Best Selling Books by Willa Cather

Hailed by reviewers and readers for its originality, vitality, and truth, this novel secured Willa Cather a place in the first rank of American writers. Cather called My Ántonia “the best thing I’ve done.” For Oliver Wendell Holmes, My Ántonia had “unfailing charm, perhaps not to be defined; a beautiful tenderness, a vivifying imagination that transforms but does not distort or exaggerate.” H. L. Mencken declared it “one of the best [novels] any American has ever done.” Cather drew deeply on her childhood days in frontier Nebraska for this, her fourth novel, published in 1918. Old immigrant neighbors inspired many of the characters, particularly the heroine. Ántonia Shimerda is memorable as the warmhearted daughter of Bohemians who must adapt to a hard life on the desolate prairie. She survives and matures, a pioneer woman made radiant by spirit. W. T. Benda’s illustrations further illuminate the fiction of a writer who drew so extensively on actual experience.

''As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains...And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running.'' My Antonia (1918) 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. Described on publication as ''one of the best [novels] that any American has ever done'', My Antonia paradoxically took Cather out of the rank of provincial novelists as the same time that it celebrated the provinces, and mythologized a period of American history that had to be lost before its value could be understood.

Hailed by reviewers and readers for its originality, vitality, and truth, My Ántonia secured Willa Cather’s place in the first rank of American writers. Cather drew deeply on her childhood days in frontier Nebraska for her fourth novel, published in 1918. Ántonia Shimerda is memorable as the warm-hearted daughter of Bohemians who must adapt to a hard life on the desolate prairie. She survives and matures, a pioneer woman made radiant by spirit. This Willa Cather Scholarly Edition of My Ántonia is edited according to standards set by the Committee for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association and it presents the full range of biographical, historical, and textual information on the novel. The selection of W. T. Benda’s illustrations and the historical photography and maps also illuminate the fiction of a writer who drew so extensively on actual experience.

The Professor''s House by Willa Cather is a tale about dealing with loss and change. Godfrey St. Peter is a successful author and professor at a small Midwestern college, Hamilton, whose impending move to a new house sets off a series of personal and familial tensions.

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 is a novel by an American writer Willa Cather. It is the final book of the "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and Antonia Shimerda, the daughter of Bohemian immigrants. They are both became pioneers and settled in Nebraska in the end of the 19th century. The first year in the very new place leaves strong impressions in both children, affecting them lifelong. The narrator and the main character of the novel My Antonia, Jim grows up in Black Hawk, Nebraska from age 10 Eventually, he becomes a successful lawyer and moves to New York City.

Pioneer Alexandra Bergson struggles to run her family''s Nebraska farm alone while contending with her brother, whose affair with a married woman puts them both at risk. Be it mystery, romance, drama, comedy, politics, or history, great literature stands the test of time. ClassicJoe proudly brings literary classics to today''s digital readers, connecting those who love to read with authors whose work continues to get people talking. Look for other fiction and non-fiction classics from ClassicJoe.

My Ántonia is a novel published in 1918 by American writer Willa Cather, considered one of her best works. The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century, as children. Both the pioneers who first break the prairie sod for farming, as well as of the harsh but fertile land itself, feature in this American novel. The first year in the very new place leaves strong impressions in both children, affecting them lifelong.

A portrait of an enduring friendship, from one of America’s most celebrated novelists. ‘Quite simply a masterpiece’ Daily Telegraph Two priests are despatched from Rome to New Mexico to reinvigorate Catholicism among the locals, knowing little of the challenges that await them. Over almost four decades they encounter a rich variety of people, from rebellious Mexican priests to steadfast Native Americans uninterested in changing their longstanding customs. ‘Its whole effect works slowly and mysteriously ... a major, and rare, artistic achievement’ AS Byatt

A novel about a Nebraska farmboy whose restless spirit leads him to the battlefields of France during World War I.

High quality reprint of A Lost Lady by Willa Cather.

The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, �ntonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. Both the pioneers who first break the prairie sod for farming, as well as of the harsh but fertile land itself, feature in this American novel. The first year in the very new place leaves strong impressions in both children, affecting them lifelong.

