Glad to learn they are neighbors. Hopes she will come to tea. Willa Cather [Stout #255]
Has been in New York only three days since the first of June. Enjoys being here for fall. Walks a lot. Is going back to New York in a week but expects to leave it permanently before long. Is surprised at how well The Professor's House is selling, considering how gloomy it is. Not her favorite. Wishes she could see the Frosts again, but never seems to have time. Has been wanting to work on a story but keeps getting interrupted. Willa [Stout #798]
Appreciates her kindness in searching for hotel accommodations, and also her thoughtfulness to have made the reservation in Miss Lewis's name. It's obvious that Smith College is not going to be so thoughtful. The tone of their letters is truly condescending. Perhaps they should plan to have dinner together on Saturday rather than Friday. Maybe West Virginia could come, too. Has lived in such a rush lately, hasn't even written to her. Looks forward to seeing the Frosts as well. Willa Cather [Stout #1180]
Wishes she could be in New York for the Poetry Society banquet, but cannot. Regrets missing the opportunity to meet him and Mrs. [Elinor Miriam White] Frost. Wonders if he ever chanced to meet Miss Jewett. Has often thought, if she had lived to see them, that Frost's books would have been a great encouragement to her in a world full of poets like Witter Bynner and Phoebe Snow. Unfortunately, Frost's fellows in the Poetry Society are so wound up in the ideal of "free verse" that they can't distinguish a line by him from one published in a rural newspaper. They don't even know enough to dislike Florence Earle Coates or Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Many of the so-called "poets" seem to be so just to make Miss Rittenhouse happy. Thankfully, the success of junk only damages things in the short term. Fears that if she ever attended a meeting of the Poetry Society she would be unable to suppress her opinions, and begs Frost to keep them private. Since poetry needs publicity as much as anything else, perhaps the Rittenhouse crowd will actually help Frost somewhat. Anyhow, more subtle methods can still succeed. Has shown many of his poems to others, including "The Mountain," "Mowing," "Going for Water," and "The Tuft of Flowers," and no one needs to have them explained, nor has anyone's sensibility been altered because, in Mr. Masters's words, "the hammock fell/ Into [sic] the dust with Milton's poems [sic]" [from Masters's poem "Many Soldiers" in Spoon River Anthology]. Not everyone believes that is symbolic! Willa S. Cather
