Books about Nebraska discussion
Who is Nebraska's greatest writer?
date
newest »


I'm going with Cather. I almost have to. I lived in Cather Hall at UNL! I also lived for one year in Neihardt Hall.
But Cather I think left behind such a great body of work. She's got my vote.
I don't blame someone from Sheridan County for going with Sandoz, though.
We really have three distinct regions on Nebraska represented with those three.
Can't hurt to pick up copies of O Pioneers, My Antonia or Song of the Lark.
Stew
But Cather I think left behind such a great body of work. She's got my vote.
I don't blame someone from Sheridan County for going with Sandoz, though.
We really have three distinct regions on Nebraska represented with those three.
Can't hurt to pick up copies of O Pioneers, My Antonia or Song of the Lark.
Stew

Looks like Cather is ahead so far. I would say of the three, she is the best known outside of Nebraska.
Stew
Stew

“The pale, cold light of the winter sunset did not beautify--it was like the light of truth itself. When the smoky clouds hung low in the west and the red sun went down behind them, leaving a pink flush on the snowy roofs and the blue drifts, then the wind sprang up afresh, with a kind of bitter song, as if it said: `This is reality, whether you like it or not. All those frivolities of summer, the light and shadow, the living mask of green that trembled over everything, they were lies, and this is what was underneath. This is the truth.'”
Having grown up in the city of Omaha, Cather really made me appreciate the beauty of the prairie. After all, any damn fool can see that the Rockies are stunning. It takes a great writer to make others see how lovely the wide open spaces can be.
Thanks for finding this lovely passage, Elise.
Stew
Thanks for finding this lovely passage, Elise.
Stew

1. "My Antonia" was required reading in high school.
2. My grandma was a Bohemian hired girl for a rich family, too.
3. Cather knew Nebraska and its smalltown folks like no other author since.
Funny how few books one might love after a lifetime of learning. This is one of them.

Her prose feels like northwest Nebraska. Her descriptions are spot on, she gets the dialogue just right, but its her style, the way she writes, that captures the feel of the place at a gut level.
So, Stew, does this mean your choice would change if you had lived in the dorm next to Abel?
No. Still going with Cather. Besides the regional aspect, I think there is also a distinction between Cather and Sandoz because Sandoz' most famous works were nonfiction, and Cather's was fiction.
I'm sticking with the novelist in this case.
I'm sticking with the novelist in this case.
What do you think?