Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 have not written before because I have been too horribly blue and disconsolate to inflict myself upon any one. Not for any reason of course, but the worst kind of blues are those that have no appearant cause.
Well, the tale3 of the tipsy prima donna
is done—for better or for worse, heaven knows, I do not and shant till you come down and tell me. I only know one thing about it, namely that it is done by the method of "effects" entirely. I
am afraid that is it is too long drawn out and has
not enough climax. It is utterly different from anything I ever tried to do before
so allowances must be made on that score. It is not
rocky, but horribly unconventional. I could not help
it. I have not put it in "blank verse" nor "carefully rewritten it," so if its bad there is not much time wasted, only some very good paper.
It is with great joy and gladness that I tell you that I have at last managed to
lose
that Imogen thing4. If I believed in an
overruling providence I should thank it. Say, I dont believe you read the letter5 I
sent with the Edna6
effusion7 at all, it had some allusions to them of which your letter showed utter ignorance. It is
sometimes wise to glance over my epistles since you answer them, even if you risk
finding excessively bad spelling and profanity. This is merely a humble suggestion
if you happen to read this letter. You sarcastically ask where I "got" the word bassoon. I "got" it from the o best of all authority, from Ella Wheeler
Wilcox8's "Beautiful Blue Danube"9 found
on page 29 in "Poems of Passion"10. I also find it in
good use in Webster11. By referring to my last letter
you will find that the person who bore the "worship of worlds" was not Edna12.
Now dont think I am huffy, I had lots of fun over your red ink notes. I knew they
were bad and forewarned you. She does not inspire lofty flights.
Well, I dont know what is the matter with 2 the Lincoln13 post
office. I weighed that last letter before sending it, and it w did not weigh an ounce.
Is Martha14 still in the city? I wonder if she knows how much real, honest satisfaction I get out of hating her. I am sorry she spoiled15 Sappho16 for me. To hear Martha gently saying to Aphrodite "Whatever woe thou wilt work upon me, work it! So that thou art my ally and the friend of my bosom" was more, much more than I could endure. For Aphro dite's sake, for Sappho's, yes, and for Phaedra's did I cut that class. (This pen is the worst one I ever got hold of.)
We have been having a sensational time down here lately, murders, attempted suicides etc.
Wish you could be down here the 4th, Gilham17 is "orator of the day." He showed me his oration the other day and I must say it is a dandy. He is quite a man, in spite of the disapproval of Mr Peterson18 and the Department of Literature.
I have been reading your favorite "Wallenstein"19 again.
How is this for a translation of that last stand of the Countes's,
Countess. To the grace and mercy of a greater master
Do I yield myself.—Where shall the body
Of the Duke find rest its place of rest?
In the Chartreuse, which he himself did found
At Gitschen, rests the Countess Wallenstein;
And by her side, to whom he was indebted
For his first fortunes, gratefully he wished
He might sometime repose in death, O let him
Be buried there. And, likewise for my husband's
Remains I ask like grace. The Emperor
Is now proprietor of all our Castles.
This sure may well be granted us, one sepulchre
Beside the sepulchre of our forefathers.
Oct. Countess, you tremble, you turn pale!
Count. You think
More worthy of me than to believe
I would survive the downfall of my house.
We did not hold ourselves to mean to grasp
After a monarch's crown,—the crown did Fate
Deny, but not the feeling and the spirit
That to the crown belong! We deem it a
Courageous death more worthy of our free station
Than a dishonour'd life.—I have taken poison.
Pretty good English, I think.
3It seems to me that all the accumulated blueness of ages has hurled itself upon me
until my whole mental atmosphere is one dense sub-marine color. There is no earthly
reason for it and I have tried indolence as a balm but it does no good, and hard
work is likewise powerless to aid me. I am not in fit shape to do anything. There
is
one thing I look forward to for help. Mariel20,
Frances21, and "Neddins"22 are going to offer themselves at the shrine of mercy and
come down for a few days. I intend to uncork on them all the bottles
phials of enthusiasm and '83 claret I had saved for you,
and mean to have a good time if I can. I can truly say that "I was and am sick and in affliction and you visited me
not,"23 so I have to take the next best. I want to see the girls very much.
It is queer that just because I happen to want you,
your coming is as impossible as the suspension of the law of gravitation. It is my
luck. The strange thing is that I was ever deluded into thinking you would come. On
your part there is no particular reason why you should. Perhaps the kids would bother you, there are a good many of them. Of course I
am used to them and fond of them and don't mind them. Then
things Nonsense! I won't be bad humoured if I am blue. I honestly believe
you would come if you could even if it were not so pleasant for you because I am
disconsolate and want you. Perhaps I am too confident, if so you have the right to
laugh.
