Won't be able to send material for newspaper until next week. Has met C. L. Magee, managing editor of two Pittsburgh newspapers and political boss of the city. Had a letter of introduction from an actress friend. Magee's office crowded with people, but he had a kind word for each, gave letters to several to help them get jobs. It was hard to ask a stranger for a job, but he encouraged her to come back. Asked her into his private office, said he would take some articles and there might be a job coming open on the evening paper. Willa Cather [Stout #34]
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]
Interested in her new efforts in play production. Looking forward to seeing her piece [probably "Did It Really Happen?"] in Smart Set. What is she going to do with the Spoon River poet in her anthology? [The "anthology" was a series by Akins published from Feb. 19 to Aug. 13, 1915, in Reedy's Mirror, St. Louis. The series was to have been published in book form but was not until 1994, under the title In the Shadow of Parnassus: A Critical Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, edited by Catherine Parke.] He is beneath comment. P.S.: Sending some poems not in April Twilights. Novel finished and being set in type. W. S. C. [Stout #415]
Glad he likes "Grandmither." Seldom writes verse. Unfortunately, the poems Monroe included in her noted anthology [The New Poetry, 1917] were garbled. Sorry to have been without a telephone, so missed hearing from him when he was in town. Willa Cather [Stout #450]
Congratulations on her article [ "Vermont: Our Rich Little Poor State" ] in the Nation. Hopes they can visit in private before or after they call on Knopf. Willa [Stout #598]
Is pleased to have the book by Father Saljointi [?] and appreciates his bothering to send it. He and the staff at the Denver Library were most kind. Willa Cather [Stout #793]
Appreciates the book he and Mr. Howlett sent. Hopes to see him at the Denver Library again next summer. Leaves for New York tomorrow. Willa Cather [Stout #794]
Appreciates receiving the bibliography about cliff dwellers done by Miss Gerber and has enjoyed seeing her in New York. Willa Cather [Stout #821]
Has found someone to do the translations from Swedish she spoke to him about. Did not mind the philatelist in the private working room; has probably finished the research she needed to do. Willa Cather [Stout #823]
Not writing a love story, but a story of the Southwest at the time New Mexico was seized from Mexico, centering on two Catholic missionaries. Hero is Father Latour, modeled on Bishop Lamy of N.M., who became archbishop and died in Santa Fe in 1886. Lamy saw the transition of N.M. from a wild country to a civilized one. Has been working from a large collection of letters written by Lamy and his vicar to their families. Some incidents invented, some given almost exactly as they occurred. All of part I now written, though not all typed. Part II will not be as long but more solemn in tone. Willa Cather [Stout #826]
