O Pioneers!

Willa Cather — born in Back Creek, Virginia, in 1873 — was nine when she and her family moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska. She grew up on the plains — and the plains grew into her as she did. This 1913 novel — the story of an immigrant family’s struggle to save their Nebraska farm — grew out of her and of course, through her: there’s a reason that this — Cather’s second novel — is the famous book it has become. Cather attended the University of Nebraska and worked six years on the editorial staff at McClure’s Magazine in New York City; she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.