Sorry to cancel visit, but must keep at work on stories, then going to New York to try to arrange book publication. Still regrets misunderstanding in the fall. Some of the stories good, but "Paul's Case" shows haste and "Pilgrim Joy" has to be discarded and replaced. Cycle will be two painter stories, one actor, one sculptor, one musician, one musical study, one writer, and one case of an artistic temperament without talent, and Fulvia. Title to be The Troll Garden, with epigraph from Charles Kingsley to explain. So wishes to come see her. Please apologize to parents. Wants her and Mrs. Canfield to read Phaedra story. P.S.: Mrs. McClung has been ill. Has scarcely had an evening to herself to work. Willie [Stout #80]
Would like to change the title of the story she recently revised for him, from "Nellie Deane" to "The Flower in the Grass."["The Joy of Nelly Deane," Century, October 1911] Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #184]
Both copies of Zoë's poems have arrived. Appreciates the inscription. Sorry to have been cross at times, but was worn out. Will never let herself be so worn down again. Likes "City and Country" best, also "Where Joy Passed By" and "Ask Me No More." Hates the pictures for "Alexander." The book will look better. Hopes she will like "The Bohemian Girl," a much better story though probably few will like it as well. Willa Sibert Cather [Stout #218]
Enjoyed the basket of fruit they sent for her trip. Happy to be at home. Tomorrow is parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. Nebraska gives her more joy than any other place. Willa Cather [Stout #653]
Anne Douglas Sedgwick has sent a note written by him praising My Mortal Enemy. Appreciates his favor. Most of her books made out of old memories from which the extraneous has dropped away. Now reading proofs of a book that gave her joy to write, Death Comes for the Archbishop. Willa Cather [Stout #883]
Has moved out of her apartment and put everything in storage. Neighborhood ruined by subway construction. What does she think of Archbishop? Review in New York World calls it weak as a novel. What is a novel? This is more like a legend. No women but the Virgin Mary. Took joy in doing it. She and Grant Overton were the only two reviewers who liked My Ántonia, and this is even less like a conventional novel. A narrative; something like a folk song. Was to have sailed on the Berengaria yesterday, but cancelled because of her father's illness. Willa Cather [Stout #892]
Is recovering from influenza. Enjoyed reading about his meeting with Stephen Tennant and mother and stepfather, Sir Edward Grey. Didn't mean Grey was stern, but his interests and Stephen's utterly dissimilar. Very pleased with O Pioneers! in autograph edition. Did he hear the recital Hephzibah and Yehudi Menuhin gave in Boston? Such a joy to know them! Willa Cather [Stout #1401]
Please come to dinner at seven on Saturday, June 6, if she is in town. Seeing Undset again would be a great joy. Is not an invalid now [Stout #1584]
Received his letter dated December 8, 1943, but the postmark is October 17, 1944. How can he ask what she thinks of Jane Austen and Emily Bronte? Anyone with good sense knows they are both wonderful, though in very different ways. Believes he would not like George Sand. She was a wordy, moralizing writer and almost never sincere. See "A Chance Meeting" in Not Under Forty re. George Sand. How can he say the public is never deceived? They always are! Not humanity in the long run; after two or three centuries the sound writers last, others don't. Those who last comprise the "great tradition." While ill, read Chaucer and he made her want to get well again. That's what a "great tradition" means. Why does he imagine she does not value critical writing? Is now going to talk to him very directly. Why did he begin Lascar if he wasn't going to persevere on it simply for the joy of doing so, not for any other reason? It's been ten years now. Why hasn't he written it? Quit talking about it and just do it! P.S.: When he writes again, please leave a wider margin. W. S. C. [Stout #1685]
Has kept hoping to write a letter by hand, but has been in brace since December 16. Is afraid of losing the story she was enjoying working on. Cries every time she reads her letter. In the early days, when making her living in newspaper work or teaching and sending money to family, wrote for the joy of it. Over the years has managed to recapture many happy memories by writing. The world has been good to her, but Red Cloud has not. Hard to believe Helen McNeny would lecture on Granville Hicks, who built his career attacking her, in the Auld Library! Naturally, this delights people in Red Cloud who like to spend their time figuring out where she got everything in her books. Truth is, most of the time doesn't know— they just came to her, without her even realizing she wasn't making them up. Remembers how angry Mrs. Fred Garber was about A Lost Lady; she told Douglass she ought to have sued. Never meant to write about Mrs. Garber, but in the shock of learning of her death the story came to her. Wrote an honest recording of feelings she evoked. Mustn't show this letter to the likes of Helen Mac! Willie [Stout #1689]
