O pioneers!
O pioneers! is a novel by Willa Cather (1876–1947), published in 1913 .
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The novel portrays the fate of first generation immigrant families in the late 19th century on the American prairies of Nebraska. The main character is Alexandra Bergson, the family of Swedish immigrants. After her father's death and during a severe drought that ravaged the Midwest, she is the only one of her siblings who does not succumb to the temptation to give up her property and move to the city. It even borrows and purchases land that will increase in value after the drought ends. After a few hard years, it has turned the unruly prairie into a prosperous land. However, she first has to sacrifice her private love for Carl Lindstrom to love her home earth. She becomes more and more lonely and in the end only has her Czech friend Marie Shabata and her younger brother Emil to whom she feels close. The married Marie and Emil fall in love. When Marie's husband shoots the two of them, she is all alone. Finally Alexandra and Carl find each other in old age when the childhood friend returns and the two get married.
Appreciation
O pioneers! is the first novel by Willa Cather to deal with the problem of settler life in America. The title was taken from a poem by Walt Whitman ( Pioneers! O pioneers! ) Cather tells of the strength and endurance of those first settlers who made it possible to take possession of the vast country. The figure of Alexandra with her love for this earth stands in contrast to Marie, whose passionate private feelings plunge her into misery, while Alexandra's self-sacrificing and renunciation love for her country finally bears fruit. The author's catholic and patriotic view made the book a classic of national literature in America.
expenditure
While the novel had great success in America and has been reprinted again and again in recent times, its impact in the German-speaking area has remained small after the translations in the post-war period.
English editions
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1933
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Autograph edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Large print. Thorndike: Thorndike Press, 1945
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Large print. Thorndike: Thorndike Press, 1986
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! New York: Penguin Books, 1989
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! New York: New American Library, 1989
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Pleasantville: Readers Digest Association, 1990
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! With historical introduction. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! and other tales of the prairie. New York: Doubleday, 1999
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! Stamford: Westvaco, 2000
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003
- Willa Cather: O Pioneers! New York: Signet Classic, 2004
- Overview of the numerous English-language editions of the present [1]
German editions
- Willa Cather: New Earth . Translation by Augusta von Bronner. Vienna: Amandus Edition, 1946
- Willa Cather: New Earth . Translation by Augusta von Bronner. Vienna: Amandus Edition, 1947 2nd edition
- Willa Cather: Two women . Translation by Wolf and Ursula Hermann. Bremen: J. Storm, 1948
- Willa Cather: Under the hills, the time to come . Translation by Wolf and Ursula Hermann, edited by Angelika Hartmann. Munich: Knaus, 1991, ISBN 3-8135-3987-3 (2nd edition 1992)
- Willa Cather: Under the hills, the time to come . Translation by Wolf and Ursula Hermann, edited by Angelika Hartmann. Munich: Goldmann, 1993, ISBN 3-442-42179-9 (paperback edition)
Spanish edition
- Willa Cather: Pioneiros . Translation by Jorge Cardoso Ayres. Revista Branca, 1953
filming
- O pioneers! USA, 1992 (Director: Glenn Jordan, Actors: Jessica Lange, David Strathaim, Tom Aldredge)
Dubbing
- Kim Daryl Sherman: O pioneers! Vocal score , 1995
literature
- PD Charles: Love and Death in Willa Cather's "O Pioneers". In: CLA, 9, 1965
- JR Reaver: Mythic Motivation in Willa Cather's "O Pioneers". In: Western Folklore, 37, 1968
- L. Schneider: "O Pioneers!" in the Light of Willa Cather's Land-Philosophy . In: Colby Library Quarterly, 8, 1968
- D. Stouck: "O Pioneers!": Willa Cather and the Epic Imagination . In: Prairie Schooner, 46, 1972
- M. Fox: Symbolic Representation in Willa Cather's "O Pioneers!" In. Western American Literature, 9, 1974
- S. O'Brien: The Unity of Willa Cather's Two-Part Pastoral: Passion in "O Pioneers!" In: Studies in American Fiction, 6, 1978
- J. Milton: From Artifact to Intuition in Great Plains Writing . In: Prairie Schooner, 55, 1981
- SJ Rosowski: Willa Cather. A Pioneer in Art. "O Pioneers!" and "My Antonia". In: Prairie Schooner, 55, 1981
- A. Moseley: Mythic Reality. Structure and Theme in Cather's "O Pioneers!" In: Under the Sun. Myth and Realism in Western American Literature, 1985
- W. Motley: The Unfinished Self. Willa Cather's "O Pioneers!" and the Psychic Cost of a Woman's Success . In: Women's Studies, 12, 1986
- Gerhild Bjornson: Cather, W., O Pioneers! In: Kindler's new literary lexicon. Munich: Kindler, 1988