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 |
This is not the long letter which I want to write you from my heart, and I would not think of sending it to you had I not seen in a copy of the Commercial Advertiser3 that Miss Schwartz4 had been speaking at a club in Red Cloud5 about Cornelia Otis Skinner6. At about that time Cornelia Skinner sent me this sketch of her mother. I thought you might be interested to read it, and that perhaps Miss Schwartz might be interested to see it. Maud Skinner's7 story is so typically American — typical of a crude period when so many brave and fine young people were struggling out of little frontier towns into towns only a little larger, not because they wanted to get rich or to cut a splurge, but because honestly, at the bottom of their hearts, there was a longing to know the really fine things and fine people of the world.
Lovingly to you and Mary8 WillieInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1478.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1478
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten and handwritten on recto.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Carrie Miner Sherwood1
- Date letter was written
- April 2, 1940
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Sherwood, Carrie Miner (1869-1971). Sherwood, Carrie Belle
Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader; Cather's friend. Born in Waukon,
IA, to James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest
of their children. The family moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the
Miner Brothers store became the largest in town. Cather remembered meeting
Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie, her mother, and siblings were confirmed in
the Catholic church. In 1888, she studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at
Notre Dame, IN. She married bank clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they
had two sons. The Sherwoods travelled often in the West, and visited Europe
in 1930. They built a new house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in
1908; Cather sometimes sent materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious
attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood led local Red Cross work during the two World
Wars, served on the Red Cloud school board and park commission, and was
active in the League of Women Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace
Episcopal Church. Cather corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout
her life and dedicated My Ántonia to Carrie, model
for Frances Harling in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of
Mildred Bennett’s chief sources for The World of Willa
Cather (1951), and was instrumental in setting up what is now the
Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud.
Swartz, Yola (1884-1958). Librarian in Red Cloud. Born in Illinois, Yola Swartz moved with her family to Webster County, NE, where her father farmed in Pleasant Hill precinct. After W. T. Auld founded the Red Cloud City library in 1918, she was appointed the city librarian, a post she held until her retirement. She made a point of announcing in the local newspapers when the library acquired new works by Cather, and under her auspices a photograph of Cather was installed in the library with public ceremonies in February 1924.
Skinner, Cornelia Otis (1899-1979). American actress,
writer, and humorist. Skinner’s parents were the well-known
actors Otis Skinner and Maud Durbin Skinner; Cornelia made her stage debut
in 1920. In 1924 she began writing sketches and monologues, touring as a
one-woman show. Her humorous essays appeared in magazines such as the New Yorker and were later collected in a series of
books. Her most famous book, written with Emily Kimbrough, was Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1942), about their
travels in Europe in the early 1920s; the memoir was made into a film in
1944. Skinner also wrote biographies, including one of Sarah Bernhardt, Madame Sarah (1967). Cather may not have ever met
Cornelia, but she knew her mother, Maud Durbin Skinner. In a letter from
Cornelia to Cather, she thanks Cather for her condolence letter on her
mother's death.
Skinner, Lucy Maud Durban (1871-1936). American actress. Born
in a small town in Missouri, Maud Durban was the daughter of a train
despatcher and his wife. In the late 1880s she was a member of Modjeska’s
touring company, as was Otis Skinner. When he formed his own company in
1894, she joined it as the leading lady; they married in 1895. She retired
from the stage after their only child, Cornelia Otis Skinner, was born to
devote herself to the child’s education. She returned to the stage ten years
later and acted in a few silent films based on stories she had written.
Cather met Maud Skinner after she wrote Cather an appreciative letter about
Cather’s story “Two Friends” (1932).
Creighton, Mary S. Miner (1873-1968). Clubwoman; Cather’s
friend from childhood. Born in Iowa, Mary Miner was the second
daughter of James and Julia Miner, neighbors of the Cather family in Red
Cloud, NE. Willa Cather later recalled that when she first moved into town
with her family and enrolled in school in 1885, “Margie Miner was so jolly I
wanted awfully to know her.” They became lifelong friends and
correspondents, and Mary’s sisters Irene and Carrie were equally close to
Cather. Mary Miner wed local physician E. A. Creighton in 1900 and lived the
rest of her life in Red Cloud. She was the prototype for Julia Harling in
My Ántonia (1918).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Red Cloud Commercial Advertiser
