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 |
The two sentences3 about Mrs. Langtry4 and Albert Edward5 can simply be cut out6, and the following sentence can begin "Ray deposited these pictures" etc, instead of "He deposited" etc. I shall be glad if Murray7 takes the book8.
About your suggestion9 for the Book News Monthly10 I shall write you tomorrow, when my trunks are unpacked and my head clears, and when I hope to have a better implement than a quill pen.
Hastily Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0327.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0327
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- October 28 [1915]
- Place letter was written
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MSAm1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
Cather is expanding on instructions given in #0325 (by telegram).
Murray published The Song of the Lark in March 1916.
On 21 October 1915 Greenslet wrote that there would be a "special Cather number" of the Book News Monthly and the editor wanted "some special article" by Cather, "say a brief account of your summer adventures." He also inquired wether Cather could suggest "some well known man" to write an appreciation of her and her work.
Person Annotations
Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer.
Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from
Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as
associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to
1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children,
Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized
in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston
publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially
and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett,
who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to
submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published
novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief
of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of
the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as
partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet
negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent
from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became
a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department
in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of
her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and
undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters
to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.
Langtry, Lillie (1853-1929). British actress. Born Emilie
Charlotte Le Breton on the Isle of Jersey, she was nicknamed "Lillie"
because of her fair complexion. In 1873 she married sportsman Edward
Langtry, and the couple moved to London in 1876. A year or so later, she met
the painter John Millais, who painted her in "The Jersey Lily." She became a
famous beauty and a favorite in London society, having affairs with royalty,
including Edward, Prince of Wales, and his cousin Prince Louis of
Battenberg, by whom she had a daughter. When she was in desperate financial
circumstances, Oscar Wilde suggested she go on the stage; she worked hard at
her acting, and was very successful, investing her money wisely. She was
acclaimed in America on her first tour in 1882, and she returned often,
becoming an American citizen, which enabled her to divorce Langtry in 1887.
As a reviewer for the Nebraska State Journal in 1894,
however, Cather scoffed at Langtry’s acting talents and the worship of her
by American audiences. Lillie Langtry eventually returned to England to
live, marrying Hugo de Bathe in 1898 and becoming Lady de Bathe in 1907. She
separated from her husband and lived her last years in Monaco with her
companion, Mathilda Peat. Langtry in her late life may have served as a
prototype for Gabrielle Longstreet in Cather’s story “The Old Beauty”
(1948).
Edward VII (1841-1910). King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities before his marriage in 1863 to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Queen Victoria excluded him from direct roles in government; he was successful in informal diplomacy. As Prince of Wales, he developed a reputation as a playboy. He did not become king until his mother’s death in 1902. His second son, George Frederick, succeeded him; his eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, died in 1892.
Murray, John, IV (1851-1928). British publisher. In 1878 John Murray IV began working in the London publishing house of John Murray, established by John Murray I in 1768. John Murray IV was appointed publisher to Queen Victoria. In 1916 his firm issued The Song of the Lark (1915) after William Heinemann declined it.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather
Book News Monthly
