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 wish I could write you a long letter, but I have just come back to New York2 after an absence of seven months and there are hundreds of letters to answer - besides I am just going to work on a new story3 and am quite bankrupt of time. Your letter is a nice one though, and I want at least to acknowledge it. Yes, "Antonia"4 was done from a living model - a Bohemian girl5 who interested me intensely in my childhood, and she has a lot of children just as I said, and I love them all! My friendly greetings to you, dear student, and good bye.
Very cordially yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2804.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2804
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Olga Folda Stepanek1
- Date letter was written
- December 5, 1925
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Olga Stepanek, English Papers, 1910-1960 (RG/12-10-23), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Person Annotations
Stepanek, Olga Folda (1906-1998). American writer and visual artist. Born in Linwood, NE, Olga Folda graduated from Downer College in 1927 and then traveled in Czechoslovakia with her parents. After earning an MA in English from the University of Chicago in 1930, she married Orin Stepanek, and the couple had four daughters: Olenka, Natasha, Teresa, and Antonia. Stepanek wrote journals, poems, short stories, and an unpublished novel. Following her husband’s death in 1955, she joined the English Department faculty at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, establishing the English as a Second Language program. Willa Cather briefly corresponded with Stepanek in 1925 about My Ántonia (#2804) and in 1928 about Stepanek's travels to Czechoslovakia (#2806).
Pavelka, Anna Sadilek (1869-1955) (“Annie”). Cather’s Webster County
friend. Anna Sadilek was born in Bohemia, now part of the Czech
Republic, daughter of Francis and Anna Sadilek. Her father, a weaver and
musician, brought the family to Nebraska in 1880, settling in north central
Webster County. After his death, Anna came to Red Cloud, NE, and worked as a
domestic servant for the J.L. Miner and Silas Garber families, among others.
She had a daughter by James William Murphy in 1892, and married John Pavelka
in 1896; they had twelve children together, three of whom died young. The
family farmed in northern Webster County. After Cather reestablished contact
with Anna Pavelka in 1915, they corresponded for many years, and Cather
occasionally sent gifts. Anna (usually referred to as Annie) served as the
prototype for Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia (1918).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
