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 send you the first copy3 of "The Lasso4," which has been issued to any one. I suppose you will be somewhat interested in this latest "lark" of mine, as it is rather a daring one, so not having leisure to come up my self this evening, I send you my private copy of the new venture.
I would like to have told you of the plan some time ago, but it was found necessary for a time to keep the affair absolutely secret; and even now Louise5 and I shall keep our connection6 with it some what quiet. I have taken the liberty to mark my articles * in this copy I send you.
Hopeing for your approval in this "our" new hazzard, and sure of your support, I remain
Yours Truly Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0006.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0006
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Mariel E. Clapham Gere1
- Date letter was written
- [September 30, 1891]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The first issue of the Lasso, which Cather references in this letter, appeared 1 October 1891, and she suggests that she is writing the evening before its appearance.
- Place letter was written
- Lincoln, Nebraska, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (RG2639.AM), Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
The first issue of the Lasso, a student paper that Cather contributed to, was dated 1 October 1891.
The Lasso was an enterprise of various fraternity men, including James B. McDonald. The "barbs," members of the literary societies, such as Cather and Louise Pound, were not supposed to join with the "Greeks." The two were criticized when their connection to the Lasso became known.
Person Annotations
Gere, Mariel E. Clapham (1838-1912). Cather’s friend; mother of her
friends, the Gere sisters. Mariel Elizabeth Clapham was born in
Washington, D.C., the daughter of Captain John Clapham and Mariel Goodwin
Clapham. She corresponded with Charles Gere for several years before their
marriage in 1871, when she came to Lincoln, NE. When Cather became friends
with their daughters Mariel, Ellen, and Frances, she welcomed her to their
home at 8th and D streets. Mrs. Gere, according to Cather, persuaded her to
grow out her close-cropped hair.
Pound, Louise (1872-1958). American folklorist and university
professor. Pound and Cather met when both were students at the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Cather also knew Louise’s brother
Roscoe and sister Olivia. Cather was deeply infatuated with Louise, who was
both an outstanding student and an accomplished multi-sport athlete. Pound
visited Cather in Red Cloud, NE, several times, but she apparently did not
reciprocate Cather’s intense affection, and Cather’s lampoon of Roscoe Pound
in “Pastels in Prose” (1894) caused a rift between the two women. Pound
earned a BA from Nebraska in 1892, an MA in 1895, and a PhD from the
University of Heidelberg in 1900. She was a professor in the English
department at the University of Nebraska, where she taught Cather's sister
Elsie, until 1945. From 1954-55 she served as the first female president of
the Modern Language Association.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Lasso
