On Monday, September 30th the Gordon City Library will host Andy Jewell, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the editor of the Willa Cather Archive, and co-editor of the new Selected Letters of Willa Cather. Mr. Jewell will discuss the story behind the writing and publishing of Willa Cather’s “O’Pioneers”. This novel is the 2013 One Book One Nebraska selection and is celebrating its 100ths anniversary this year.
Cather’s novel of life on the Nebraska frontier established her reputation as a writer of great note and marked a significant turning point in her artistic development. “O’Pioneers” is the sentimental and somewhat controversial story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish pioneers that settles for life on the American prairie. A novel surprisingly ahead of its time, this protofeminist work touches a wide range of enduring themes, including love, marriage, temptation, and isolation. No other work of fiction so faithfully conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythical sweep of the transformation of the American frontier – and the transformation of the people who settled it.
Willa Cather (1873-1947) was born in Virginia; her family moved to Nebraska in 1883 and eventually settled in Red Cloud. In 1923 Cather received the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “One of Ours”.
On Monday, October 7th the Gordon City Library will host the One Book One Nebraska discussion. Call the library at 282-1198 to reserve a copy of “O’Pioneers”. Books will be available September 24th.
Both events will start at 7:00 PM at the Gordon City Library, 101 West 5th St.
One Book One Nebraska is sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Humanities Nebraska, Nebraska Library Association, Nebraska Library Commission, The Willa Cather Foundation, and The University of Nebraska Press.
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