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 |
On September 30, 1946, the Bank sent me an acknowledgment of two hundred dollars which I had sent for the Red Cloud Hospital Fund - that small sum was merely a good will gesture. Early in October Mrs, Sherwood4 wrote me a clear and convincing letter regarding the need and usefulness of such a hospital in Red Cloud3. Until them I had completely misunderstood the situation. I had always believed that there was plenty of room in the Mary Lanning Hospital at Hastings5. Mrs. Sherwood's letter did not reach me until January 22nd - the delay was the result of a housekeeping accident.
I am so sorry that I happened to mention your name and the Peoples-Webster County Bank when I was struggling with a disagreeable member of the Stern & Reubens law firm over my income tax. The old head6 of that firm is an expert man in the matter of foreign and American copyright law, and so long as he himself attended to my income tax business everything went smoothly. When, during an illness, he turned over the income tax work to Alexander Scheer7, things did not go well. Mr. Scheer and I are natural antagonists - just one of those things one can't control. I shall not have him make out my tax for the coming year.
Always cordially yours, Willa CatherP.S. I shall be writing Trix8 very soon about pleasanter and more personal matters. Just now the correspondence with foreign publishers is rather terrifying, because so many translations are now being made by European publishing houses that were entirely inactive during the long war.
Mr. S. R. Florance1 Peoples-Webster County Bank Red Cloud3 Nebraska NEW YORK, N. Y.2 FEB 26 1947 12-MInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1826.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1826
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Sidney Florance1
- Date letter was written
- February 28, 1947
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (Caspersen 54), Drew University Library, Special Collections and Archives, Madison, NJ
Person Annotations
Florance, Sidney Riddell (1877-1957). Canadian-American banker and amateur poet. Born in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, a younger son of Edwin Charles Florance and Margaret Riddell Florance, Sidney Florance emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1881. He was working in Chicago where he met Cather’s friend, musician Beatrix Mizer. They married in 1903, settled in Red Cloud, NE, and had five children. He succeeded his father-in-law, Benjamin Mizer, as head of the Webster County Bank, and handled local business matters for Cather when she no longer had family living in Red Cloud.
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.
Stern, Benjamin H. (1874-1950) (“B.H.”). American lawyer. Born in New York City to Hyman Stern and Esther Foster Stern, Benjamin Stern graduated from New York University in 1895 and from Columbia Law School in 1898. In 1902 he joined the New York law firm Stern & Reubens. He specialized in copyright law, lecturing on the subject at New York University Law School and serving as the first counsel to the Authors’ League. He advised Willa Cather on copyright matters, as well as advising her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Scheer, Alexander G. (1886-1958). American lawyer. Born in Austria, Alexander G. Scheer emigrated to the U.S. as a child, becoming a naturalized citizen. As a lawyer he specialized in copyright and was a senior partner of the New York City law firm Stern & Reubens, which advised both Cather and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., on copyright matters. Scheer also handled Cather’s income tax returns.
Florance, Beatrix Elizabeth Mizer (1875-1963) (“Trixie,”
“Trix”). Cather’s childhood friend. Beatrix Mizer was born in
Ohio in a German-American family. They moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1884.
Cather later recalled that when she first enrolled in school in Red Cloud,
“Trix Mizer was the prettiest little girl I had ever seen.” They acted
together in an 1888 production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the Red Cloud
Opera House. Mizer graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1893 and studied
voice at the Chicago Conservatory of Music 1897-1898, qualifying as a music
teacher, and at the Chicago College of Music 1899-1900. She married Sidney
Florance in 1903. In 1909 the couple moved to Red Cloud, where they settled
and raised a family. Beatrix’s Chicago musical studies and return to Red
Cloud may have inspired elements of Cather’s novel Lucy
Gayheart (1935). Cather’s correspondence with both Florances began
as early as 1914 and extended through the 1940s.
Place Annotations