The Song of the Lark Willa Cather The Song of the Lark is the third novel by American author Willa Cather, written in 1915. It is generally considered to be the second novel in Cather''s Prairie Trilogy, following O Pioneers! (1913) and preceding My Antonia (1918). The book tells the story of a talented artist born in a small town in Colorado who discovers and develops her singing voice. Her story is told against the backdrop of the burgeoning American West in which she was born in a town along the rail line, of fast-growing Chicago near the turn of the twentieth century, and of the audience for singers of her skills in the US compared to Europe. Thea Kronborg grows up, learning herself, her strengths and her talent, until she reaches success. The title comes from a painting of the same name by Jules Breton in 1884 and part of the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Willa Cather''s Lucy Gayheart gropes a wistful way back to the time of the horse and buggy, when some men and some women loved deeply and truly and make themselves miserable and hugged their misery. Small towns, no less than Vienna and the Paris Left Bank and a Greenwich Village as dirty and noisy then as it is now, had romances of which they had a right to be proud. So it is with Lucy Gayheart, written in 1935, When she wrote the novel, Cather had just turned 60 and was in tune with the zeitgeist that, shortly, would produce the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. In her homey yet subtle way, she tapped into the modern loss of faith. And she created an existential novel. A romance, a feminist story It doesn''t seem that way at the beginning. Indeed, Lucy Gayheart appears to be nothing more than a confection of a romance. Lucy is the bright, lively, musical girl, a stand-out among her young adult peers in the small Nebraska town of Haverford where Harry Gordon, the banker''s son, is the most eligible bachelor. They seem made for each other as they skate together on the Platte River in the novel''s opening scene. They have always seemed made for each other. But Lucy wants a career and has been working in Chicago. She becomes the piano accompanist to a much older classical singer, Clement Sebastian. The two fall in love in a chaste way, just as Harry sweeps into town and, with ham-handed arrogance, tells Lucy that it''s about time for them to get married, right? Wrong. Then, the book seems to be on its way to becoming a feminist Horatio Alger story in which the plucky heroine will find her way to beauty (and maybe love) in the stratospheric Olympus of the high arts.

My Ántonia is a novel published in 1918 by American writer Willa Cather, considered one of her best works. It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic? includes a glossary and reader?s notes to help the modern reader contend with Cather?s allusions and vocabulary. My Antonia, Willa Cather?s vivid portrayal of immigrant life on the American prairie during the nineteenth century, has been a favorite since it first appeared in 1918. The harsh?yet forgiving?land, the growth and maturity of Jim Burden, the narrator, the intriguing characters, and the force of Antonia?s strength all combine to make this novel exceptional. Cather?s style perfectly depicts the sparseness of the prairie and the desolation of the immigrants? existence in winter and comes alive when the glory and beauty of spring emerge. Whether you see it as a love story, an indelible portrait of a wise, enduring female character, or a coming-of-age novel, My Antonia is deserving of its respected place in American literature.

After the death of his parents, Jim is sent to live with his grandparents on the Nebraska plains. By chance on that same train is a bright-eyed girl, Antonia, who will become his neighbor and lifelong friend. Her family has emigrated from Bohemia to start a new life farming but soon lose their money and must work hard just to survive. Through it all, Antonia retains her natural pride and free spirit. Jim''s grandparents have a large and tidy farm. They are kind to him, but conventional. Later Jim becomes a scholar and Antonia becomes a ''hired girl'' in town. She blossoms in the new freedom that town life offers. Jim can only taste this life vicariously through her recounting of town gossip and of the ''dance tent''. Antonia''s strong will, spirit, and honesty allow her to thrive in the midst of hardship. Cather paints a rich picture of life on the prairie at the beginning of the twentieth century and depicts some of the many cultures that came to comprise the United States.

My Ántonia (first published 1918) is considered the greatest novel by American writer Willa Cather. My Ántonia - pronounced with the accent on the first syllable of "Ántonia" - is the final book of the "prairie trilogy" of novels by Cather, a list that also includes O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Ántonia.

The first of her renowned prairie novels--a story that expresses Cather''s conviction that "the history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." When Alexandra Bergson takes over the family farm after her father''s death, she falls under the spell of the rich, forbidding Nebraska prairie.

My �ntonia is a novel published in 1918 by American writer Willa Cather, considered one of her best works. It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.

O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather, written while she was living in New York. It is the first novel of her Great Plains trilogy, followed by The Song of the Lark (1915) and My Antonia (1918).