Regrets the disappearance of local opera houses in small towns of Nebraska. Remembers the excitement when touring companies came to Red Cloud. With her friends, would go watch the train arrive and the theatrical company get off. Is not sorry there are now motion pictures, but wishes they had not brought demise of live performances. Does not believe movies touch emotions of audience as live performances did, though they are fine entertainment. Willa Cather [Stout #985]
Appreciates his sending English reviews of Shadows on the Rock. Hopes he will give more care to physical aspects of the next volume, Obscure Destinies. Did not like the dust jacket of Shadows. Willa Cather [Stout #1110]
Appreciates his calling her attention to the astronomical error in Obscure Destinies. Has changed "transit" to "occultation" in the second printing and cabled Cassell to catch it in the English edition. Willa Cather [Stout #1119]
Sorry about forgetting to sign check for the second time. A signed one enclosed. Was able to get a compartment on train by telling the man who had it—who turned out to be an officer of the Pullman Company—that her friend was ill. Red cap [train station attendant] got a wheelchair for Isabelle, and she was taken straight to her hotel across the street from Cather's apartment. No use sending flowers for Isabelle's voyage home, as they don't yet know which sailing they will be able to take. Appreciates Irene's kindness while they were in Chicago. Willie [Stout #1267]
Is quite well now. Many thanks for the rose tree. Has been reading The Last Puritan. Can't read his technical books, of course. Still misses Josephine, whose letters are as pleasant as she was herself. Had a Swedish maid for three months but let her go, so plodding and unimaginative. Appreciates the invitation to Green Fountains [Zoë's house in California], but doesn't feel she is very good company these days. W. [Stout #1316]
Please advise whether final corrected proofs of The Song of the Lark have been sent to Cassell & Company. [Stout #1412]
Have final corrected proofs of The Song of the Lark been sent to Cassell? Have no way of knowing whether the galleys they say they have received are the final corrected ones. Please check. [Stout #1413]
Thanks for the books. Notes errors in biographical information on William Archer, whom she knew beginning in 1908. Attended George Meredith's funeral with Archer in London and sat with him in [William Butler] Yeats's box with Lady Gregory at a performance by the Abbey Theatre Company in London. He was one of the first critics to recognize John Millington Synge's work. Was a great enthusiast of Ibsen and translated several of his plays. Hopes this can be corrected. Willa Cather [Stout #1458]
So glad to receive pictures of the Amboy Mill. Very reassuring to know it is still there. Glad to get her opinion of the park in Red Cloud, which sounded rather awful in the newspaper. Picture of her father just as she remembered him. Mother was very fond of both of Josephine's parents. Often thinks mother would have been happier spending last years in Red Cloud, but Douglass was thankful to have her in California and actually enjoyed her company, even after she could no longer speak. Willa Cather [Stout #1492]
Taking time out from responding to soldiers' letters to indulge in the pleasure of writing to her and Irene. My Ántonia is twenty-five years old now. It did not sell many copies at first but kept growing and steadily sells four to six thousand a year (though not this past year). Archbishop sells more, but its special appeal to Catholics inflates the market. Moviemakers keep wanting Ántonia, but won't sell it. Had to fight Alexander Woollcott when he wanted to put it into an anthology. Allowed the Readers' Union in England, which serves veterans of the First World War who missed out on higher education, to put out a paperback edition of 20,000 a few years ago, now out of print. Doesn't mean to brag, but feels proud and happy that people still care about the book. Hopes it is a satisfaction for her as well. Enclosing a letter from a Lt. Harrison Blaine that she would like to have back. Willie [Stout #1633]
