Autobiography willa cather one of ours

1922 novel by Willa Cather

For the Canadian documentary film, see One of Ours (film).

One of Ours is a 1922 novel by Willa Cather that won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.

It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native in the first decades of the 20th century. The son of a successful farmer and an intensely pious mother, he is guaranteed a comfortable livelihood.

Autobiography willa cather one of ours

Nevertheless, Wheeler views himself as a victim of his father's success and his own inexplicable malaise.

Composition

Cather's cousin Grosvenor (G.P. Cather) was born and raised on the farm that adjoined her own family's, and she combined parts of her own personality with Grosvenor's in the character of Claude.

Cather explained in a letter to Dorothy Canfield Fisher:^[1]

We were very much alike, and very different. He could never escape from the misery of being himself, except in action, and whatever he put his hand to turned out either ugly or ridiculous....

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