Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
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| Textual Feature | Appearance |
|---|---|
| passage deleted with a strikethrough mark | |
| passage deleted by overwritten added letters | |
| passage added above the line | passage with added text above |
| passage added on the line | passage with added text inline |
| passage added in the margin | passage with text added in margin |
| handwritten addition to a typewritten letter | typed passage with added handwritten text |
| missing or unreadable text | missing text noted with "[illegible]" |
| uncertain transcriptions | word[?] |
| notes written by someone other than Willa Cather | Note in another's hand |
| printed letterhead text | printed text |
| text printed on postcards, envelopes, etc. | printed text |
| text of date and place stamps | stamped text |
| passage written by Cather on separate enclosure. | written text |
POST CARD
Scattered by the way are quaint communities of adobe huts. The house is always built of
adobe—rude bricks of clay mixed with chopped
straw and dried in the sun. The floor is of earth
and the roof as well. It is the house of Old and
New Mexico, and as a rule extremely tidy. The
adobe resists the heat in summer and cold in
winter. The Mexicans are courteous and hos-
pitable. "PHOSTINT" CARD. MADE ONLY BY DETROIT PUBLISHING CO. THIS SPACE MAY BE USED FOR MESSAGE. THIS SPACE FOR THE ADDRESS. Mrs. George Sibel1 Mount Oliver4 Penn. ALBUQUERQUE5 MAY 13 1912
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0227.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0227
- Contents
- Document is one leaf with image of Mexican home in New Mexico on recto. Handwritten message on verso of postcard.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Helen Hiller Seibel1
- Date letter was written
- May 12 [1912]
- Place letter was written
- Winslow, Arizona, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Seibel, Helen Hiller (1873-1971). Cather’s Pittsburgh friend.
Born in Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents, Helen Hiller
married George Seibel on 6 September 1894. Their one child, Erna, was born
in 1897. Cather met the couple through George Seibel’s work for the Home Monthly, which Cather was editing. Soon the
three were meeting frequently at the Seibel home, studying and translating
French and German literature. Cather read her own poetry and short stories
to them as well. The Seibel house at 114 S. 17th Street on Pittsburgh’s
South Side served as the model for the home of Alfred Engelhardt and his
uncle in “Double Birthday” (1925).
Seibel, George (1873-1958). American literary and drama critic.
Cather met Seibel and his wife Helen while working as editor of the
Home Monthly in Pittsburgh in 1896 and 1897. They
regularly studied French and German together, Cather read her work in
progress to him, and George reviewed April Twilights
(1903) in the Pittsburgh Gazette.
Place Annotations
