Has just returned from a week in the Apennines. Spent two days in Pompeii and is enjoying the Pompeiian collection at the Naples Museum, also the beautiful Bay of Naples. The classical world seems close at hand. Has regained enough Latin to read Tacitus and Suetonius. Remembers seeing a picture of the bust of Caesar in a textbook when Mr. Goudy was her teacher, and now has seen it at the museum. Farmers working their fields just as in Virgil's Georgics. Goes on to Rome next week. Willa [Stout #137]
What a beautiful place! Camellias and roses in bloom all around. Room overlooks the Gulf of Salerno, as blue as the water in a [Pierre] Puvis de Chavannes painting. Yesterday a festival celebrating the arrival of the skull of St. Andrew in Amalfi seven hundred years ago, but enjoyment interrupted by the arrival of some people she used to know in Nebraska. [Alice] Meynell's essays about Italy in the book Jewett gave her are very fine, especially the essay "The Lesson of Landscape," but A. E. Housman writes with equal truthfulness, and she includes a transcription of his "The Olive," a poem he gave her that she has never seen in print. The "White Heron" and the Dunnet ladies [references to copies of books by Jewett] are always with her. Willa Cather [Stout #138]
Enjoyed reading the Aldrich book on the train. Willa S—C—(William) [Stout #141]
Had hoped to be there for commencement, but is leaving for London on business. Has kept up with Red Cloud schools through brothers and sisters. Remembers with love Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Goudy and Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Case. Mrs. Case, then Miss King, was principal when she first entered the school. Remembers her first teacher and some of her fellow pupils. Always tried to please Miss King, who helped and advised her all through high school—even tried to teach her algebra, an impossibility. Hard to believe it has been nineteen years since she graduated. Best wishes to the new graduates. They should try to live up to their teachers' goals for them. Willa Cather [Stout #159]
Has been getting settled in the new apartment, including floors being painted. Thanks for the Christmas present. Has been hearing a lot of music. New book twice as long as Alexander. Has taken her themes from the long grass, as Dvořák did in the New World Symphony (which was not made from Negro songs as people say). Nervous about the new story, though it is just what she has been wanting to write. Probably very few people will like it. Willa Cather [Stout #250]
Thanks for the cheery letter. Is free of bandages now. Went to Atlantic City for a few days and got sidetracked from her [Cather's] story, but is back on it now. Writing a lot about the mechanics and politics of opera. Is getting acquainted with the Hoyts. Wishes events in Mexico would settle down so she could go see the cities there. Going to Pittsburgh soon. W. [Stout #280]
Glad she likes the little book, and will hope to meet her when she is in Boston. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #301]
Has been in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. Has he seen Alice Meynell's review in the Manchester Guardian? Will have another book ready by the end of the year, probable title "The Blue Mesa." The book on the Southwest to come after that. Is shutting last year behind her. Glad to receive his check. W. S. C. [Stout #365]
If he weren't a friend from school, would refuse his request for biographical information. Suggests he talk with Mrs. Alice E. D. Goudy in Auburn, Nebraska, who was her high school teacher and knew her all through college. P.S.: Very proud of Newbranch's editorial. Prefers he not mention the McClure autobiography. Willa Cather [Stout #636]
Hurrying to leave for Nebraska but will answer briefly. Georgine Milmine, now Mrs. Benjamin Wells, of Aubrey, N.Y., gathered material on Mrs. Eddy. McClure bought the material, subsequently lost (along with a first edition of Science and Health) when the magazine was sold. Milmine couldn't do the writing, and after sampling short segments of it done by several other people he chose her [Cather]. This was shortly after she came to New York. Carefully checked the material and believes it is all accurate except the first chapter, written by Burton Hendrick, now with Doubleday. His resentment at being removed from the project may be part of the reason Doubleday does not bring it back into print. Please keep confidential. Willa Cather [Stout #649]
