Of all of Willa Cather's works, My Ántonia seems to contain the most elements drawn from the author's life — with the possible exception of "Old Mrs. Harris." Cather is thinly disguised as Jim Burden; many of Jim's thoughts and feelings in the novel were Cather's own thoughts and feelings while growing up. In the introduction, Cather's description of Jim could easily be a description of herself. Like Jim, Cather enjoyed visiting with immigrant neighbors; like Jim, she had a love for the classics and for drama; and, like Jim, when he was middle-aged, she revisited "Ántonia" (Anna Sadilek Pavelka, her model for Ántonia) and renewed their friendship. This reunion inspired Cather to begin writing My Ántonia.
Cather's first three novels, after the immature Alexander's Bridge, can be viewed as paralleling Cather's development as an artist and as a person. In O Pioneers! (written on the advice of Sarah Orne Jewett, who suggested to Cather that she write about things that were important to her), the land is of primary importance. In Song of the Lark, written while O Pioneers! was proclaiming Cather's arrival as a significant new writer, the development of Thea's art is important. In My Ántonia, these two worlds — land and art — are united, suggesting that this novel may be one reason why Cather wrote herself so thoroughly into the novel: she is reliving her own life to that point.
Cather's characters are usually composites of people she knew. In My Ántonia, many of them bear striking resemblances to friends and neighbors. The Miner Family, the Cather family's nearest neighbors, became the Harlings; Mrs. Holland, the hotel keeper, became Mrs. Gardener; two musicians, Blind Boone and Blind Tom, became Blind d'Arnault; Herbert Bates, one of Cather's university teachers, became Gaston Cleric.
