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 |
The above changes3 are quite O.K. with me. I’m so glad to have word4 of Pat5. I am working a little and enjoying it very much.
W. S. C. Dear Mr. Knopf1:Congratulations on your good fortune in securing Kessel’s6
ARMY OF SHADOWS7. Here at last is a book that
tells us how the French Underground worked;
incident by incident, sacrifice by sacrifice. The courage and the constancy
(and the resourcefulness) of all the unconquered and unsought people of
France8 -- this Russian
Kessel has found a way to
bring it all before one’s eyes. If this book is made into a film, it will surely
stir this country9.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2976.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2976
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one enclosure, a transcription of a handwritten letter from Cather to Alfred A. Knopf meant to be quoted for advertising (#2730).
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- [July 16, 1944]
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes enclosed transcription of a letter written from Cather to Alfred A. Knopf meant to be quoted for advertising (#2730). Cather wrote her letter on the enclosure.
- Place letter was written
- Northeast Harbor, Maine, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
On 12 July 1944 Knopf wrote that it "may be too late" to use Cather's statement, but that if they do find an opportunity, they will use it with indicated revisions, noting "Even though he was born of Russian parents, I do not think it would be wise or Kessel would like us to describe him as a Russian."
Knopf's 12 July 1944 letter noted that he and Blanche had heard from their son "as recently as July 4" and that he is in "good shape" but "going on bombing missions regularly."
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.
Knopf, Alfred, Jr. (1918-2009) (“Pat”). Publisher; son of Alfred and
Blanche Knopf. Born in White Plains, NY, “Pat” was the only
child of Alfred and Blanche Knopf. Preoccupied with the publishing business
of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., they left him to be cared for by nannies and sent
him to Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire.
Willa Cather was very fond of him and corresponded with him about his
reading and education. When he failed to gain entrance to Princeton
University, he ran away with only $15 in his pocket, and his parents found
him in Salt Lake City, UT. Alfred Knopf shared this story, otherwise treated
as a deep family secret, with Cather. Pat subsequently enrolled in Union
College in Schenectady, NY. He wrote asking Cather about the structure of
The Professor’s House (1925), and she permitted
Burgess Johnson, Pat’s English professor at Union, to publish her remarks as
“When I wrote The Professor’s House” in the College
English Association newsletter (1938). Pat’s studies were interrupted when
he was called up for military service in 1941; he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross. Awarded his BA in 1943 he joined the family
business, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., in 1946 as company secretary and trade
books manager, subsequently becoming vice president of sales and
establishing the Vintage Books paperback imprint. He cofounded the Atheneum
imprint in 1960 and retired as a senior vice-president of Macmillan in 1988.
Kessel, Joseph (1898-1979). French aviator, author, and journalist.
Born in Argentina, at age ten Joseph Kessel emigrated with his
family to Paris, France. He served as a pilot in both World Wars I and II;
his first book, The Crew (1923), is about his World
War I experiences. He wrote over fifty novels, which were popular in France,
and also worked as a journalist for Le Figaro, France-Soir, and other periodicals. From 1939 to 1940
he served as a war correspondent and then as an aide to General Charles de
Gaulle during WWII. Willa Cather so greatly admired Kessel’s novel about the
French Resistance, Army of Shadows (1944), published
in French in Algiers in 1943 as L’arme e des ombres
and published in translation in the U.S. by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., that she
granted rare permission to use her name in promoting the book.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Army of Shadows (1944) by Joseph Kessel
