![]() ![]() But by 1913, the pioneer was already a part of the country’s mythologized past. Cather’s America centers on the identity of the pioneer, a rough and romantic type more in harmony with nature than modern workers. ![]() On the heels of Whitman’s exaltation of the American spirit, complete with pistols and axes, O Pioneers! crafts an identity for the United States that stands in contrast to the rapid urbanization and industrialization that occurred when it was written. Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Cather took the title of her novel from a poem by Walt Whitman, “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”, published in Leaves of Grass in 1900:įollow well in order, get your weapons ready She wrote it while living in New York City, NY, far from the prairie of Red Cloud, NE, where she grew up. Willa Cather took a leave from her position as managing editor of McClure’s to write her most famous novel, O Pioneers!, in 1913. ![]()
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