How is the Drama getting on? You have not given me any dramatic bulletin for some time. I try not to think much about it under the circumstances. Is there any possibility that the Solar System may stop rotating long enough for you to steal toward the Republican valley? If there is not the slightest possibility that you might be able to come about that time I think I will ask the Gere girls to come about the 10 of July. If you could possibly come then let me know and I will put them off till later. They can just as well come later.
This concentrated sublimated essence of Blueness is getting too much for me. You
would either dispell it altogether or make it very much more. You always do one or the other. I
am so desperate I long to run the chance of it. If the this worthless feeling don't let up soon I shall Do It and be
justified in it. Existance is not worth much of this sort of thing. What I need is to get my mind
fixed one
on the frivolous things which it is usually occupied with
when I am in Lincoln. I dont mean to be uncomplimentary but you understand.
I have done a very bad paper on Mercutio24, but have not done Cleo25. yet. Why, I used to like to do Shakespeare26 papers and now I just l-o-a-t-h-e them! I cant even read Shakespeare. Why I would rather read Hesperian27 editorials, rather read GREEK!! I am in a state of internal revolution. Come thou down and deliver my soul, I beseech thee. Bring your pistol along and do me a kindly service.
W. C. Morning.Your card just received. Another disappoint- ment.
Never mind. I am getting used to them now. I will be in to l Lincoln the 4, 5 & 6 of July. You will be
gone then. Again Fate. I don't know that I should call to see you any way. I
have set my stipulations. You do not deign to say whether you intend coming down
when you return from Chicago28. For
goodness sake make up your mind then and come. If you dont come consider matters eternally cut short next year. It has been to much a one sided game. I don't want to be under obligations to any
one, even
you. O do come my dear fellow, I cant help 5
thinking you dont come because —. Well, you know why. I have tried one
whole year to efface that, tried as hard as I ever tried to do anything. For
mercy's sake come down and show me I am forgiven. In the meantime Mariel Ned and
Frances, and heres to them for their goodness of heart. If you don't come at all
remember, it is good bye.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0013.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0013
- Contents
- Document is five leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of first foor leaves and on recto only of fifth leaf.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Louise Pound 1
- Date letter was written
- June 29, 1893
- Place letter was written
- Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Louise Pound Papers (RL.00039), Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Durham, NC
Individual Annotations
Likely a never-published short story by Cather.
Perhaps a never-published poem or story by Cather.
The poem Cather sent is extant but the letter in which she enclosed it is not.
Cather's poem "After-Glow" has as its epigraph "To Edna Erline [sic] Lindon," and she describes how the actress's beautiful smile transported her when she saw her in a play.
Cather's references here suggest insider allusions to reading and recitation in Greek class.
Cather is freely adapting Matthew 25:43 in the Bible: "I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."
Person Annotations
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.
Ellsworth, Edna Earlie Lindon (1871-1938). American actress. Born in Chicago, IL, to actors Frank and Emma Perkins, Edna Earlie Perkins began acting with her family, who adopted the stage name Lindon, and as early as 1887, she toured across the American Midwest and Great Plains. 1908, Lindon began touring the vaudeville circuit with Eugene Ellsworth, whom she married in 1910, and they continued to perform together until at least July 1920. In December 1888, Cather likely saw Lindon perform in The Count of Monte Cristo in Red Cloud, NE, and from May to December 1892, Lindon performed in shows, including Galley Slave and The Son of Monte Cristo, at various theaters in Lincoln, NE. Cather likely saw Lindon on stage during this time.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler (1850-1919). American poet. Born in
Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler began writing poetry at an early age; her poems were
published in newspapers, earning her a state-wide reputation while in her
teens. Her Drops of Water (1872), a book of
temperance poems, and Maurine (1875) appeared before
her first great success, Poems of Passion (1883).
Attacks on the supposed immorality of that volume and ridicule of its naïve
versification and sentiments were almost as widespread as its popularity,
with Cather being among the scoffers. Wheeler married Robert Wilcox in 1884;
they had one child, who died at birth. She continued to publish
prolifically; as she became interested in theosophy, spiritualism, and
eugenics, she also wrote on those topics.
