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 |
NOVEMBER 10 1922
DISTRIBUTION
k 11/10 Friday Dear Mr. Knopf1;
This is exactly what I would like you to use for the catalogue description of the book of verse4. Please give it to Mr. Oppemheimer5, and tell him it's important to get the titles of books right,- which he didn't!
Don't you think the same text would be good for the jacket? I think the quotation6 from Bradford7 is interesting8 and adequate.
Please glance at the two enclosed letters and return them to me. I am sure that this sort of publicity is good for an author-- Mrs. Fields9 didn't know second rate literary people-- even if it is not directly good for one particular book.
What about a contract for April Twilights? Will you send one down before I go?
Oh, by the way, if that withered vulture, rejoicing in the name of Emma P. Mills10, calls you up, I am at present in Philadelphia11, and you don't know just when I will be back, though I hope to be here for her luncheon12.
Faithfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2541.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2541
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto with Knopf's letter to Cather on verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- [November 10, 1922]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
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.
Bradford called One of Ours (1922) "a profound and powerful epic of the great war." However, although the April Twilights (1923) dust jacket promoted One of Ours, his review was ultimately not quoted.
On 8 November 1922 Cather wrote Mills that she was leaving for Philadelphia but would try to attend the Book and Play Club luncheon if she could (#0334).
Person Annotations
Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York
publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from
Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc.,
in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their
son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher
beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and
One of Ours (1922), partly because she was
dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also
because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what
she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing
the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as
well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence
testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an
important personal friendship.
Oppenheimer, George (1900-1977). American publisher, writer, and critic. Born in New York City, George Oppenheimer graduated from Williams College (1920) and studied playwriting in George Pierce Baker’s 47 Workshop course at Harvard University. He then became advertising and publicity manager for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and helped to publicize works by Willa Cather, H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan, and others. Oppenheimer co-founded Viking Press (1925) before moving to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter. He moved back to New York City in 1955 to work as a writer for Newsday.
Bradford, Gamaliel (1863-1932). American biographer and critic. Born in Boston, MA, Gamaliel Bradford entered Harvard College in 1886 but didn’t graduate. Unsuccessful as a novelist, poet, and playwright, Bradford developed the genre “psychography,” publishing 114 psychological biographies, such as Lee the American (1912), Portraits of Women (1916), and Damaged Souls (1923). As a literary critic, he reviewed Cather’s One of Ours (1922) for the Atlantic Monthly.
Fields, Annie Adams (1835-1915). Literary hostess, author, and social
reformer. At age 20, Annie Adams married James T. Fields,
partner in the Boston publishing house of Ticknor & Fields. Both before
and after her husband’s death in 1881, Fields often entertained important
American, British, and European authors at her home at 148 Charles Street in
Boston, MA. After James’ death, Sarah Orne Jewett, whose books were
published by Ticknor & Fields, began sharing Annie’s homes at 148
Charles Street and Manchester-on-the-Sea, MA. Cather met Fields in Boston in
1908, a meeting Cather described in "The House on Charles Street," an essay
reviewing Memories of a Hostess (a volume of
selections from Fields' journals, 1922). A revised version of this essay,
retitled "148 Charles Street," appeared in Not Under
Forty (1936). After Jewett’s death in 1909, Fields edited The Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), which
included several letters to Cather. Fearing that 148 Charles Street would
become a museum after her death, Fields requested that it be torn down.
Mills, Emma P. (1871-after 1940) American educator and literary critic. Born to George and Jane Mills in Brooklyn, NY, Emma Mills taught English at a private school and gave lectures on literary topics to various New York City society groups. As head of the Book and Play Club, Mills organized literary luncheons and invited various writers as speakers, including Cather in 1922.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
April Twilights and Other Poems (1923) by Willa Cather
"The Atlantic's Bookshelf," Atlantic Monthly (November 1922) by Gamaliel Bradford
