Czech’em Out Book Club meets on the third Monday of each month with NCSML volunteer Steve Pederson in the Skala Bartizal Library following the reading of each months selected book. You can purchase this month’s book from our museum store.
About this months book: My Antonia
In this powerful novel, Willa Cather, creates the story of a heroine with a strong spirit and calm strength that embody the virtues found in Cather’s home country.
Antonia Shimerda is the daughter of two Bohemian immigrant parents that struggle to cope with the change in environment found in their new home on the Nebraska prairie. Readers follow Antonia’s story through the eyes of her tutor, Jim Burden. We follow her as she transitions from farm life to town life, hardships, poverty and failed romance that led to her ultimate triumph.
About the Author:
Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873. At the age of nine years old her family moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska. She graduated from the University of Nebraska and was hired by newspaper in Lincoln, Nebraska. She later moved to New York City where she met the author, Sarah Orne Jewett. This inspired her to quit her career in journalism and pursue becoming a fiction author. Her first novel was Alexander’s Bridge in 1912. She was not established in American literature until her novel based in Nebraska entitled O Pioneers! was published in 1913. These preceded her most famous pioneer work, My Antonia in 1918. In 1922, she won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours. She created several more books such as Death Comes for the Archbishop, Shadows on the Rock, The Song of the Lark, The Professor’s House, My Mortal Enemy, and Lucy Gayheart. In 1947, Willa passed away.