Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed. "Ralph, Ralph, get awake! Come down and help me wash the car." "What for?" "Why, aren't we going to the circus today?" "Car's all right. Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut out the light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows. Claude rose and dressed, - a simple operation which took very little time. He crept down two flights of stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb. He went through the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with running water. Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.
Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed. "Ralph, Ralph, get awake! Come down and help me wash the car." "What for?" "Why, aren't we going to the circus today?" "Car's all right. Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut out the light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows. Claude rose and dressed, - a simple operation which took very little time. He crept down two flights of stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb. He went through the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with running water. Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.
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Find One of Ours Willa Cather in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find One of Ours Willa Cather in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
4 books in catalog
Depictions of pioneer hardship and immigrant resilience on the Great Plains defined a distinctive body of American fiction, famously led by My Ántonia. Willa Cather brought the landscapes and diverse communities of the American frontier to life through clear, evocative prose that captured both the beauty and severity of prairie existence.
Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, in 1873, Cather moved with her family at age nine to rural Webster County, Nebraska, later settling in the town of Red Cloud. Her childhood among European immigrant homesteaders deeply shaped her perspective. She attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating in 1895 after building early experience in journalism. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1896, she worked for publications such as Home Monthly and the Pittsburgh Leader, and taught high school English before publishing her first poetry collection, April Twilights, in 1903. In 1906, she relocated to New York City to join McClure's Magazine, becoming its managing editor by 1908. Following the 1912 publication of her debut novel, Alexander's Bridge, she resigned from editorial work to devote herself entirely to fiction, going on to earn the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.
Cather's narrative style is characterized by lyrical economy, psychological nuance, and vivid environmental detail. Rather than relying on sensational plot devices, she focused on the quiet inner lives of her characters, exploring themes of cultural displacement, memory, artistic devotion, and human endurance against expansive landscapes. Her fiction gave serious artistic weight to the experiences of frontier women and European immigrants, contrasting traditional agrarian values with the pressures of modern industrialization. This stylistic clarity allowed her to craft emotionally resonant narratives that bridged realistic historical detail with broader philosophical inquiries into identity and home.
4 books in catalog
Depictions of pioneer hardship and immigrant resilience on the Great Plains defined a distinctive body of American fiction, famously led by My Ántonia. Willa Cather brought the landscapes and diverse communities of the American frontier to life through clear, evocative prose that captured both the beauty and severity of prairie existence.
Born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, in 1873, Cather moved with her family at age nine to rural Webster County, Nebraska, later settling in the town of Red Cloud. Her childhood among European immigrant homesteaders deeply shaped her perspective. She attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, graduating in 1895 after building early experience in journalism. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1896, she worked for publications such as Home Monthly and the Pittsburgh Leader, and taught high school English before publishing her first poetry collection, April Twilights, in 1903. In 1906, she relocated to New York City to join McClure's Magazine, becoming its managing editor by 1908. Following the 1912 publication of her debut novel, Alexander's Bridge, she resigned from editorial work to devote herself entirely to fiction, going on to earn the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.
Cather's narrative style is characterized by lyrical economy, psychological nuance, and vivid environmental detail. Rather than relying on sensational plot devices, she focused on the quiet inner lives of her characters, exploring themes of cultural displacement, memory, artistic devotion, and human endurance against expansive landscapes. Her fiction gave serious artistic weight to the experiences of frontier women and European immigrants, contrasting traditional agrarian values with the pressures of modern industrialization. This stylistic clarity allowed her to craft emotionally resonant narratives that bridged realistic historical detail with broader philosophical inquiries into identity and home.
