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 |
Where does little Margaret second4 find such enchanting Christmas! I still have her last year's card on my writing desk. (Little Mexican in burro cart) and now comes another one so cunning that I must find a place for it, too. I cant give up the little Mexican. Please give her a special hug for me.
With love Your Aunt WillieHappy New Year to you all5!
Mrs. Lynn S. Ickis1 16221 Greyton Road East Cleveland3 Ohio NEW YORK N.Y.2 JAN 3 1943 10 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2381.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2381
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elizabeth Cather Ickis1
- Date letter was written
- January 1, 1943
- 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
Person Annotations
Ickis, Elizabeth Cather (1915-1978) (half of the “twinnies”).
Cather’s niece. Elizabeth and her twin sister Margaret were born
in Lander, WY, to Roscoe and Meta Cather, and moved with the family to
Casper, WY, in 1921. Elizabeth and Margaret both attended the University of
Colorado, graduating in 1937, and visited Willa Cather and Edith Lewis on
Grand Manan during the summers of 1936 and 1937. In Cather’s later letters
to them she often refers back to their summer visits as a magical time.
Elizabeth moved to Colusa, CA, with her parents in 1937 and married Lynn S.
Ickis, an electrical engineer, in April 1938. They lived in Cleveland, OH,
and had two children, Margaret and John.
Fernbacher, Margaret Ickis (1939- ). Cather's great niece. Born in Cleveland, OH, Margaret Ickis was the first child of Lynn Ickis and Elizabeth Cather Ickis (Willa Cather’s niece). In 1975, she married Frank Fernbacher, and the couple had one son, Michael. They lived for many years in Willoughby, OH. She likely met Willa Cather when she was a young child.
Ickis, Lynn S. (1913-2003). Elizabeth Cather's husband. Born in Denver, CO, Lynn Ickis graduated from the University of Colorado and received a master's degree from the Ohio State University. For most of his career he worked as an electrical engineer at General Electric in Cleveland, OH. He married Elizabeth Cather (Willa Cather’s niece) in 1938 and the couple had two children, Margaret and John.
Place Annotations
