A Calendar of the Letters of Willa Cather

90 letters found

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Results 11-20:

To Mrs. Alice E. D. GoudyMay 3, [1908], from Naples, ItalyWCPM 

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]


To Sarah Orne JewettMay 10, 1908, from Ravello, ItalyHarvard 

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]


To Ferris GreensletOct. 1908, from 82 Washington Place, New York, transcription by E. K. Brown ; Beineke 

Enjoyed reading the Aldrich book on the train.    Willa S—C—(William)   [Stout #141]


To E. J. Overing, Jr.,  [President of the Red Cloud Board of Education] Apr. 30, 1909 [letter read at 1909 commencement exercises and published in the Red Cloud Chief May 27, 1909] ; WCPM , also Bohlke.

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]


To Norman FoersterJuly 20, 1910, on McClure's letterhead ; UNL 

Is pleased to see his success. Looking forward to his article on Gilbert White. Always expected him to write well, if he could get beyond youthful egoism. Since they have no book publishing now, can't consider his book of nature essays. Suggests Doubleday Page, which bought them out, or Houghton Mifflin. Ferris Greenslet there an old friend. For the magazine, more interested in content and a style more scientific than literary, designed to convey information. P.S.: Has been running the magazine alone past six months, as Mr. McClure has been ill. Will be going abroad this winter.  Willa Sibert Cather   [Stout #182]


To Norman Foerster,  Saturday [July 24, 1910?] , from Plainfield, N.H.UNL 

Liked his paper on White. Glad he's no longer trying to imitate Pater and Swinburne.   Willa Sibert Cather   [Stout #183]


To Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant,  n.d. [early 1913? per E. S. S. note] , from no. 5 Bank Street, New YorkPM 

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]


To Mrs. C. E. PerkinsApr. 29, [1915?]Newberry 

Glad she likes the little book, and will hope to meet her when she is in Boston.   Willa Sibert Cather   [Stout #301]


To Ferris GreensletNov. 26, [1919]Harvard 

Telephone company says that only new mothers can get a phone. That would be funny! Please send books she can send to William Allen White in Kansas. Nice he wants them. Century has made an offer she wants to discuss with him. P.S.: Nice of Mrs. Austin to go to the trouble [to write an article about her].  W. S. C.   [Stout #484]


To Ferris GreensletDec. 3, [1919], postcard ; Harvard 

White still wanting the books; needs them by the 15th.   W. S. C.   [Stout #485]


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