In Cather's junior year of college, she began growing her hair longer and putting the eccentricities of her early university days behind her. In Pittsburgh, she wore more feminine clothing, and, for the first time in her life, she found herself popular. She was invited to join women's clubs and to attend parties and picnics. She was especially impressed by the museums and concert halls and was happy to be writing prodigiously and earning enough money to support herself. She found it difficult, however, to write magazine copy about the joys of decorating a home and raising children.
When the Home Monthly was sold about a year later, Cather resigned and began working on the telegraph desk of the Pittsburgh Leader, writing dramatic and musical criticism; she sent the latter back to the Journal, in Lincoln. The Leader also ran several of her short stories, some under her own name and some under a pseudonym.
Cather's new lifestyle soon began wearing on her. Because many of her columns ran 3,000 to 4,000 words, she was often exhausted. In addition, she was living in cheap boarding houses and eating sparingly and inexpensively so she could send money home to her parents.
While spending a week in New York in 1899, she met Isabelle McClung, the daughter of a wealthy and prominent Pittsburgh judge; this meeting was the beginning of a deep friendship that would last a lifetime. Isabelle admired Cather, who was already a celebrity in town, and the two women shared many of the same interests — theater, music, and art. Not only did Isabelle encourage Cather to write, but, in 1901, she remodeled a third-floor sewing room in the family home as a study for her friend. Cather was delighted and moved into the McClung home.
