Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Willa Cather’s 1918 novel "My Ántonia". It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by "O Pioneers!" and "The Song of the Lark". The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. This novel is considered Cather's first masterpiece. Cather was praised for bringing the American West to life and making it personally interesting.