. . . So cannot travel to Red Cloud this year. Has been forced to give up a lot. Enclosed is a request from the Carnegie Corporation [the letter invited Cather to represent the United States on the Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters of the League of Nations], which she declined; it would be too exhausting. Suggested that Mr. Keppel invite Thornton Wilder instead, and Wilder agreed. Wilder is fluent in French and Italian and is both scholarly and gregarious. Keep this quiet. Would like Wilder to think he was the top pick. Tell Carrie and Mary, however. Hopes Red Cloud won't have too much heat and that Elsie will enjoy another summer there. Hopes Elsie will use check to pay for household help. Likes the nieces very much and will write more about them soon. Also loved Mary Creighton's wonderful letters. Willie
Needs his help. Simply must escape business correspondence—also honorary degrees. Could he write to the six businesses shown below and ask that financial correspondence be sent to: Willa S. Cather, Chase National Bank, Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, New York, NY, attention Mr. Milne. Wants all business correspondence—except from him—sent to the bank, not to the Park Avenue address. Mr. Milne, an officer in the bank, takes care of her accounts. There are so many different apartments in the Park Avenue building that mail tends to go missing. The porters cannot do everything, and now her secretary is away. Wants to reach a sensible stopping place in the book before she leaves— still not know where she is going. Should she give Crowell power-of-attorney for Nebraska concerns? Will in the fall. Must abandon Nebraska real estate and California oil fields now to concentrate on the work she is suited to. Writing is hard work: the revisions and corrections for the Autograph Edition took ten months! Hard to find time for a new novel. Must be hasty if she is to write to him at all. Wishes people understood! Sorry to complain, but it feels like being pulled under by quicksand. PS: These are the companies: 1) TransAmerican Corporation, 2) Bank of America, 3) Ocean Front Oil Co, 4) McVicar-Rood, Montebello Ltd., 5) Barnsdall Oil Co, and 6) Standard Oil of California. Willie.
