O Pioneers!

"This early novel is now held to be a very critical and pivotal one in the whole development of the novelist, and this new edition provides ...a fine printing for readers."--Choice. "A definitive edition of Cather's second novel ...[that] sets a high standard of quality...David Stouck's comprehensive and cogent historical essay ...captures not only the life of Cather's text but also provides insight into Cather's imagination and artistic process."--Western American Literature. O Pioneers! Was Willa Cather's first important novel. Published in 1913, it introduced the Bohemian and Swedish immigrants of the Nebraska Prairies to readers of serious literature. Alexandra Bergson assumes responsibility for running the family farm after her father's death. She possesses the strength of the pioneers that the author knew in her midwestern youth. Writing O Pioneers! Was for Cather "like taking a ride through a familiar country on a horse that knew the way." This Bison Books edition follows the definitive text of O Pioneers! That appeared in the clothbound Willa Cather Scholarly Edition published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1992. Susan Rosowski and Charles Mignon are professors of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kathleen Danker is an assistant professor of English at South Dakota State University. David Stouck is a professor of English at Simon Fraser University.