Will probably be in Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with them. Here's a hug for Erna. Omar has been accepted. Willa [Stout #64]
Enclosing essay on an intriguing English industry ["The Strangest Tribe of Darkest England," Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 August 1902, magazine section, p. 4], and has included photographs, though they aren't of very good quality due to her poor camera. Having a delightful trip and will write Mrs. Seibel from Paris. Willa Cather [Stout #74]
Tell Mrs. Seibel will be there Monday to spend the night. Hopes they can start decorating the tree then, as per their custom. Will help the McClungs trim a tree on Wednesday. Willa Cather [Stout #78]
Thanks for sharing what Miss Roseboro' said about the stories. Roseboro's own are a sentimental muddle. Best wishes for Dorothy's doctoral exam in May. Hopes to get to Vermont this summer. Will mainly be in New York near or with Edith Lewis. Hopes to finish novel there. Might take an English course at Columbia, if there is one in the summer. Isabelle still droopy from bad throat. Parents [Cather's] have just moved into a new, roomier house and want her to come help select furnishings, but she needs to finish the novel for McClure. Willie [Stout #97]
Is pleased that she and Mrs. Fields liked the first part of Mrs. Ward's story; will send the outline of the rest. Mrs. Fields the only person left who evokes the dignity of the New England past. Has been enjoying Fields's poems. She and Edith Lewis liking their apartment. Get their own dinner three evenings a week and go to the Brevoort [Hotel] the other nights. Fears Jewett won't like her story in the December issue. Willa [Stout #140]
Is sending a present for Peter Rabbit. Don't open until Christmas! Will send books for Mary Virginia as soon as she and Miss Lewis (with whom she is partners in housekeeping) have read them. Found these nice children's books from England in a local book shop. Willie [Stout #144]
Not feeling well, and now Miss Lewis isn't also. She had better not come. W. S. C [Stout #187]
Mr. Seibel should come see the cliff dwellings and the Spanish missions. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #227]
[Note by Sergeant indicates that Edith Lewis asked her to withhold this letter from the library.] So much has happened, no time to write. The beautiful young man she met when riding to the missions with the priest is named Julio, pronounced hu-lio. Has been camping in canyons with Tooker and doing some pretty daring climbing. Went down a cliff using hand-holds. Spent a day in the Painted Desert with Julio and could hardly get over it. Now the Grand Canyon. Wonderful how unspoiled it is, not a single souvenir shop. New Mexico is wonderful but expensive. Elsie would love it, but her money would go and she would take up with a sweetheart who would take all her attention. Has been asked to a Mexican dance when back in Winslow, and then if she can tear herself away from Julio will go to Albuquerque with Douglass. Didn't mean to go on and on about Julio—it's just that he's so fascinating. People would be fighting over him as an artist's model in New York. W. S. C. [Stout #229]
Glad the book is selling fairly well. How did the Heinemann edition do? Is going to Pittsburgh in a few days. Miss Lewis sailing for Naples toward the end of the month. W. S. C. [Stout #281]
