O Pioneers!: A Norton Critical Edition / Edition 1

by Willa Cather, Sharon O'Brien

Overview

Willa Cather's masterful 1913 novel marks her return to the Nebraska of her youth, and to the stories of the immigrant settlers she had known during her childhood and teenage years in Red Cloud.

This Norton Critical Edition brings to life—through Cather's words, and through the words and images of others—the uniquely American frontier experience. In inscribing a copy of O Pioneers! for a childhood friend, Cather wrote, "In this one I hit the home pasture…" "Contexts and Backgrounds" includes a rich selection of autobiographical and biographical remembrances (including three interviews with Cather), literary contexts (by Cather and her contemporaries, Henry James and Sarah Orne Jewett), and writings on the American West (including selected letters that paint a picture of one family's life on the Nebraska prairie). "Criticism" provides seven contemporary reviews and eight modern critical interpretations by David Stouck, John J. Murphy, C. Susan Wiesenthal, Marilee Lindemann, Melissa Ryan, Guy Reynolds, and Sharon O'Brien.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393924664
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/20/2007
Series:	Norton Critical Editions Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	879,428
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Sharon O'Brien is an acclaimed author of both trade and scholarly books and a well-known Cather scholar. She is James Hope Caldwell Professor of American Cultures at Dickinson College. She is the author of Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice; Willa Cather; and The Family Silver: A Memoir of Depression and Inheritance. She is the editor of The Library of America Willa Cather (Volumes I-III) and New Essays on My Ántonia.

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

"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

"A direct, human tale of love and struggle and attainment—American in the best sense of the word."—New York Times The New York Times

From the Publisher