Synopses & Reviews
100th Anniversary Edition Miss Cather, indeed, here steps definitely into the small class of American novelists who are seriously to be reckoned with.”H. L. Mencken
To reread Cather is to rediscover an arresting chapter in the national past.”Los Angeles Times
Feisty Thea Kronborg, with her rapturous singing voice, is headed for great things. But her upbringing in a raw, provincial Colorado town has practically stifled her artistic ambitions. Only a few people in Moonstone recognize Theas world-class talent. One of them is Ray Kennedy, who, entranced by Theas voice, hopes to marry her, but is destined to unchain her. Sustained by determination and a pioneers spirit, and inspired by the Native American culture that surrounded her in youth, Thea makes her way in the world. But with loneliness as her constant companion, she comes to realize what sacrifices a true artist must make.
With an Introduction by Melissa Homestead
Synopsis
A direct, human tale of love and struggle and attainment--American in the best sense of the word.--The New York Times On the windy Nebraska prairie, Alexandra Bergson tends to the failing farm that she inherited from her father. She struggles to raise her brothers on her own. And she is torn by the emergence of an unexpected passion...
A magnificent story, O Pioneers --Willa Cather's second novel--has become one of the great classics of American literature, telling a timeless tale of a strong pioneer woman facing extraordinary challenges and conflicts, shining a light on the immigrant experience, and, with its simple, beautiful prose, revealing the emerging voice of one of our greatest authors.
With an Introduction by Marcelle Clements
and an Afterword by Lan Samantha Chang
About the Author
Born in Virginia,
Willa Cather (18731948) moved with her family to Nebraska before she was ten. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1895, then taught high school and worked for the Pittsburgh Leader before being appointed associate editor of
McClures Magazine. Cather published her first novel,
Alexanders Bridge, in 1912. In
O Pioneers! (1913), she turned to her greatest subject, immigrant life on the Nebraska prairies, and established herself as a major American novelist.
O Pioneers! was followed by other novels, including
My Ántonia (1918),
The Professors House (1922), and
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).
Melissa Homestead is the Susan J. Rosowski Professor of English at the University of NebraskaLincoln. She is the author of American Women Authors and Literary Property, 18221869, and with Guy Reynolds is coeditor of Willa Cather and Modern Cultures.