![]() ![]() 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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