The lovely Ali at heavenali is hosting Willa Cather Reading Week in December.I, for one, am very excited.
I've had My Antonia lurking on my Classics Club list for over two years & this will be a fabulous opportunity for me to finally get stuck into it.
My edition is one of the gorgeous hardback Penguin Drop Caps series with cover art by Jessica Hische. I think it's still in it's original shrink wrap as well!December 7th is Wilella Sibert Cather's birthday.
Like Willa, my family (at least two branches of it anyway) also originated from Wales. Although it sounds like Willa's link to Wales was many more generations past than mine.
My Antonia (1918) is the third part of her Prairie Trilogy (the first two being O Pioneers! (1913) and The Song of the Lark (1915)).
In 1922, Willa won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours.
For now, I'll finish with a few well-know quotes from Willa:
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm."
"The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young."
"Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet."
"Success is never so interesting as struggle."
"She had certain thoughts which were like companions, ideas which were like older and wiser friends."
Thank you. So glad you will be joining me. I still can't decide what to read. My Antonia is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteDo I need to have read the first two books in the trilogy?
DeleteI am in the same situation! I'd better join up. I don't think you have to have read the first two books. Though I probably should, someday....
ReplyDeleteI loved My Antonia and I hope you will too, Brona! I have to give this some consideration. O Pioneers! is on my Classics Club list and I have been meaning to read it for ages. Hmmmm ..........
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Panic! Should I do this? I have My Antonia slated for next year, but it's not like there isn't another Willa Cather to replace it. I'm glad I have some time to plan.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am so jealous of that gorgeous edition. It is time to open the shrink-wrap and read it! :) It's been a while since I read the trilogy, but I don't think you need to read them in order. If I remember correctly, I read My Antonia before the other two and had no problems.
ReplyDeleteI have not read Cather but I have wanted to for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThough my reading schedule is very busy, I will try to join you.
I love Willa Cather and have a couple of her books on my shelf. Will try to join in, too. Thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteI managed not to read Willa Cather all through school and beyond, then finally read My Antonia and loved it, as well as several others by her. I'm looking forward to the week and knocking another one off my list (probably Death Comes for the Archbishop).
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