HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.My Antonia is Willa Cather’s masterpiece about 19th-century Nebraskan pioneers.My Antonia depicts the pioneering period of European settlement on the tall-grass prairie of the American midwest, with its beautiful yet terrifying landscape, rich ethnic mix of immigrants and native-born Americans, and communities who share life's joys and sorrows.Jim Burden recounts his memories of Antonia Shimerda, whose family settle in Nebraska from Bohemia. Together they share childhoods spent in a new world. Jim leaves the prairie for college and a career in the east, while Antonia devotes herself to her large family and productive farm. Her story is that of the land itself, a moving portrait of endurance and strength.
First published in 1915, Willa Cather’s “The Song of the Lark” is the second novel in Cather’s “Prairie Trilogy”. The novel tells the remarkable story of Thea Kronborg, a talented young pianist, who leaves her small hometown of Moonstone, Colorado, to fulfill her dream of becoming a professional musician. Setting off on her own, her ambition takes her to Chicago at a young age where she works tirelessly on her music. It is there that a teacher hears Thea’s gift for singing and helps her refine her talent. While Thea misses her Colorado home and family, she will not give up on her dream and follows opportunities to New York and eventually Germany, where her beautiful singing is more appreciated. Thea’s relentless drive for success is not without its sacrifices and disappointments, but Thea is strong, resilient, and earns her success on her own terms. As is typical with much of Cather’s work, “The Song of the Lark” is a portrayal of an independent-minded woman far ahead of her time, who will not allow anything or anyone to get in the way of her own personal achievement. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
First published in 1913, “O Pioneers!” is the first novel in Willa Cather’s “Great Plains” trilogy. Followed by “The Song of the Lark” in 1915 and “My Ántonia” in 1918, “O Pioneers!” introduces us to the Bergsons, a family of Swedish-American immigrants who live in the fictional farm town of Hanover, Nebraska at the beginning of the 20th century. The story centers on the life of Alexandra Bergson, who inherits the family farm with her mother and three brothers when her father dies. Many years of crop failures force the Bergson’s neighbors to give up and sell their farms, something that Alexandra’s brothers Oscar and Lou wish to do but which Alexandra and her mother are unwilling to do. Instead Alexandra convinces the family to mortgage their homestead in order to buy up the surrounding acreage. Amidst the backdrop of managing the farm there develops two romantic relationships in the novel, one between Alexandra and her childhood friend Carl Linstrum, who returns after many years away, and another between Alexandra’s youngest brother, Emil, and the unhappily married Marie Shabata. “O Pioneers!” is a classic portrayal of the struggles of immigrants in the great plains of America, a story of success in the face of hardship, and the growth of a young woman along the way. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
First published in 1918, “My Antonia” is the final book of Willa Cather’s “prairie trilogy” of novels, preceded by “O Pioneers!” and “The Song of the Lark.” It is the classic story of the daughter of the immigrant Bohemian Shimerda family that sets out to farm the untamed prairie land of Nebraska in the late 19th century. The father of the family finds the demands of this new life unbearable. He did not want to leave his homeland where he had a home, a trade, and friends, but does so because his wife believes their children will have a better life in America. The burdens of this new life become too much for the father to bear and he commits suicide before the end of the first winter. Told to us from the perspective of the adoring Jim Burden, an orphan who comes to live at his grandparent’s neighboring farm, “My Antonia” is an enduring American classic rich with both the spirit that brought so many immigrants to this land in search of a better life and of the tragic circumstances that affected so many pioneers. Will Cather viewed “My Antonia” as the best book that she had ever written and countless of her fans have concurred with her opinion ever since its original publication. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
