O Pioneers! recounts the story of young Alexandra Bergson, whose dying father leaves her in charge of the family and the lands they have struggled to farm.
Evoking the harsh grandeur of the prairie, this landmark of American fiction unfurls a saga of love, greed, murder, failed dreams, and hard-won triumph.
Cather paints her descriptions of the vastness of nature, the high, red grasses, the endless wind on the plains, with strokes so vivid as to make us feel in our bones we've just come in from a walk on that very landscape ourselves.
In the fateful interaction of her characters, Willa Cather compares the experiences of Swedish, French, and Bohemian immigrants in the United States, and in her absorbing narrative, she displays the virtuoso storytelling skills that have made her one of the most admired masters of the American novel.
WILLA CATHER (1873-1947) was an American author who achieved recognition for her classic novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark, and My Antonia. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.