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 |
I learned through Annie3 that you are making a Red Cross drive. I have already made my Red Cross contribution here2, but I want to be represented on your list also.
Don't you think my hand4 has come up pretty well? I used to wonder whether I would ever be able to write again. I can dictate letters because I have done it for many years, but I cannot compose by dictation. That would be like playing solitaire with one's back to the card table—dictating the play. You have to see the thing before your eyes, it forms on the sheet of paper like a picture.
The blood-count5 is slowly improving. I
have my down days, but I feel a different person than the one who came back from
British Co
Columbia6 and went at once to the French Hospital7.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1555.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1555
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Carrie Miner Sherwood1
- Date letter was written
- [November 15, 1941]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
This letter was written shortly after #1553, dated 3 November 1941. As this letter is dated Saturday, it was likely written on 15 November 1941, as verified by the handwritten date at the top of the letter, likely by Carrie Miner Sherwood but possibly by an archivist.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Individual Annotations
Cather significantly injured a tendon in her right thumb in November 1940 after signing hundreds of copies of her novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl. Her right hand was immobilized for months afterward, and the pain recurred often in later years.
See #1553.
In 1881 the French Hospital, established by the Société Française de Bienfaisance, opened at 131 West 14th Street, New York. In 1929 the hospital opened locations at 324-240 West 30th Street. Willa Cather stayed at the hospital in the spring of 1940 and returned in December that same year. Cather enjoying being surrounded by the French language and felt the hospital was an "escape from the active world" (#1514).
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.
Pavelka, Anna Sadilek (1869-1955) (“Annie”). Cather’s Webster County
friend. Anna Sadilek was born in Bohemia, now part of the Czech
Republic, daughter of Francis and Anna Sadilek. Her father, a weaver and
musician, brought the family to Nebraska in 1880, settling in north central
Webster County. After his death, Anna came to Red Cloud, NE, and worked as a
domestic servant for the J.L. Miner and Silas Garber families, among others.
She had a daughter by James William Murphy in 1892, and married John Pavelka
in 1896; they had twelve children together, three of whom died young. The
family farmed in northern Webster County. After Cather reestablished contact
with Anna Pavelka in 1915, they corresponded for many years, and Cather
occasionally sent gifts. Anna (usually referred to as Annie) served as the
prototype for Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia (1918).
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
