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 |
There are few things that would please me so much as a degree4 from the University of Nebraska5, and I hope that through you I may express my thanks and appreciation to the University Senate.
I should be very happy and very proud to go to Lincoln6 for the Commencement Day exercises7, but it is impossible for me to leave New York2 until the first of July. Had I known of this pleasant possibility a month or three weeks ago, I could have arranged to get away, but now the nature of my engagements here will not permit my leaving8 the city, even for a few days. Therefore I must tell you, with extreme regret, that I cannot be present at the Commencement Exercises on June 13th.
With deepest appreciation of the honor which the university does me in extending this invitation, I am always
very faithfully yours Willa Sibert CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2031.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2031
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Samuel Avery1
- Date letter was written
- June 3, 1917
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collected Materials (MS008), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
5 Bank Street (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis beginning in 1912, located in Greenwich Village in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Subway construction forced Cather and Lewis to relocate in 1927.
Chancellor Samuel Avery wrote Cather on 28 May 1917 that the University Senate at the University of Nebraska had voted to ask the Regents to give her an honorary Doctor of Letters at their 13 June commencement ceremony.
On 13 June 1917 the University of Nebraska held its commencement at St. Paul's Church at 12th and M streets in Lincoln, NE. Part of the semi-centennial celebration of Nebraska's statehood, the University awarded honorary degrees to John J. Pershing, Theodore Roosevelt, Roscoe Pound, Rollins A. Emerson, Frank S. Philbrick, Robert F. Gilder, Patrick J. O'Gara, Edith Abbott, Willa S. Cather, John G. Neihardt, Clark F. Ansley, and Simeon Mills Hayes. Roscoe Pound gave the commencement address. Pershing and Roosevelt received their degrees in absentia, as Pershing was in France as leader of the American Expeditionary Force and Roosevelt did not arrive in Nebraska until 14 June.
On 8 June 1917, Cather sent a telegram to Avery explaining that, if it wasn't too late, she could attend the ceremony after all (#3137). Avery confirmed she was still invited, and she was in Lincoln on 13 June for commencement.
Person Annotations
Avery, Samuel (1865-1936). Fellow student and later chancellor of the
University of Nebraska. Samuel Avery was born in Illinois but
moved to Nebraska at an early age. He earned a BA degree from Doane College
in Crete, NE, then alternated teaching high school with studying for his B.
S. at the University of Nebraska in 1892, and MA in 1894. He earned his PhD
at the University of Heidelberg in 1896. He was professor of chemistry at
the University of Nebraska until 1908, when he became chancellor of the
university, serving until 1928.
Place Annotations
