One of Ours

Even today, we picture the American frontier through a greatly romanticized lens. Yet what of the generations after those brave pioneers "tamed" the west? Willa Cather penned her 1922 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel One of Ours in the years following World War I, and in it she examines that restlessness of youth which follows when the older set has apparently lain the groundwork for what should be an easy and happy life for their children. Indeed, her hero struggles with his settled, married life on the farm and only finds his fulfillment and purpose when faced with the horrors of the battlefield.