Has set aside "The Blue Mesa" to work on a novel with western setting about the same length as O Pioneers!. Is about half through the first draft. How late could she get manuscript in to have a fall publication date? May have it by end of May or middle of June. If a fall publication this year not possible, will probably set it aside and do more stories. Reynolds can get $700 each for them. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #382]
Will take $350 for the stories. Suggests he try "Little Annie" on McClure's and Everybody's. Did Smart Set reject "Scandal"? W. S. C. [Stout #391]
Sending first two chapters. Should run no longer than 65,000 words. Wants same type as O Pioneers! on rough, cream-colored paper. Please send proofs of the pages they set for the dummy, so she can see the visual effect. P.S.: Has no other copy of these pages, so don't lose them! Willa Cather [Stout #398]
Has been too upset by Mr. Scaife's visit to work. Chose Benda on strength of earlier discussions with Scaife. Benda has put a lot of time into the project and has planned twelve drawings and completed three. Now Scaife says they will pay only $150 for the whole set. Can't ask him to do more than three for that amount. Misunderstanding is her fault; should have made a clear arrangement with Scaife sooner. Could they offer Benda $200 for eight or ten? P.S.: Is The Song of the Lark out of stock? Willa Cather [Stout #399]
Please see that the middle initial is cut out of name on title page. Please set illustrations a little lower on the page to give an effect of spaciousness overhead. Willa Cather [Stout #408]
Please send proofs of all cuts for "Ántonia" that have been set. W. S. C. [Stout #412]
Interested in her new efforts in play production. Looking forward to seeing her piece [probably "Did It Really Happen?"] in Smart Set. What is she going to do with the Spoon River poet in her anthology? [The "anthology" was a series by Akins published from Feb. 19 to Aug. 13, 1915, in Reedy's Mirror, St. Louis. The series was to have been published in book form but was not until 1994, under the title In the Shadow of Parnassus: A Critical Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, edited by Catherine Parke.] He is beneath comment. P.S.: Sending some poems not in April Twilights. Novel finished and being set in type. W. S. C. [Stout #415]
Might sell "Little Annie" to this editor. [Retitled "Her Boss," the story was published in Smart Set, October 1919.] W. S. C. [Stout #416]
Has received proofs but is puzzled that there are no blank pages for the cuts. Wants them on same paper as text. Needs to see how they are set on the page. P.S.: Should she be writing to someone else about these production matters? W. S. C. [Stout #423]
Used the device of the introduction in My Ántonia much as some Russian and French writers do, to set a tone. Wanted a male character's memory because it was from men that she learned the most interesting things about the women she was remembering. Wanted first person narrative to emphasize emotion rather than plot. Believes she learned to handle a male point of view by writing Mr. McClure's autobiography. Glad he likes the result. It took getting older to write simply and to be guided by memory. Willa Cather [Stout #462]
