Not fair to accuse her of keeping her address a secret. Had not expected to be daytime telegraph editor when she accepted the Leader job, but when it became available applied and got it, despite youth and sex. Work is like running a race, but hours are short. Hard to write distinctive headlines for a dozen suicides at a time. Has received A Portrait of a Lady [ James ]. Mr. Farrar has come to call, so must break off. Willa Cather [Stout #46]
Dorothy Canfield is the "Real Thing." [allusion to story by Henry James.] [Stout #54]
[Begins with lines from A. E. Housman, "The Recruit."] Is looking forward to seeing her in Paris. After Liverpool went to Chester, then to Shrewsbury. [Inserts four lines from Housman's "The Welch Marches."] Saw football being played [two lines from "(Is my team ploughing)"] and went to Shrewsbury jail [four lines from "(On moonlit heath and lonesome bank)"]. Tracing scenes of A Shropshire Lad. Has found out Housman's London address from his publisher. Ludlow Castle delightful, with its associations with both Housman and Sir Philip Sidney. [Inserts three stanzas of her own poem "Poppies on Ludlow Castle."] Willie [Stout #73]
As a result of Dorothy's having written to her [Cather's] mother, has had the first letter from her that she could bear to read in two years. They may yet make peace. Isabelle and Edith away on a fishing trip to West Virginia. Sarah Harris has written denouncing the "animalism" of April Twilights—must be crazy. Is tired from parties and work. Is Mrs. Canfield painting? Has she read "The Better Sort" [volume of short stories by Henry James, pub. 1903]? Very complex and obscure. Willie [Stout #85]
Agrees the story is rather chilly and impersonal, but it doesn't warrant amplification. Looks forward to visit so they can talk. Will try again on The Golden Bowl [James, 1904]. Didn't manage to penetrate it last year. Wonders what new Kipling story is about. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #109]
Has revised the story but done nothing with the novel. Appreciates his calling her book to [Henry?] James's attention; very pleased with James's letter. Would be disappointed if he and a couple of others did not think the way he says. Feels nervous at the thought of his considering her writing further. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #110]
Is pleased to have the Adams book [prob. Henry Adams, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, 1904; reissued by Houghton Mifflin in 1913]. Tell Nancy Moore her serial will get a quick reading by Mackenzie [at McClure's]. Willa Cather [Stout #273]
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]
She is a sport to go fishing with Greenslet. Henry James's latest book, "Brothers and Son" [Notes of a Son and Brother, 1914], is too mannered, with too little substance, to be worth reading. Tortured with afterthoughts and retraction. Hears from Greenslet that Elsie is not going to marry a cubist after all—he seems to have taken the joke seriously. Glad to be away from New York. Will probably go visit Fremstad in Maine some time in June. Is not pushing herself. Enjoying the weather and resting a lot. W. [Stout #282]
Will go to New York about mid-January by way of Washington. Working well here. Won't get to Boston before late winter. The new book great fun but awfully long! Please return The Idiot [ Dostoevsky ], if it was she to whom she lent it. Is reading The Awkward Age [ James ] with Isabelle. W. S. C. [Stout #290]
