Willa Cather’s hard-to-find collection of essays harkens to a gentler time when ladies of letters shared their access to the pinnacle of culture within the rank and file of their rarefied worlds.
The genius of Willa Cather lies within the knitted pastiche of her intricate storytelling. On the surface, Thea Kronborg grows up in the modest home of her Swedish immigrant family. The real story, however, resides with its not-so-hidden premise: every artist who has extraordinary talent eventually comes to an awareness that true talent is far larger than any one person.
O Pioneers!, the first book in Willa Cather’s Great Plains Trilogy, unfolds along the crags and ridges of rough terrain that is harsh to all those who dwell here. Set in the still uncultivated Nebraska Prairie, the story is told through the lens of young Swedish-American woman Alexandra Bergson who has an uncanny head for business and an even stronger knack for spotting fertile land.
