ISBN: 9781596882522
This is the Large Print Book Company's second edition of this title, revised format for improved legibility. First published in 1913, O Pioneers! is one of Willa Cather’s three novels known collectively as The Great Plains Trilogy, including Song of the Lark (1915) and My Ántonia (1918), also available from The Large Print Book Company. These books celebrate the author’s homeland and its development by the perseverance of humble European immigrants. In this beautiful story of the power of resilience, love, and devotion, Alexandra Bergson is the Swedish-American heroine who inherits her father’s farm and becomes a source of sustenance for the people in the burgeoning town of Hanover, Nebraska.
Born of Swedish immigrants who homestead in Hanover, Nebraska, Alexandra inherits their determination to make a life on the fertile land of Nebraska. At odds with her brothers over how the family farm should be run, she nevertheless prevails. Her progress is contrasted with that of other women who choose different paths, especially her friend Marie, who marries a handsome but tempermental French man, but is in love with Alexandra's younger brother, Emil. Cather makes us also fall in love with the land, as Alexandra did.
Willa Sibert Cather (1873–1947) was born in Virginia and moved to Nebraska when she was nine years old. She graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her writing style is characterized by its vivid descriptions of the natural world, its focus on the lives of ordinary people, and its exploration of themes such as identity, memory, and the passage of time. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.