Enjoyed reading her one-act play and her sonnets, but doesn't really like poems about artistic endeavor. "Rain, Rain!" and "Amen" are very good. Was in New York in October working on an article on the play openings. W. S. C. [Stout #247]
Will be there until July 15. W. S. C [Stout #259]
Has been in Boston. Doesn't like her story, which seems to have been written only to be clever. It has no feeling. Zoë can't work up to her potential until she gets out of this manner. W. S. C. [Stout #272]
Sorry to have missed her. Was getting her head x-rayed. Is having a temperature every afternoon and head pains. Doctors can't seem to find what is wrong. Thanks for the flowers. Could Zoë come by Monday for tea? W. S. C. [Stout #274]
Going to Washington for a week, then to New York by February 12. Novel has reached 200,000 words. W. S. C. [Stout #293]
Excited about her play [The Magical City opened at the Bandbox Theater in mid-March 1916]. Sets wonderful, characters wonderful. Poet character a true ass. Shows what a clear sense of theater she has. Sorry for the poor handwriting, but is in bed with grippe. Hoping to sail for Italy in early June unless submarines get too active. W. S. C. [Stout #352]
So glad she had Sarah Orne Jewett's poems printed. Delighted to receive a copy. Spent six months in the West this year and is in very good health. Is going to the dock today to see Arthur Foote's daughter off to join the ambulance service in France. Real happiness impossible until the war is over. Has not heard from Miss Guiney for a long time. Please write soon. Willa [Stout #376]
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]
Feels generously treated in her anthology [series of articles Akins anticipated publishing in book form]. Agrees that Spoon River is realistic, but it shouldn't have to be so harsh. Hates the syntax. W. S. C. [Stout #466]
Delighted to see the good review in yesterday's Times [of Déclassée, which opened at the Empire Theatre on October 6 with Ethel Barrymore in the lead]. Seems a triumph—a word that can only be used for the theater since the advent of trench warfare. Confident the play has real quality, is not just what is usually popular. Will go see it as soon as she gets back to New York. Willa Cather [Stout #477]
