12 Comments

One of my favorites. She wrote some excellent short stories too, like 'Paul's Case'.

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I have been on a Cather roll lady. I read O Pioneers and A lost Lady ,I have song of the lark lined up. I love that time period of the frontier and how Cather brings it alive with her imagery of the landscape and stories of migrants in search of a place to call home.Thank you for highlighting Willa Cather

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Oh, I am reading A Lost Lady right now due to a Harold Bloom mention that it and My Antonia are her best works. Didn’t realize there is a disappointing movie version.

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I love Willa Cather--have read many (most?) of her novels. Nebraska can be beautiful, especially when the setting sun shines across the plains under the thunderclouds.

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I’m not well read and am a bit embarrassed that I have not read Cather though I’ve known about her since high school. I can’t help but wonder if Cather knew/knew of Rose Wilder Lane, another writer of the American prairie whose *The Discovery of Freedom* had a big impact on me and my early libertarian leanings.

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Yup. I was assigned My Antonia in 10th grade and I didn't get it at all.

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You should reach out to Kent Pavelka..I believe Antonia was based on his grandmother or great grandmother..

https://hof.ne-ba.org/kent-pavelka/

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I'll do that. I also quite enjoyed Sinclair Lewis' Arrowsmith.

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Is there an annotated print edition of My Antonia that is worth getting? Amazon looks to be cluttered with low quality versions from the public domain text.

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I actually downloaded a cheap Kindle version of all Cather's works. Formatting isn't much but it's convenient and searchable.

I haven't seen it but the Norton Critical Edition looks authoritative (though it may be like cutting butter with a chainsaw): https://amzn.to/3WVYFMr

You're right about this problem with public domain works. Amazon should let you search by publisher, but their search function is terrible in general because they've sacrificed user experience to get ad revenue.

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There are also good audio editions.

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Check our Thrift Books

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