O Pioneers!

The novel that first made Willa Cather famous--a powerfully mythic tale of the American frontier told through the life of one extraordinary woman--in a handsome hardcover volume. No other work of fiction so vividly evokes the harsh beauty and epic sweep of the Nebraska prairies that Cather knew and loved. The heroine of "O Pioneers!, "Alexandra Bergson, is a young Swedish immigrant at the turn of the twentieth century who inherits her father's windblasted land and, through years of hard work, turns it into a prosperous farm. Fiercely independent, Alexandra sacrifices love and companionship in her passionate devotion to the land, until tragedy strikes and brings with it the chance for a new life. One of our most beloved classics, one of the great heroines of American literature.

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
Lan Samantha Chang's fiction has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Story, and The Best American Short Stories. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Iowa, she divides her time between Northern California and Princeton, New Jersey.