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 |
44-60 EAST TWENTY THIRD STREET
NEW YORK.4 1180 Murray Hill Avenue5 Pittsburgh Pa.2 November 29, 1907 My Dear Mr. Chandler1;
Dr. E. J. Foster6 told me that he had placed in
your hands a diary which he kept at Mrs.
Eddy7's suggestion and which contained many of her utterances. This diary
he is willing that I should quote from8 if you have no
objection. I shall return to Boston9 in
about a week and I write to ask you whether you could then let me have access to
this book? I would use from it only such extracts as you consented to my using copying. If you could permit me to make
extracts from the diary, or even to read it, you would be rendering me very great
assistance, and I hope you may see your way to help me. If you could send the book
to Mr. Peabody10, I could examine it in his
office.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0132.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0132
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- William E. Chandler 1
- Date letter was written
- November 29, 1907
- Place letter was written
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States2
- Location of original letter
- William E. Chandler Papers, 1829-1917, New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, NH
Individual Annotations
1180 Murray Hill Avenue (Pittsburgh, PA): Located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, now part of the Murray Hill Avenue Historic District, 1180 Murray Hill was the home of Judge Samuel A. McClung and his family. Cather lived there at Isabelle McClung’s invitation from 1901 to 1906. She returned there to visit multiple times until 1915, often writing during these visits.
Person Annotations
Chandler, William Eaton (1835-1917). American lawyer and senator.
Chandler was born in Concord, NH, where, after attending Harvard Law
School, he practiced law and began his political career. He served in the
New Hampshire state legislature, was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Navy by
President Chester Arthur, was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing New
Hampshire from 1887 to 1901, and then resumed the practice of law. In 1907,
Cather contacted him because of his connection to lawsuits concerning Mary
Baker Eddy and her son George Washington Glover.
Foster-Eddy, Ebenezer Johnson (1847-1930) (“E.J.”). American physician; adopted son of Mary Baker Eddy. Born in Moreton, VT, seventh child of Leonard R. Foster and Jane Johnson Foster, Ebenezer Foster, at fifteen, enlisted in the 10th Vermont Infantry in 1862, serving throughout the Civil as a drummer boy and band member. After the war he graduated from a homeopathic medical college in Philadelphia, PA. In the early 1880s he became interested in Christian Science, studying at Mary Baker Eddy’s Massachusetts Metaphysical College. He was legally adopted by Mrs. Eddy in 1888 and worked on publication of her texts until 1896, afterwards retiring to Waterbury, VT. About 1906 he joined Eddy’s son George Glover in a suit over her will, seeking to have her declared incompetent. Cather asked permission from Foster-Eddy’s lawyer, William Chandler, to read and make extracts from Foster’s diary.
Eddy, Mary Baker (1821-1910). American religious leader. Born in New Hampshire, Mary Baker Eddy was married three times, first to George Washington Glover (married 1843, died 1844), then to Daniel Patterson (married 1853, divorced 1873), and finally to Asa Gilbert Eddy (married 1877, died 1882). After being treated by Phinneas Parker Quimby and after Quimby’s death, in 1866, she experienced a revelation about spiritual healing of the body and in 1870 began teaching others about what became known as Christian Science. Her influential book Science and Health was first published in 1875. Both Eddy and the Christian Science Church she founded had long and complex histories, involving multiple conflicts and lawsuits. Cather was assigned to fact check and revise Georgine Milmine’s exposé on Eddy and the church for publication in McClure’s Magazine and spent a great deal of time in New England in 1907 and 1908 interviewing people about and checking legal records pertaining to Eddy.
Peabody, Frederick W. (1862-1932). Lawyer. Born in Brooklyn, NY, son of Enoch Wood Peabody and Cornelia Marshall Peabody, Frederick Peabody graduated from Columbia University, obtaining his law degree in 1888. He moved to Boston, MA, where he married heiress Anna Greenough May in 1894; they had two daughters, and in 1908 they divorced. In 1899 Josephine C. Woodbury retained him in a libel suit against Mary Baker Eddy. Peabody became a prominent anti-Christian Science figure, lecturing and publishing exposés; he joined in suits to declare Eddy incompetent in 1907 and to contest her will in 1911. Peabody corresponded with Georgine Milmine and may have corresponded with Cather in 1906-07, although those letters are not known. Cather refers to him in various letters about the Mary Baker Eddy articles for McClure’s Magazine.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
"The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science," McClure's Magazine (1907 to 1908) by Georgine Milmine
