"So Big" is author Edna Ferber's breakout, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of life on an American farm and features one of the most iconic characters in 20th century fiction, the hardscrabble schoolteacher-turned-truck-farmer Selina Peake DeJong. A sensation when it was first published, "So Big" tells the story of young Selina, who moves to the tiny farming town of High Prairie to become a schoolteacher and winds up marrying local farmer, Purvis DeJong. After Purvis dies, leaving Selina in charge of both the farm and her young son Dirk, Selina is forced to run the farm all by herself and do all she can to pave the way for Dirk to become a success. Apart from the compelling, heart-wrenching and inspiring tale of life on a 19th century farm, "So Big" also offers a fascinating glimpse of industrial-era Chicago, from the burgeoning Gold Coast to the rough-and-tumble Haymarket. "So Big" is an early triumph of Edna Ferber's, who would later go on to write dozens of books, plays and short stories and become one of the 20th century's most beloved and successful authors.
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