O Pioneers! is a novel by Willa Cather about immigrant settlers on the Nebraska prairie. It follows a Swedish-American family, especially Alexandra Bergson, as they work the land and build a life. It is a warm, vivid portrait of pioneer endurance and the bond between people and place.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
O PIONEERS! by Willa Sibert Cather “Those fields, colored by various grain!” MICKIEWICZ Contents PART I. The Wild Land I II III IV V PART II. Neighboring Fields I II III IV V
VI VII VIII IX X XI XII PART III. Winter Memories I II PART IV. The White Mulberry Tree I II III IV V VI VII VIII PART V. Alexandra I II III
TO THE MEMORY OF SARAH ORNE JEWETT IN WHOSE BEAUTIFUL AND DELICATE WORK THERE IS THE PERFECTION THAT ENDURES PRAIRIE SPRING Evening and the flat land, Rich and sombre and always silent; The miles of fresh-plowed soil, Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness; The growing wheat, the growing weeds, The toiling horses, the tired men; The long empty roads, Sullen fires of sunset, fading, The eternal, unresponsive sky. Against all this, Youth, Flaming like the wild roses, Singing like the larks over the plowed fields, Flashing like a star out of the twilight; Youth with its insupportable sweetness, Its fierce necessity, Its sharp desire, Singing and singing, Out of the lips of silence, Out of the earthy dusk.
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