This student edition presents Willa Cather's landmark novel of immigrant life on the American prairies in a compact and affordable format. The text of the 1918 first edition is lightly annotated, and is accompanied by a chronology of the life of the author, an illustrated introduction to the contexts and major issues of the text in its time and ours, an annotated bibliography for further reading (contexts, criticism, and online resources), and a concise glossary of literary terms. The text of the work is also accessible online at an accompanying Web site (visit bedfordstmartins.com/americanlit), where it can be searched electronically.