One of Ours

by Willa Cather

Overview

Willa Cather’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of World War I

The son of a prosperous farmer, Claude Wheeler’s future is laid out for him as clear and monotonous as the Nebraska sky—a few semesters at the local Christian college followed by marriage and a lifetime spent worrying about the price of wheat. Many young men would be happy to find themselves in Claude’s shoes, but his focus is on the horizon, and on the nagging sense that out there, past the farthest reaches of the Great Plains and beyond the boundaries of convention, his true destiny awaits. When the United States finally enters the war raging in Europe, Claude makes the first, and greatest, decision of his life: He answers the call.
 
Based on the experiences of Willa Cather’s cousin—G. P. Cather received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star for bravery in World War I—and interviews she conducted with wounded veterans, One of Ours is the indelible portrait of a man—and a nation—on the cusp of profound and irreversible change. 

This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480483750
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	04/22/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	459
Sales rank:	23,757
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Willa Cather (1873–1947) was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed American authors of the early twentieth century. Born in Virginia, she moved with her family to the frontier town of Red Cloud, Nebraska, at the age of nine, an experience that profoundly affected her literary career. Her Prairie Trilogy­­­—O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia—is considered one of the finest achievements in American letters, and in 1922 she won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, her novel on World War I.

WILLA CATHER (1873–1947), the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of more than fifteen books, was one of the most distinguished American writers of the early twentieth century.

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

Table of Contents

Preface     vii
One of Ours     3
Acknowledgments     607
Historical Apparatus: Historical Essay     613
Explanatory Notes     677
Textual Apparatus: Textual Essay     801
Emendations     833
Notes on Emendations     843
Table of Rejected Substantives     849
World Division     859

Editorial Reviews

"Life was so short that it meant nothing at all unless it were continually reinforced by something that endured; unless the shadows of individual existence came and went against a background that held together."

"Women ought to be religious; faith was the natural fragrance of their minds. The more incredible the things they believed, the more lovely was the act of belief. To him the story of "Paradise Lost" was as mythical as the "Odyssey"; yet when his mother read it aloud to him, it was not only beautiful but true. A woman who didn't have holy thoughts about mysterious things far away would be prosaic and commonplace, like a man."

"Every morning the sun came up a red ball, quickly drank the dew, and started a quivering excitement in all living things."

"The sun was like a great visiting presence that stimulated and took it's due from all animal energy. When it flung wide it's cloak and stepped down over the edge of the fields at evening, it left behind it a spent and exhausted world."

― Willa Cather, One of Ours

From the Publisher

Although there are WWI battle scenes in Willa Cather’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the most important action is all in the mind of its main character. Claude Wheeler seeks a place in the world that is independent of the expectations of his family and the world of rural Nebraska. Narrator Joel Richards focuses on the interiority of the story without minimizing Claude’s complex and difficult connections with the world outside his head. The people around him come to life despite Claude’s difficulties in understanding his true relationships with them. (He may be on the autism spectrum.) Despite the character’s confusion and indecision, Richards remains interesting and sympathetic in portraying him. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile