Writing on family's behalf. Will be at home until first of October; having lots of fun. Is leaving for a ten-day hunting trip near Big Horn with Roscoe. Douglass handsomer than ever. Would like to demonstrate what good gin cocktails she can make. Hopes to produce a book of essays about the theater next winter. Plans to return to Pittsburgh because of job. Refused offer from the New York Sun that would have meant night work. Has had a happy year. Willa Cather [Stout #50]
Wanted to ask about her future plans, but never had a chance to talk freely. Please explain to Mr. McNeny why she has been so little at his office— because wanted to spend as much time as possible with family. Willa [Stout #52]
Thanks for sharing what Miss Roseboro' said about the stories. Roseboro's own are a sentimental muddle. Best wishes for Dorothy's doctoral exam in May. Hopes to get to Vermont this summer. Will mainly be in New York near or with Edith Lewis. Hopes to finish novel there. Might take an English course at Columbia, if there is one in the summer. Isabelle still droopy from bad throat. Parents [Cather's] have just moved into a new, roomier house and want her to come help select furnishings, but she needs to finish the novel for McClure. Willie [Stout #97]
Is pleased that she and Mrs. Fields liked the first part of Mrs. Ward's story; will send the outline of the rest. Mrs. Fields the only person left who evokes the dignity of the New England past. Has been enjoying Fields's poems. She and Edith Lewis liking their apartment. Get their own dinner three evenings a week and go to the Brevoort [Hotel] the other nights. Fears Jewett won't like her story in the December issue. Willa [Stout #140]
Is sending a present for Peter Rabbit. Don't open until Christmas! Will send books for Mary Virginia as soon as she and Miss Lewis (with whom she is partners in housekeeping) have read them. Found these nice children's books from England in a local book shop. Willie [Stout #144]
Not feeling well, and now Miss Lewis isn't also. She had better not come. W. S. C [Stout #187]
[Note by Sergeant indicates that Edith Lewis asked her to withhold this letter from the library.] So much has happened, no time to write. The beautiful young man she met when riding to the missions with the priest is named Julio, pronounced hu-lio. Has been camping in canyons with Tooker and doing some pretty daring climbing. Went down a cliff using hand-holds. Spent a day in the Painted Desert with Julio and could hardly get over it. Now the Grand Canyon. Wonderful how unspoiled it is, not a single souvenir shop. New Mexico is wonderful but expensive. Elsie would love it, but her money would go and she would take up with a sweetheart who would take all her attention. Has been asked to a Mexican dance when back in Winslow, and then if she can tear herself away from Julio will go to Albuquerque with Douglass. Didn't mean to go on and on about Julio—it's just that he's so fascinating. People would be fighting over him as an artist's model in New York. W. S. C. [Stout #229]
Glad the book is selling fairly well. How did the Heinemann edition do? Is going to Pittsburgh in a few days. Miss Lewis sailing for Naples toward the end of the month. W. S. C. [Stout #281]
Is offering a revision of the character of Jessie Darcey [singer Thea Kronborg accompanies in The Song of the Lark] and will be glad to revise more. Thea has control over her own fortune; was a liar and was lied to. She expected to marry Fred, despite the fact that her Methodist childhood would not have led her to expect it. She ended up punishing Fred for what she did herself. Won't make all this entirely clear, because doesn't want character of Thea to alienate readers. Isabelle is going away for a few days to rest. [Stout #305]
Likes the jacket, but the copy is wrong—Moonstone, Colorado, not Arizona. Also, Thea and Fred go to Mexico, not New Mexico. Wishes it could say something about her artistic growth in the cliff dweller ruins. Actually, not so very happy with the cover. Couldn't it be more like British edition of Pioneers? Henry James seems patronizing in his essay on the Fieldses. Willa Cather [Stout #311]
