• Letter ID: 0933
• Addressee: Johnson, Burges
• Date: 1928
• Repository: Yale University, Beinecke Library, New Haven, Conn.

To Burges Johnson,  [1928?] , excerpt made by E. K. Brown ; Beinecke 

Most English teachers have never actually written a thing and think being scholarly means avoiding any taint of common sense. One critic makes a big point of broad a sounds in female names in her books. Could quote others equally foolish. One says title Death Comes for the Archbishop shows she is now willing to acknowledge death. What it shows is that [Hans] Holbein used the title in his woodcut and she saw Latour's death as a victorious one, a kind of riding away with death.   [Stout #933]

• Letter ID: 1433
• Addressee: Johnson, Burges
• Date: 1939-01-12
• Repository: Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.

To [Burges] Johnson,  Jan. 12, 1939 ; Amherst 

Gives permission to quote from anything in Not Under Forty and conditional permission to quote from letter to Pat Knopf explaining reasons for structure of The Professor's House. Prefers the distinct separations of that form to the mixture of unexpressed feelings typical of modern fiction, though it could have been done that way. Outland's life had become as real to the professor as his own; he became part of the old house. Glad Pat is studying with him.   Willa Cather   [Stout #1433]

• Letter ID: 1454
• Addressee: Johnson, Burges
• Date: 1939
• Repository: Yale University, Beinecke Library, New Haven, Conn.; L. Bruce Bohlke, ed., Willa Cather in Person

To Burges Johnson, n.d. [1939?] ; Beinecke  Partial transcription by E. K. Brown. Pub. CEA Newsletter Dec. 1939; quoted in Bohlke.

Like Henry Seidel Canby, does not believe in teaching contemporary literature. More important to use limited school time to teach classics of English literature. Essential reading in school includes Shakespeare, Milton, Fielding, Jane Austen, with Thackeray, George Eliot, George Meredith, and Thomas Hardy as the most recent. Young people should read contemporary literature as they want to, not as assignments. True literary taste is as rare as perfect pitch, but students can glean something from exposure to the classics, even if they don't have real aptitude.   [Stout #1454]

• Letter ID: 1490
• Addressee: Johnson, Burges
• Date: 1940-09-21
• Repository: Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.

To [Burges] Johnson,  Sept. 21, 1940 ; Amherst 

Yes, may use the quotation as revised, with an explanatory note that it was sent to a friend's son. Otherwise will be deluged by letters from students wanting her to explain this and that. Mostly sends a form letter to students and to English teachers. Such correspondence has delayed completion of her new book.   Willa Cather   [Stout #1490]