O Pioneers!

by Willa Cather, Marcelle Clements (Introduction), Lan Samantha Chang (Afterword)

Overview

"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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451532121
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Series:	The Great Plains Trilogy
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Willa Cather (1873–1948) was born in Winchester, Virginia. Her family moved to Nebraska before she was ten. During her teens she learned both Latin and Greek; she graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1895. She then taught high school, worked for the Pittsburgh Leader, and spent a good deal of time traveling.The Troll Garden (1905) was her first volume of short stories, and it was followed by her appointment as associate editor of McClure’s Magazine. She continued in this position for six years, but resigned in 1912 because she felt that the work for the magazine was interfering with her writing. Alexander’s Bridge, a short novel set in Boston, was published in the same year. 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 more novels, including My Ántonia (1918), The Professor’s House (1922), and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). Cather lived in New York for many years, and she was a familiar figure in intellectual and literary circles. The Old Beauty and Others, a collection of short stories, was published posthumously.

Marcelle Clements is a novelist and journalist who has contributed articles on culture, the arts, and politics to many national publications. She is the author of two books of nonfiction, The Dog Is Us and The Improvised Woman, and the novels Rock Me and Midsummer.

Lan Samantha Chang is the author of the award-winning books Hunger and Inheritence. A 2008 Guggenheim fellow, she lives with her husband and daughter in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is the director of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her most recent novel is All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost. 

Date of Birth:

December 7, 1873

Date of Death:

April 27, 1947

Place of Birth:

Winchester, Virginia

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

B.A., University of Nebraska, 1895

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "O Pioneers!"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Willa Cather.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Part I The Wild Land 13

Part II Neighboring Fields 71

Part III Winter Memories 159

Part IV The White Mulberry Tree 179

Part V Alexandra 231

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[Kate Reading] delivers the vivid narrative with dulcet tones and magnificent phrasing.... Listeners will enjoy the beauty of her delivery." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

"To reread Cather is to rediscover an arresting chapter in the national past."—Los Angeles Times

"The time will come when she'll be ranked above Hemingway."—Leon Edel

From the Publisher

[Kate Reading] delivers the vivid narrative with dulcet tones and magnificent phrasing.... Listeners will enjoy the beauty of her delivery.

AudioFile

Just as O Pioneers! is set in the high plain between two rivers called the Nebraska Divide, it reflects the imaginative divide in Cather’s work: a belief in social rootedness and a longing for artistic freedom.”

author of A Jury of Her Peers Elaine Showalter

A century after her heyday, the novelist from the Nebraska frontier remains unchallenged as the literary voice of the state. In her classic O Pioneers!, she celebrates the grit and determination of a family of Swedish-American immigrants who battle the elements and isolation to keep their family farm afloat. To modern eyes, Willa Cather’s tacit acceptance of the settler movement that displaced countless Native American tribes is troubling, but the tale serves as a potent reminder that the white families of the Heartland, so often cast as ‘real Americans,’ were once immigrants themselves.”

Huffington Post

A direct human tale of love and struggle and attainment, a tale that is American in the best sense of the word.”

New York Times

Yarman’s reading is one of the best I have heard…Her tempo and modulation are especially noteworthy, adding tremendous emotional impact to the interactions and experiences of the characters.”

Kliatt (audio review)

"The first of the Cather Scholarly Editions sets a high standard of quality. . . . Text and context reveal the splendor of O Pioneers! and enrich both the experience and study of Cather’s extraordinary prose."—Western American Literature

Western American Literature

"This beautifully produced book is a joy to read and demonstrates the real pleasures to be derived from meticulous attention to detail and the highest standards of scholarship."—American Literary Scholarship

American Literary Scholarship

This early novel is now held to be a very critical and pivotal one in the whole development of the novelist, and this new edition provides . . . a fine printing for readers.”—Choice

Choice