Mariel Clapham Gere (October 4, 1896)

#0031: Willa Cather to Mariel Clapham Gere, October 4, 1896

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Pittsburgh² Oct 4/96 My Dear Mariel¹;

I want you to do me a favor. Write me as soon as you possibly can whether Katharine³ is still out in Montana⁴ or whether she is in Nebraska⁵, and if so when she returned. I have not heard from her since August 1^st and if its intentional ice she is giving me, I want to know it. I am becoming awfully impatient about it. You know she gave me ice once a long time ago and by George I wont stand it a second time.

I'm well and having lots of fun.

Yours Willa

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let0031.xml
Letter identifier: 0031
Contents: Document is photocopy of one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
Person to whom letter was written: Mariel Clapham Gere¹
Date letter was written: October 4, 1896
Place letter was written: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States²
Location of original letter: WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE

Person Annotations

0048

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.

0628

Wing, Katherine Weston (1871-1903) (“Kit”). Cather’s friend. Born in Nebraska, Katherine was the third of four children born to J.B. and Helen Weston, who became well-to-do residents of Beatrice, NE, thirty miles south of Lincoln, NE. She entered the University of Nebraska in 1887, but withdrew for several years due to poor health. When she returned in 1891, she met Cather. She visited Cather in Red Cloud in the summers of 1891, 1894, and 1895, and Cather visited Weston in Beatrice in June, July, and December 1895, where Cather also enjoyed the company of Katherine’s younger brother Herbert (Bert). Katherine attended the library school of the University of Illinois as a member of the class of 1898 but withdrew in 1897. She then remained at home until her June 1902 marriage to Thomas E. Wing, a fellow 1894 University of Nebraska graduate. She moved with him to Scarsdale, NY, where she died of pneumonia in 1903.

Place Annotations

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Montana, United States

Nebraska, United States