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 |
AXTELL, ORR & CO.
Publishers Pittsburgh, Pa.2 November 20/96 My Dear Mrs. Seibel1;
I had not thought about Thursday being Thanksgiving day either, and I am awfully
sorry but I have an engagement to spend that day with Mr. John Dussss4 of Economy5. What
other evening would suit you next week? I can come any evening but Monday Tuesday
and Saturday. Thanking you heartily for your kind invitation I am
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0033.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0033
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Helen Hiller Seibel1
- Date letter was written
- November 20, 1896
- Place letter was written
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Seibel, Helen Hiller (1873-1971). Cather’s Pittsburgh friend.
Born in Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents, Helen Hiller
married George Seibel on 6 September 1894. Their one child, Erna, was born
in 1897. Cather met the couple through George Seibel’s work for the Home Monthly, which Cather was editing. Soon the
three were meeting frequently at the Seibel home, studying and translating
French and German literature. Cather read her own poetry and short stories
to them as well. The Seibel house at 114 S. 17th Street on Pittsburgh’s
South Side served as the model for the home of Alfred Engelhardt and his
uncle in “Double Birthday” (1925).
Duss, John Samuel (1860-1951). American band director. Born
in Ohio, Duss grew up in Economy, PA, home of the communal Harmonist
Society, where he played cornet in the town band. He studied music in Ohio,
moved to Kansas, married, and moved to a farm in southwestern Webster
County, NE, in 1884. Returning to Economy, he joined the Harmonist Society
and, after the death of the founder, Jacob Henrici, in 1892, made himself
president and took control of the society’s money, then amounting to six
million dollars. He created the Duss Concert Band and took it on tour; in
1903 and 1904, he hired the Metropolitan Opera orchestra for the summer,
conducting it in Madison Square Garden, and taking it on a national tour in
1903. Duss toured with brass bands in 1906 and 1907, then retired to
Economy, where the Harmonist Society had dissolved with the remaining assets
split between the last two members, one of whom was his wife, Susanna.
Cather visited Duss at Economy in 1896.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Home Monthly
