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 |
Pittsburgh2 Mar 7, 1898 My Dear Mariel1;
Yesterday I made the interminable journey out to Homestead4 to see—whom do you think? No less a person
than Mary Esther Robbins5 who is
catalogueing books at the library6. To go to the Homestead
to make a call is about like going to Crete7, and it's Hades8 when you get there, all smoke9 and flames. Miss Robbins, however, is worth
even a short trip to Hades. She inquired for you and your mother10 with real affection, and asked
me to tell you of her engagement. The Gentleman is a Mr. or rather a Herr
Neumann11, a professor of science, has
been a soldier in the German Army, is tall and strong and handsome. She laid particular stress on the
latter engaging quality. I fancy she rather glories in his good looks as if
they were her personal property. She is much plumper than when we knew her,
and has had her face treated with good results. She seems very happy. It is
worth going even to Homestead to see a happy person.
Ona Imhoff12 is in town, at the Carnegie Library13, but I have'nt seen her yet. How funny that she should be landed right among my dear Willards14 and Andersons15. She could'nt have found nicer people.
Now it occurs to me that the Spring vacation is nigh at hand and that there is no reason in the world why you should'nt come on and put in a week with me and see Miss Robbins and the town. Do you fall in with the scheme? Do make an effort to come, Mariel.
I spent a week over in New York16 in February and had a glorious time. By strange fatality I missed all the Lincoln3 people. I think I met every Thesbian in New York, but my soul did'nt seem to yearn toward them much. I had luncheon17 with Madame Modjeska18, which was truly delightful. It has not often been my pleasure to meet so thorough a gentlewoman and so sound a scholar.
Let me know at once if you can come, my dear girl. My O but we'll have a time! Roscoe19 continues to improve20. My warmest love to your mother and all of the family21.
Hastily Willa Miss Mariel C. Gere1 D & 9th Streets Lincoln3 Nebraska PITTSBURGH, PENN2 MAR 8 98 130 PM Mar 8 1898Tells us about Miss RobinsSpeaks of Modjeska LN REC2 MAR 10 98 2 AMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0048.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0048
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of each leaf. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Mariel C. Gere1
- Date letter was written
- March 7, 1898
- Place letter was written
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (RG2639.AM), Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Andrew Carnegie built and endowed a library in his steel mill town of Homestead, PA; it was opened to the public in 1898.
Hades is the name for the underworld in Greek mythology.
Homestead, PA, was the site of many steel mills, notably those of Andrew Carnegie.
Located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh was built in 1895 in the same building as the Carnegie Music Hall and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Cather attended a benefit luncheon meeting of the Twelfth Night Club, an association of actresses, at which Helena Modjeska was the featured speaker.
Roscoe Cather matriculated at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in Sepembert 1897. In early December he was struck by a serious illness. He was not able to be moved home to Red Cloud until January 1898; on February 11, 1898, the Webster County Argus reported that Roscoe Cather was able to go out again after his illness.
Person Annotations
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.
Robbins, Mary Esther (1866-after 1930). American librarian. Born in Connecticut, Mary Esther Robbins graduated from the New York State Library School in Albany, NY, in 1892. Classmate Mary Letitia Jones, an 1885 University of Nebraska graduate who was hired to be librarian at Nebraska, engaged Robbins as her chief assistant. When a new chancellor who preferred men in positions of authority forced them out in 1897, Robbins became a cataloger at the Homestead library, near Pittsburgh, PA, where she and Cather became reacquainted. An engagement to a German science professor apparently dissolved, and Robbins spent the rest of her career working in public and academic libraries and teaching library science. In 1928 she retired to Connecticut, living with her adopted daughter.
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.
Neumann, Herr. German professor of science. In 1898 Neumann was engaged to Cather’s friend, Mary Esther Robbins, but the engagement dissolved.
Imhoff, Mary Ono (1876-after 1914) (“Ono”). American Librarian. Born in Lincoln, NE, daughter of hotelkeeper Joseph J. Imhoff and Mary Imhoff, Ono Imhoff entered the University of Nebraska with the class of 1895, Cather’s class, but after two years went to Woman’s College, Baltimore, MD, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. After studying at the New York State Library School, in 1898 she accepted a position as assistant at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, PA, where she was an associate with other friends of Cather. Imhoff joined the Wisconsin Library Commission’s Legislative Reference Library around 1905; in 1914 she moved to Washington, DC.
