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February
2003 features
books and links about
Pioneers |
Classic Pioneer Fiction Writers Willa
Cather
- O Pioneers!
Willa Cather's first great novel, is the classic American story of pioneer life as embodied by one remarkable woman and her singular devotion to the land. Alexandra Bergson arrives on the wind-blasted prairie of Nebraska as a young girl and grows up to turn it into a prosperous farm. In this unforgettable
story, Cather conveys both the physical realities of the landscape, as well as the mythic sweep of the transformation of the frontier, more faithfully and perhaps more fully than any other work of fiction.
- My Antonia
Infused with a gracious passion for the land, My Antonia embraces its uncommon subject - the hardscrabble life of the pioneer woman on the prairie - with poetic certitude, rendering a deeply moving portrait of an entire community. Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia Shimerda.
A.B. Guthrie
- The Big Sky
Originally published more than fifty years ago, The
Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie, Jr.'s, epic adventure novels of America's vast frontier.
The book introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers, three of the most memorable characters in Western American literature. Traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love. With
The Big Sky, Guthrie gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spacious land and a unique way of life.
- The Way West
An enormously entertaining classic, The Way West brings to life the adventure of the western passage and the pioneer spirit. The sequel to
The Big Sky, this celebrated novel charts a frontiersman's return to the untamed West in 1846. Dick Summers, as pilot of a wagon train, guides a group of settlers on the difficult journey from Missouri to Oregon. In sensitive but unsentimental prose, Guthrie illuminates the harsh trials and resounding triumphs of pioneer life. With
this book, he pays homage to the grandeur of the western wilderness, its stark and beautiful scenery, and its extraordinary people.
Johan Bojer
- The
Emigrants
The story of a group of Norwegians who leave
Trondheim in the 1880s to homestead in the Red River Valley of
North Dakota. Among the emigrants whose fortunes we follow
are Else, daughter of the richest man of the parish, who must run
away of she is to marry Ola Vatne, a hired hand; a young radical,
Per Foll; Anton Noreng, called "Mother's darling", the
spoiled son of the town clerk; Kal and Karen Skaret and their
brood, the most impoverished of all the tenant farmers, the
chronic malcontent, Jo Berg; Anne Ramsoy, daughter of a well-to-do
farmer; and Morten Kvidal, who dreams of clearing the name of his
father, who hanged himself after being unjustly accused of
forgery. A superb storyteller, Bojer convincingly recounts
the adversities, losses and triumphs which mark their adjustment
to pioneer life.
Wilhelm Moberg
- The Emigrants
Introduces Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson, their
three young children, and eleven others who make up a resolute
party of Swedes fleeing the poverty, persecution, and social oppression
of Smaland. The Nilssons leave a farm too small and rocky to
support them. Kristina's uncle Danjel Andreasson seeks
religious freeedom. Ulrika of Vastergohl, once the town
whore, is determined to live with her daughter where no one knows
her past. Karl Oskar's brother, Robert, travels with his
friend Arvid Pettersson to escape their lot as farmhands.
Jonas Petter Alberktsson decides to desert his shrewish
wife. For ten long weeks they suffer the cramped, filthy
quarters of the sailing vessel that finally brings them to New
York City.
- Unto a Good Land
The story opens in 1850 as the sailing ship
Charlotta unloads its human cargo, including Karl Oskar and
Kristina, their children, and a party of other Swedes emigrants
from Smaland, in New York City. Thier journey to a new home
in the Minnesota Territory takes them by river boat, steam wagon,
Great lakes steamship, and ox cart to Chisago County. Thier
Karl Oskar and Kristina claim 160 acres and begin farming.
It is a year of struggle, but the kindness of their newfound
friends, both American and Swedish, helps temper the difficulties
wrought by little cash, scant knowledge of English, and
late-summer planting.
- The Settlers
Focuses on Karl Oskar and Kristina as they
struggle to prosper on their new farm during the 1850s.
Kristina, coping with a feeling of loss for Sweden, and the
difficulty of adapting to a new land, draws strength from a
newfound spirituality. Karl Oskar bring more land under
cultivation and harvests rye, wheat, and corn. Together they
survive blizzards, grasshopper plagues, wildcat speculation in
currency, and self-righteous neighbors. With friends they
rejoice in the arrive of more Swedes, building a church, moving
into their new house, even planting a small flower garden.
Karl Oskar's bother, Robert, falls victim to gold fever and with
his friend Arvid faces an arduous journey on the California Trail.
- The Last Letter Home
Portrays the family of Karl Oskar and Kristina
prospering in the midst of Minnesota's growing Swedish community
of the 1860s-90s. Years of toil have brought them a
comfortable house and a thriving farm. Now they face a new
and terrible challenge as Minnesota struggles through two bloody
conflicts, the Civil War and the Dakota War. The family
remains steadfastly together through wartime turmoil and fears for
the safety of loved ones. Kristina finally tastes the very
first apple ripened on the tree grown from seed sent from her old
home in Sweden. Like her family, the tree has taken root and
thrived in the new land.
O.E. Rolvaag
- Giants
in the Earth
The classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family's
struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory
as they try to make a new life in America.
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