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 will write the letter for you, but please tell me something more definite about this fellowship. Is it a fellowship in English, or Literature, or what? There must be many fellowships offered at Smith4, and I can't write the lady so vaguely as to recommend you for "a fellowship"—I must be able to make some clear statement to her.
I'd write you a letter, my dear, but I am terribly busy. Mary Virginia5, Adelaide6, and Donovan7 were here for Thanksgiving dinner.
With love to all of you Your Aunt Willa Miss Virginia Cather1 1225 South Centre St. Casper3 Wyoming NEW YORK, N.Y. STA Y2 DEC 4 1933 1230 PM Air MailInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2333.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2333
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Virginia Cather1
- Date letter was written
- December 4 [1933]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Private women's liberal arts college in Northampton, MA, one of the "Seven Sisters" group of private women's colleges in the northeast U.S. Elsie Cather, Mary Virginia Auld Mellen, Virginia Cather Brockway, and Edith Lewis were all graduates, and Cather received an honorary degree from Smith in 1933.
Person Annotations
Brockway, Virginia Cather (1912-1984) (“West Virginia”). Cather's
niece. Born in Lander, WY, to Roscoe Cather and Meta Schaper
Cather, Virginia graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, WY, in
1929. She received an A.B. in English from Smith College in Northampton, MA,
in 1933, the same year Willa Cather received an honorary doctorate there. In
1934, she enrolled in the University of Chicago School of Social Services
and was, for a time, a social worker. She married John Hadley Brockway, a
Navy officer, in 1936. They moved frequently until his retirement from the
Navy. She had one child, son George. In letters, Willa Cather sometimes
calls her "West Virginia" to distinguish her from her cousin Mary Virginia
Auld because Virginia Cather's birthplace in Wyoming was farther west than
Mary Virginia's in Nebraska.
Mellen, Mary Virginia Auld (1906-1982) (“Virginia,” “M.V.”).
Cather's niece. Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld
and James William Auld, Mary Virginia graduated from Red Cloud High School
in 1924 and then spent a year at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA, to qualify for
admission to Smith College in Northampton, MA. In 1929 she received an A.B.
in psychology from Smith and then moved to New York City, where she found
work at Lord & Taylor before telling her aunt of her arrival. In 1930,
probably with Willa Cather's help, she secured a position in the Circulation
Department of the New York Public Library. In 1931, she entered the
library's internal training school and in 1932 was assigned to the Tremont
branch library in the Bronx. After Mary Virginia’s parents divorced in 1933
Cather took a quasi-parental role. She paid for vacations and when, in 1935,
Mary Virginia married Richard (Dick) Mellen, a graduate of Harvard Medical
School and roommate of her brother William Thomas Auld at Amherst College,
she supervised wedding arrangements. After Dick was commissioned as a doctor
in the Air Force, Mary Virginia—much to Cather’s
regret—accompanied him to Chattanooga, TN, where he was assigned. In
Cather's will, Mary Virginia was designated a beneficiary of the literary
estate.
Adelaide. No further information is available about this person.
Donovan, Albert Daniel (1888-1946). Cather's friend and former student. Born in Pittsburg, PA, Albert Donovan entered Allegheny High School in 1904, where Cather was one of his teachers. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and, while stationed in New York, introduced Cather to fellow soldiers; these conversations informed Cather's work on One of Ours (1922). After the war he settled in New York, where he worked in accounting and socialized with Cather regularly. In 1940 he lived with Hugh Clark at 52 E 64th Street, just around the corner from the 570 Park Avenue apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that Cather shared with Edith Lewis.
Place Annotations
