• Letter ID: 0900
• Addressee: Luhan, Mabel Dodge
• Date: 1927-09-17
• Repository: Yale University, Beinecke Library, New Haven, Conn.

To Mabel Dodge Luhan,  Sept. 17, [1927], from Jaffrey, N.H. ; Beinecke 

Are there instead of in Rome because of father's illness and the effort of moving out of the apartment. Also, Edith's mother had a stroke. What a year! Book seems to be going well.   Willa   [Stout #900]

• Letter ID: 0745
• Addressee: Swinnerton, Frank Arthur
• Date: 1924-09-18
• Repository: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark.

To [Frank Arthur] Swinnerton,  Sept. 18, [1924], from Grand Manan ; Arkansas 

Appreciated his sending her the Proust Within a Budding Grove. Glad he has had a good trip to Rome. Received an honorary doctorate from University of Michigan in June, then went to Red Cloud. Here on the island since early August, writing. Impossible to tell when a good work period will come. Leaving in three days for Boston and back to New York.   Willa Cather   [Stout #745]

• Letter ID: 1893
• Addressee: Cather, Elsie
• Date: 1908-06-16
• Repository: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Susan J. and James Rosowski Cather Collection (MS228)

To Elsie Cather,  June 16, 1908, postcard showing the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy ; UNL-Rosowski Cather 

Front of postcard #1893

This is the unimpressive Tiber river with St. Peter's Basilica and Hadrian's tomb [now Castel Sant'Angelo]. Spent part of the day before in the Palace of the Caesars. The rooms are all taller than Red Cloud's standpipe. Had to take a day's rest after walking so much in Caesar's house last week.   W.S.C. 

• Letter ID: 1855
• Addressee: Cather, Elsie
• Date: 1908-06-11
• Repository: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Susan J. and James Rosowski Cather Collection (MS228)

To Elsie Cather,  June 11, 1908, from Rome, postcard ; UNL-Rosowski Cather 

Front of postcard #1855

Image on the postcard is the dome of St. Peter's cathedral from the Roman gardens, where she first saw it.  Likes to sit by the fountains and watch the sunlight reflect off the columns.  Listening to the fountains one can learn more than Puck of Pook's Hill, for modern Europe and the modern mind were made here.  St. Peter's and the Vatican defined western civilization.   Willie S. C. 

• Letter ID: 2062
• Addressee: Cather, Roscoe
• Date: 1908-06-10
• Repository: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316)

To Roscoe Cather,  June 10, [1908] on postcard of Villa Doria Pamphilia, Rome ; UNL-Roscoe 

Front of postcard #2062

This is the dome of St. Peter's from the garden where she saw it for the first time. One sees it in the east from everywhere, and soon realizes that modern Europe was made here, from even before the crowning of Charlemagne. Second to the grandeur of the Roman Empire is the Catholic Rome of medieval days.   Willa 

• Letter ID: 0137
• Addressee: Goudy, Alice E. D.
• Date: 1908-05-03
• Repository: Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation

To Mrs. Alice E. D. Goudy,  May 3, [1908], from Naples, Italy ; WCPM 

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]

• Letter ID: 2057
• Addressee: Cather, Roscoe
• Date: 1908-03-02
• Repository: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316)

To Roscoe Cather,  March 2, [1908] on McClure's Magazine letterhead, from Boston ; UNL-Roscoe 

Has been in Boston since January and is now, after a couple of weeks with Mrs. Deland, back in the comfortable, old-fashioned Parker House. Has been seeing many remarkable people, including Winthrop Ames, an arts patron interested in Ibsen who has an air of ennui and the grandson of Otis [actually, Oliver] Ames. Listening to him talk, one thinks of that rocky monument to the Ames brothers on the mountain [near Laramie, Wyoming], and knows that they were not bothered with ennui. Oh, well, it is difficult being one of the first generation of sophisticates—think of the talk they heard about the Troll Garden. Is sailing for Naples with Isabelle on either April 8 on the Carpathia or on April 11 on the Freiderich der Grosse. Itinerary includes Naples, Capri, and Pompeii, Rome, a 300-mile walk along the Mediterranean from Monte Carlo to Marseilles, Arles, Avignon, and finally Paris. Seems odd to go to Rome after its long life in her imagination and education. One could say that Rome, London, and Paris were the three main cities in Nebraska. May or may not stop at London; has letters of introduction to Kipling, Maurice Hewlett, Barrie, and Conan Doyle, among others, but is more interested in places and ancient ruins than people right now. By comparison with Roman civilization, our own looks pretty shabby. The Roman civilization is still preserved in southern France, where people still live as in Virgil's Georgics. Has bought Roscoe several excellent pictures in Boston: Van Dyck's self-portrait, The Windmill (old Dutch), The Song of the Lark by Jules Breton, Wyeth's Calling the Moose and Indian Hunter, "The Dinkey Bird is Singing in the Amfalulu Tree" by Maxfield Parrish, and Remington's Caught in the Circle, all for $16.23, which Roscoe now owes her. Hopes he and Meta like them. If he doesn't appreciate the Van Dyck, she will be angry, as she has one and loves it. It was Jessie who thought he would like The Song of the Lark. Would have preferred to send older French and Dutch images herself, but thought he might prefer these moderns. Does he like The Queen's Quaire?   Willie