Harley, Martha Frances Burks (1874-1966). Cather's college classmate. Born in Missouri, daughter of James R. Burks and Nettie Strode Burks, Martha Burks grew up in Beatrice, NE. She attended the University of Nebraska, where she became a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, was on the staff of the Nebraskan (the Hesperian’s rival student paper), and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. A classics scholar, she was the leader of the Elektra chorus in the February 1894 performance celebrating the university’s twenty-fifth anniversary. After graduation, Martha taught in Beatrice before marrying Lincoln druggist Henry Howell Harley in 1897; they had two children, one of whom died young.
Sappho (630-570 BCE). Greek lyric poet. Sappho was born on the Greek island of Lesbos, near modern Turkey, apparently into a wealthy family. Few details of her life are known with certainty, but she was considered one of the greatest lyric poets of the ancient world—the tenth muse, according to Plato. With the exception of her “Hymn to Aphrodite,” her works survived mainly as fragments quoted by other classical writers. Cather would have become familiar with Sappho’s work through a college course she took on Greek lyric poetry; she later incorporated a fragment attributed to Sappho into her poem “The Star Dial” (1907).
Gilham, James Skewis (1852-1934). Red Cloud attorney. Born in Wisconsin, eldest son of William Gilham and Ann Skewis Gilham, James Gilham graduated from Beloit College in 1872 and was admitted to the bar soon thereafter. In 1874 he moved to Red Cloud, NE, where he practiced law for the rest of his life, associated first with O. C. Case and then with Bernard McNeny. Gilham married Eliza Tulleys in 1877; they had three children. Much in demand as a speaker, Gilham was elected to the state senate in 1892, serving one term. While in Lincoln, he spoke to the University of Nebraska student body on “The Sun as Spoken of in Shakespeare” on March 31, 1893.
Peterson, Hans Christian (1869-1945) (“H.C.”). English teacher. Born in Denmark, son of Christian and Anna Peterson, H.C. Peterson came to the U.S. as a child. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1890, where he became an instructor in English in 1892, the same year he received his MA. He earned his PhD at the University of Leipzig in 1897, returning to Nebraska to teach before serving in the Nebraska Infantry as a private in 1898. Peterson left Nebraska about 1901 and subsequently wrote or edited several books on English literature. He died in Portland, OR.
Gere, Mariel Clapham (1874-1960). Cather’s university friend; a teacher. Mariel Gere, eldest daughter of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, born in Lincoln, NE, entered the University of Nebraska's prep school in the same year Cather did. She and her sisters visited Cather several times in Red Cloud, NE. Both were members of the Union Literary Society until Gere joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in 1892. Gere graduated in the science course and taught chemistry at Lincoln High until 1941. She also served on the Lincoln City Library board for many years. Cather and Gere remained friends and correspondents; Gere defended Cather from accusations that she had been arrogant and friendless during her university years.
Gere, Frances C. (1877-1965). Cather's friend. Frances Gere,
the youngest child of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, was born in Lincoln,
NE. She entered the University of Nebraska in 1894 and graduated in 1898.
Like her sisters, Mariel and Ellen, she joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma
sorority and lived in Lincoln the remainder of her life.
Gere, Ellen Bladen (1875-1941) (“Ned” or “Neddums”). Cather's friend. Ellen Gere, the second daughter of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, was born in Lincoln, NE. She visited Cather in Red Cloud, NE, with her sisters, and Cather included her in her correspondence in the 1890s. Ellen Gere entered the University of Nebraska in Lincoln around 1892, but graduated with the class of 1899. In the 1920s she adopted two children, believing, with her friend Dorothy Canfield, that women who wanted to be mothers did not have to be married.
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616). English playwright, actor, and poet. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright of the English language. While not much is known definitively about his life, he was a member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of theatrical players, beginning in 1594 (the group later changed their name to the King’s Men). From 1590 to 1613, he wrote thirty-seven plays that continue to be widely performed. Cather’s lifelong love for Shakespeare’s work began in childhood as the Cather family had several volumes of Shakespeare in their book collection. While at the University of Nebraska, she took four semesters of Shakespeare and in 1891 published a two-part essay, “Shakespeare and Hamlet” in the Nebraska State Journal. Her fiction is filled with allusions to Shakespeare. In her later years, she formed an informal Shakespeare book club with the child prodigies Yehudi, Hepzibah, and Yaltah Menuhin and spent the last winter of her life reading his works.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"After-Glow" (unpublished) by Willa Cather
"The Beautiful Blue Danube," Poems of Passion (1883) by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Poems of Passion (1883) by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Webster's Dictionary
Wallenstein (1799) by Schiller Schiller
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Hesperian
