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 am sad at heart to think of the sorrow that has come upon you and Dorothy4. I was in the hospital with mastoiditis
when Mr. Canfield5's death6 occurred and did not hear of it until some time
afterward. I heard with additional regret that Dorothy was abroad, because I know
that fact must have made everything harder for you and
for her. Mr. Canfield came into your life and into Dorothy's so much more than most
men come into the lives of their wives and daughters that I cannot but feel how
bitterly lonely you will be; and though so many hundreds of people will be
sympathizing with you, it will all help you so little. And yet all that one can do
is to assure you of this same unavailing
sympathy.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0157.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0157
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Flavia Camp Canfield1
- Date letter was written
- April 15, 1909
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Dorothy Canfield Collection (mss-975), University of Vermont, Bailey-Howe Library, Burlington, VT
Individual Annotations
82 Washington Place (New York City): Cather's second apartment in New York City and the first one she shared with Edith Lewis, located in Greenwich Village in the Manhattan borough. Cather and Lewis lived here from 1908 to 1911.
James H. Canfield died on 29 March 1909 after several "apoplectic attacks" that followed a street car accident.
Person Annotations
Canfield, Flavia Camp (1844-1930). Clubwoman; painter; mother of Dorothy Canfield. Flavia Camp was born in Wisconsin, although her family came from Vermont. She was an early graduate of the University of Wisconsin and taught school and art before marrying James H. Canfield in 1873. Their son James A. Canfield was born in 1874, and their daughter Dorothy in 1879. A painter, Flavia studied in Europe, taking her daughter with her on several occasions. She was an activist and social reformer as well, believing in the power of women to effect change by organizing. She was one of the founders of the University of Nebraska Women’s Club, as well as the Ohio State Women’s Club and many others, and was president of the Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs. Late in her life she wrote Around the World at Eighty (1926), an account of a world tour she took at that age.
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield (1879-1958). American novelist; educational
and social reformer. Dorothy Canfield and Willa Cather became
friends in 1891 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Canfield's
father, James Canfield, had come to serve as Chancellor. The family moved to
Columbus, OH, in 1895 when James Canfield assumed the presidency of Ohio
State University, from which Dorothy graduated in 1899. She then followed
her father to New York City, where he became Librarian of Columbia
University, and she pursued graduate study in Romance Languages at the
University of Paris and Columbia, from which she earned a PhD in 1904. On
Cather’s first trip to Europe, she spent time in France and England with
Canfield, including an awkward visit to the home of poet A.E. Housman.
Cather derived the central character of “The Profile” (1907) from Canfield’s
friend Evelyn Osborne, whom Cather had met in Europe. Cather and Canfield
became estranged for more than a decade because Canfield objected to the
story’s planned inclusion in The Troll Garden (1905).
Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, and their primary residence
was Arlington, VT. Canfield Fisher had spent 1916-1918 in France engaging in
war relief work, and Cather’s consultation with her about the accuracy of
her depiction of wartime France in One of Ours (1922)
led them to reconcile. In 1925 Canfield Fisher became a founding member of
the Book of the Month Club selection committee. She published her novels
(most of them very popular) under the name Dorothy Canfield but her various
nonfiction works as Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
Canfield, James Hulme (1847-1909). Educator, chancellor of the
University of Nebraska. James Canfield was born in Ohio but grew
up in Vermont and New York City. After graduating from Williams College in
1868, he went west, where he married Flavia Camp in 1873. Their children
were James A. Canfield and Dorothy Canfield (Fisher). He was appointed
professor of history at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1877; from
there he was called to be chancellor of the University of Nebraska in 1891.
Cather’s class made him an honorary member of their class, as they had all
entered the university that year. A dynamic man, he was popular with the
students and with people throughout Nebraska, a tireless campaigner for the
value of the rapidly growing university to the state. Ohio State University
called him to its presidency in 1895; from there he went to Columbia
University as head librarian from 1899 until his death in 1909.
Place Annotations
