My Antonia

"No romantic novel ever written in America . . . is one half so beautiful as My Antonia."-H. L. Mencken. Widely recognized as Willa Cather's greatest novel, My Antonia is a soulful and rich portrait of a pioneer woman's simple yet heroic life. The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Antonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, and family tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation, My Antonia is also a hauntingly eloquent celebration of the strength, courage, and spirit of America's early pioneers.

Born in Virginia in 1873 and raised on a Nebraska ranch, Willa Cather is known for her beautifully evocative short stories and novels about the American West. Cather became the managing editor for McClure’s Magazine in 1906 and lived for forty years in New York City with her companion Edith Lewis. In 1922 Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, the story of a Western boy in World War I. In 1933 she was awarded the Prix Femina Americaine “for distinguished literary accomplishments.” She died in 1947.

Photo: AKG London
A native of Ireland, Joseph Murphy (1898 — 1981) was a prolific and widely admired New Thought minister and writer, best known for his motivational classic, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, an international bestseller since it first blazed onto the self-help scene. His pamphlet How to Attract Money first appeared in 1955, and likewise entered many editions. Murphy wrote widely on the auto-suggestive and metaphysical faculties of the human mind and is considered one of the pioneering voices of affirmative-thinking philosophy.

Introduction

vii

John J. Murphy

Suggestions for Further Reading

xxv

A Note on the Text

xxix

MY ANTONIA

Cather's Introduction

3

(4)

The Shimerdas

7

(106)

The Hired Girls

113

(80)

Lena Lingard

193

(28)

The Pioneer Woman's Story

221

(22)

Cuzak's Boys

243

(38)

APPENDICES

A. Anna Pavelka Letter

277

(2)

B. Cather's Revised Introduction to the 1926 Edition

279

(2)

Explanatory Notes

281

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials