In a 1920 essay on Willa Cather, H.L. Mencken apologized for suggesting that Cather was a talented but inconsequential imitator of Edith Wharton. He praised her for abandoning New England as a locale for the "Middle West of the great immigrations." Mencken describes "My Ántonia" as a sudden leap forward by Cather. "Here was a novel planned with the utmost skill, and executed in truly admirable fashion," he wrote. "Here, unless I err gravely, was the best piece of fiction ever done by a woman in America."