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 |
Will you3 write Miss Howell4 that I am not in "the East" at present, and that I have no attitude at all toward "films" any more than I have an attitude toward surgery or sculpture. Writing for the stage is simply not in my line of work. I have never written a play — I never even attempted to write one. Theatrical producers have not bothered me now for a long while. They understand that I do not feel that I have any talent for playwriting and have no desire to write plays. I have never written a novel or a story on a subject suggested by a publisher, then why in the world should I struggle with a medium in which I have never worked simply to oblige a film producer? Writing for the stage is not my business.
I feel sure, Miss Leighton, that Mr. Greenslet5 knows this is a true statement. I had not known that the picture rights of THE SONG OF THE LARK6 were still in the hands of an agency,- I thought that had blown over long ago7. Any picture version of the novel would be over my bitterest protest, and I would do anything within the possible to prevent a film version of the book.
Very cordially yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1479.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1479
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elizabeth C. Leighton1
- Date letter was written
- April 2, 1940
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MS AM 1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
On 29 February 1940, Leighton responded on behalf of Greenslet to Howell's letter proposing that Cather write a script for Ingrid Bergman, saying that she would take up the matter with Greenslet when he returned to the office on 8 March 1940. However, as Greenslet explained on 5 April 1940, his return from Florida was delayed because he became ill with the flu, and Leighton evidently forwarded Howell's proposal to Cather. Cather's statements in the second paragraph of this letter suggest that the proposal was for Cather to write a script for a film version of The Song of the Lark (1915).
On 5 April 1940, Greenslet assured Cather that he shared her assumption about a proposed film adaptation of The Song of the Lark and that he would write Howell telling her to drop the matter.
Person Annotations
Leighton, Elizabeth C. (1917-after 1978) (“Betty”). Secretary to Ferris Greenslet. Born in Massachusetts, daughter of Orlando S. Leighton and Amy C. Leighton, Elizabeth Leighton was working as a secretary at a publishing house in Boston by 1940. She corresponded with Willa Cather on Ferris Greenslet’s behalf in the 1940s.
Warren, Miriam Howell (1899–1972). American literary and talent agent. Born in New York City to Sarah Olive Bell and Charles Howell, Miriam Howell worked as an editor for Modes and Manners, a syndicated department store fashion magazine, and as a story editor at Goldwyn Studios. She spent most of her career working as a literary and talent agent for agencies including Leland Hayward Inc.’s “American Play Company” and Paul Small Artists Ltd., Inc. In 1951 she formed her own agency, the Miriam Howell Agency. In 1940, Warren contacted Cather with the suggestion that she write a script for Ingrid Bergman.
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.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather
