, was born in Pozan, Poland on Jan. 15, 1873 and died on...