My Antonia

Willa Cather

$13.99

Publication Date: September 7th, 2006

Publisher:

Virago

ISBN:

9781844083749

Pages:

320

Description

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. S. BYATT

'She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers' OBSERVER

' . . . a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants' XAN BROOKS, GUARDIAN

'Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent' ROBERT SLAYTON, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS

'During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago. More than any other person we remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood . . . His mind was full of her that day. He made me see her again, feel her presence, revived all my old affection for her'

My Antonia is the unforgettable story of an immigrant woman's life on the Nebraska plains, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend, Jim Burden. The beautiful, free-spirited, wild-eyed girl captured Jim's imagination long ago and haunts him still, embodying for him the elemental spirit of the American frontier.

In this powerful and astonishing novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction.

About the Author

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Willa Cather's work was profoundly influenced by her upbringing in rural Nebraska. During her young adulthood, Cather proved herself intelligent and capable, initially training for a career as a medical doctor, but discovered a love of and talent for writing while attending the University of Nebraska.

Following graduation, Cather worked as a journalist for several women's magazines before becoming a high school teacher. A work experience as an editor at McClure's provided Cather with her first chance to publish as the magazine serialised her first novel. Cather died in 1947 at the age of seventy-three.

Praise for My Antonia

She is undoubtedly one of the twentieth century's greatest American writers—Observer

In fact it's one of the warmest, most quietly rousing books that I know; a clear-eyed salute to the resilience of the human spirit and the innate hardiness of the immigrants who came across the ocean to start afresh in the golden west—Xan Brooks, Guardian

Willa Cather was a wordsmith of enormous talent—Robert Slayton, Los Angeles Review of Books

Willa Cather makes a world which is burningly alive, sometimes lovely, often tragic

Her voice, laconical and richly sensuous, sings out with a note of unequivocal love for the people she is setting down on the page