Willa Sibert Cather (1873– 1947) was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). Through the 1910s and 1920s, Cather was firmly established as a major American writer. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I.<P> This volume collects 50 of her classic short works, published between 1892 and 1920. Here are:<P> LOU, THE PROPHET<BR> PETER<BR> A TALE OF THE WHITE PYRAMID<BR> A SON OF THE CELESTIAL<BR> THE ELOPEMENT OF ALLEN POOLE<BR> THE CLEMENCY OF THE COURT<BR> “THE FEAR THAT WALKS BY NOONDAY”<BR> ON THE DIVIDE<BR> A NIGHT AT GREENWAY COURT<BR> THE PRINCESS BALADINA – HER ADVENTURE<BR> TOMMY, THE UNSENTIMENTAL<BR> THE COUNT OF CROW'S NEST<BR> WEE WINKIE'S WANDERINGS<BR> THE BURGLAR'S CHRISTMAS<BR> THE STRATEGY OF THE WEREWOLF DOG<BR> A RESURRECTION<BR> THE PRODIGIES<BR> NANETTE: AN ASIDE<BR> THE WAY OF THE WORLD<BR> THE WEST BOUND TRAIN<BR> ERIC HERMANNSON'S SOUL<BR> THE DANCE AT CHEVALIER’S<BR> THE SENTIMENTALITY OF WILLIAM TAVENER<BR> A SINGER'S ROMANCE<BR> THE CONVERSION OF SUM LOO<BR> JACK-A-BOY<BR> EL DORADO: A KANSAS RECESSIONAL<BR> THE PROFESSOR’S COMMENCEMENT<BR> THE TREASURE OF FAR ISLAND<BR> A DEATH IN THE DESERT<BR> A WAGNER MATINEE<BR> THE SCULPTOR'S FUNERAL<BR> PAUL'S CASE<BR> THE NAMESAKE<BR> THE PROFILE<BR> THE WILLING MUSE<BR> ELEANOR'S HOUSE<BR> ON THE GULLS' ROAD<BR> THE ENCHANTED BLUFF<BR> THE JOY OF NELLY DEANE<BR> BEHIND THE SINGER TOWER<BR> THE BOHEMIAN GIRL<BR> CONSEQUENCES<BR> THE BOOKKEEPER'S WIFE<BR> THE DIAMOND MINE<BR> A GOLD SLIPPER<BR> ARDESSA<BR> SCANDAL<BR> HER BOSS<BR> COMING, EDEN BOWER!<P> If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for «Wildside Press Megapack» to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction – and much, much more!
A novelist and short-story writer, Willa Cather is today widely regarded as one of the foremost American authors of the twentieth century. Particularly renowned for the memorable women she created for such works as My Ántonia and O Pioneers!, she pens the portrait of another formidable character in The Song of the Lark. This, her third novel, traces the struggle of the woman as artist in an era when a women's role was far more rigidly defined than it is today.The prototype for the main character as a child and adolescent was Cather herself, while a leading Wagnerian soprano at the Metropolitan Opera (Olive Fremstad) became the model for Thea Kronborg, the singer who defies the limitations placed on women of her time and social station to become an international opera star. A coming-of-age novel, important for the issues of gender and class that it explores, The Song of the Lark is one of Cather's most popular and lyrical works.
Set on the Nebraska prairie where Willa Cather (1873–1947) grew up, this powerful early novel tells the story of the young Alexandra Bergson, whose dying father leaves her in charge of the family and of the lands they have struggled to farm. In Alexandra's long flight to survive and succeed, O Pioneers! relates an important chapter in the history of the American frontier.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. In the fateful interaction of her characters, Willa Cather compares with keen insight 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.
My Ántonia evokes the Nebraska prairie life of Willa Cather's childhood, and commemorates the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. One of Cather's earliest novels, written in 1918, it is the story of Ántonia Shimerda, who arrives on the Nebraska frontier as part of a family of Bohemian emigrants. Her story is told through the eyes of Jim Burden, a neighbor who will befriend Ántonia, teach her English, and follow the remarkable story of her life.Working in the fields of waving grass and tall corn that dot the Great Plains, Ántonia forges the durable spirit that will carry her through the challenges she faces when she moves to the city. But only when she returns to the prairie does she recover her strength and regain a sense of purpose in life. In the quiet, probing depth of Willa Cather's art, Ántonia's story becomes a mobbing elegy to those whose persistence and strength helped build the American frontier.
Compiled in one book, the essential collection of books by Willa Cather:<br><br>Alexander's Bridge and The Barrel Organ<br>A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays<br>My Antonia<br>One of Ours<br>O Pioneers!<br>Song of the Lark<br>The Troll Garden and Selected Stories<br>Youth and the Bright Medusa