Willard, Elisa May (1868-1941) (“May”). Librarian; Cather’s Pittsburgh friend. Born in Vermont, Willard graduated from Smith College in 1894, attended the New York State Library School from 1894-1895, and then moved to Pittsburgh to work at the Carnegie Library, where she served as Reference Librarian for twenty-two years. May Willard, Ethel Litchfield, Isabelle McClung, and Cather formed, as she wrote in a condolence letter to May’s sister Mary, a “little group” that “melted together” (#1540). Willard retired in 1917 and moved to California. Although only one letter from Cather to Willard is extant, they remained friends, and Willard visited Cather in New York City. She died in San Francisco, CA.
0259Willard, Mary (1857-1944) (“Marie”). Elisa May Willard’s sister. Born in Vermont, Mary Willard lived, for a time, in Pittsburgh, PA, with her sister Elisa May Willard, Willa Cather’s close friend during her years in the city; however, it is not clear whether Mary lived in Pittsburgh before Cather’s move to New York City in 1906. The sisters later moved to California. Mary died in San Francisco, CA.
Anderson, Edwin Hatfield (1861-1947). American librarian.
Anderson received a BA (1883) and MA (1887) from Wabash College and
attended the New York State Library School in Albany. Hired as the librarian
at the Carnegie Free Library in Braddock, PA, in 1892, he became librarian
of the new Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in 1895, serving until 1904. He
then served as director of the New York State Library and New York State
Library Training School (1906-1908), and assistant director (1908-1913) and
director (1913-1934) of the New York Public Library. When Cather first moved
to Pittsburgh, she lived in a boarding house near the Carnegie Library, and
Edwin Anderson and his wife Frances befriended her, inviting her to dinner
at their home. When he moved to New York City, he and Cather corresponded
about a variety of matters. Anderson died in Evanston, IL.
Anderson, Frances R. Plummer (c.1864-?). Wife of Edwin Hatfield Anderson. Born in Glencoe, IL, to Jonathan W. Plummer and Hannah A. Ballard, Frances R. Plummer married Edwin Hatfield Anderson in Glencoe in 1891. In 1892 she moved to Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband when he was appointed to the Carnegie Free Library in Braddock, PA. When Willa Cather moved to Pittsburgh in 1891, the Andersons befriended her, inviting her to dinner at their home. After World War I, the Andersons adopted two French girls, Cecile and Charlotte.
Modjeska, Helena (1840-1909). Polish-American actress. Born
in Kraków, Poland, Jawiga Benda went on stage in 1861, becoming acclaimed as
the greatest Polish actress of her time. She emigrated to a ranch in Orange
County, California, in 1876 with her second husband, Karol Chlapowski, a
minor Polish nobleman, informally known as Count Bozenta. Taking the name of
Helena Modjeska (a simplified version of her Polish stage name), she learned
English quickly enough to make her American stage debut in 1877 and soon
became one of the best known and most respected actresses in the country,
famous for her historical and Shakespearean roles. She retired in 1907.
Cather mentions Modjeska often in her early journalism, and in New York in
1898 she attended a luncheon at which Modjeska spoke. Modjeska appears as a
character in Cather’s My Mortal Enemy (1926).
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Gere, Charles Henry (1838-1904). Newspaper publisher; Cather's
employer during college. Charles H. Gere, born in New York,
graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, in 1861 and joined the
Union army. In 1865 he moved to Nebraska, where his family had moved.
Politically active in the Republican Party, he moved to Lincoln, NE, and
founded the city’s first newspaper, the Nebraska State
Journal. He married Mariel E. Clapham of Washington, D.C., in 1871.
While serving as a representative in the first state legislature, he helped
found the University of Nebraska, for which he served as regent from 1882 to
1892. Cather wrote for his newspaper when she was a university student, and
became a friend of Charles and Mariel Gere’s three daughters, Mariel, Ellen,
and Frances. She remembered Charles Gere’s “kindness, his easy wit, the ease
and charm of his personality.”
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.
0050
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.
Place Annotations
