"Death Comes for the Archibishop" reached the public domain in January of this year. It is excellent.
Cather grew up in Nebraska, and two of the "plains novels" ("O Pioneers" and "My Ántonia") are set there. I like the first a little bit better than the second, but both are pretty good. The third plains novel ("The Song of the Lark") starts out in eastern Colorado, but the character moves around quite a bit. It is the longest of the three, and Cather has more room to develop the main character. I'm about 2/3 of the way through "Lark", and I think I like it the best of the three. The main character Thea Kronborg is interesting and complex, and many of us can understand the fits and starts you go through to figure out what you need to be doing in life.
In all of the books above, Cather has a gift for place. Her descriptions of the scenery of the west or of someone's kitchen are vivid and memorable.
In a Western Writers of America poll (https://web.archive.org/web/20111030021251/http://www.wester...), Cather comes in second in the list of best western authors. Elmer Kelton is first (the compiler noted he got twice as many votes as Cather and the third-place author [A. B. Guthrie]). I've read a couple of books by Kelton and by Guthrie, and they're both excellent as well. Westerns have turned out not to be simply the formulaic stuff I expected (though some of the formulaic stuff is fun to read!).
Cather grew up in Nebraska, and two of the "plains novels" ("O Pioneers" and "My Ántonia") are set there. I like the first a little bit better than the second, but both are pretty good. The third plains novel ("The Song of the Lark") starts out in eastern Colorado, but the character moves around quite a bit. It is the longest of the three, and Cather has more room to develop the main character. I'm about 2/3 of the way through "Lark", and I think I like it the best of the three. The main character Thea Kronborg is interesting and complex, and many of us can understand the fits and starts you go through to figure out what you need to be doing in life.
In all of the books above, Cather has a gift for place. Her descriptions of the scenery of the west or of someone's kitchen are vivid and memorable.
In a Western Writers of America poll (https://web.archive.org/web/20111030021251/http://www.wester...), Cather comes in second in the list of best western authors. Elmer Kelton is first (the compiler noted he got twice as many votes as Cather and the third-place author [A. B. Guthrie]). I've read a couple of books by Kelton and by Guthrie, and they're both excellent as well. Westerns have turned out not to be simply the formulaic stuff I expected (though some of the formulaic stuff is fun to read!).