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 expect you have been wondering whether your lovely scarf got lost in the mail, and I am happy to tell you that it did not. It arrived, however, some days after Christmas. I was out of town for nearly two weeks after Christmas day and I did not open the package from my thoughtful nephew until it had lain in the house for some time. It is a lovely scarf, and you were a very nice boy to remember me.
I was amused when Helen Louise4 wrote me that she had gone to visit you by airplane during her vacation! The way you youngsters spin back and forth between Nebraska5 and California6 takes my breath away. I can’t get used to it. For so many years it was always so much easier to go from New York2 to France7 or England8, than to go from New York to California, and it was a much more confortable trip. I wonder whether during the last two weeks you have not rather wished you were on the Pacific Coast? Nebraska can be colder than any country I know except South Dakota9, and some parts of Canada10.
You notice, my boy, that I still
call you Charles Edwin. I think that is a nice name and that is
was the name given you at your
christening, was it not? You were named for both grandfathers11, and I have
sometimes wondered whether your grandfather Garber doesn’t feel hurt that
his name has been rather dropped out. I am sure your grandfather Cather
would have been the last person in the world to wish you to drop the
“Edwin”, for he was so
very careful never to hurt
anybody’s feelings. When any of the rest of us said harsh things to each
other (thank Heaven we didn’t
often)!) your grandfather was always more pained than
anybody else. Now, this is just a little point between you and me, you
understand, and it isn’t a matter for discussion with any of the grownups.
It is just a point you will have to decide for yourself.
When you go down to Red Cloud12 to see your grandfather, please remember me very warmly to him. I did not send out any Christmas cards because I was hurrying out of town, but I would be glad if you gave him my good wishes.
AffectionatelyInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2760.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2760
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only. Includes one envelope, typewritten with unknown handwriting on the verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Charles E. Cather1
- Date letter was written
- January 19, 1942
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Charles E. Cather Collection (MS350), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Person Annotations
Cather, Charles Edwin (1923-2011). Cather’s nephew. Charles’s parents were James D. and Ethel Garber Cather, and he was likely born in Red Cloud, NE, where he spent the early years of his childhood. He was, as Willa Cather wrote to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, “the little nephew I love the best” who inspired her portrayal of the little boy Jacques in Shadows on the Rock (1931) (#1054). He moved with his family to California in the 1930s. Cather continued to be an indulgent aunt as he got older, writing him letters of advice about and lending him money for his education. He attended, but did not complete degrees from, the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, and the Law School at the University of Colorado in Boulder. After his aunt’s death he completed undergraduate and law degrees at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, CA. He was a beneficiary of his aunt’s estate and was appointed her literary executor after Edith Lewis’s death.
Southwick, Helen Louise Cather (1918-2004). Cather’s niece.
Helen was born in Red Cloud, NE, to Willa Cather’s brother James and
his wife Ethel. Willa was a doting aunt on her visits to Red Cloud. In 1931,
Helen moved with her family to Long Beach, CA, where she graduated high
school and attended Long Beach City College. In 1939, Helen returned to Red
Cloud to help care for her maternal grandmother and then enrolled in the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she met her future husband, Philip
Southwick. After graduating in 1941, she briefly returned to California to
work in the personnel department of Douglas Aircraft company, but married
Southwick in Lincoln in 1942, and then moved with him to Champaign, IL. When
Philip’s employment took them to Plainfield, NJ, she frequently spent time
with her aunt in New York City. In 1946, the Southwicks moved to Pittsburgh,
PA, where their son James was born. In later years Helen worked as a school
librarian and was active in the Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, NE. She was
a beneficiary of Cather’s literary estate, and when Edith Lewis died in 1972
she bequeathed Cather books and manuscripts to Helen and her brother Charles
Cather. Helen donated her share of these materials and Willa Cather’s
letters to her to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Garber, Edwin S. (1866-1951). Webster County store-owner; James Cather's father-in-law. Born in Iowa, the son of Webster County pioneers Hannah Garber and Abram Garber (brother of Governor Silas Garber), Edwin grew up in Guide Rock, NE, where he took over his father’s general store. He married Cora Armagost in 1886; they had two children; their daughter, Ethel, married Cather’s brother James. Edwin and Cora moved to Red Cloud by 1920, where Edwin owned an electrical appliance store and served two terms as county clerk.
Place Annotations
