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 |
THACKERAY, LONDON.
TELEPHONE,
1905 GERRARD. THACKERY HOTEL,
(OPPOSITE THE BRITISH MUSEUM)
GREAT RUSSELL STREET,
LONDON2. May 20th 1909. Dear Mrs. Hueffer1;
I am so sorry to have let you in for a sharp note from Mr. Conrad3. You see the whole matter was, in a manner, accidental. I was telling Mr. Hueffer4 how much I hoped that we might be able to get some of Conrad's works for the magazine5, and he said "Why don't you go down and see him?" Before that I had not the remotest intention of trying to see Mr. Conrad because I had not the slightest excuse for doing so beyond the wish to get some of his work if possible. Mr. Hueffer, who has been helping me to several good things for McClures, said he thought Mr. Conrad would not resent an interview on these general terms, and added that if I went down to Smeeth6 I would have a few hours with you. I do regret missing you altogether like this, and I hope I have not made a lot of bother for you. Surely you had nothing to do with with my projected invasion. You were the helpless victim of a letter and a telegram, and I can't see that you were at all "drawn in" as Mr. Conrad says, to any attempt. I should say that you were quite guiltless.
I am leaving for Paris7 on Saturday, to
return to London2 in about two weeks. Surely
by that time you will have come to town, and I hope you can come to see me. I shall
return be stopping at this same hotel.
With greetings and many good wishes to you, I am
Faithfully Willa Sibert Cather Mrs. Ford Madox Hueffer1FIDE ET SPE
LONDON
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0161.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0161
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elizabeth Martindale Hueffer 1
- Date letter was written
- May 20, 1909
- Place letter was written
- London, Greater London, England2
- Location of original letter
- Ford Madox Ford Collection, Brown University, John Hay Library, Providence, RI
Person Annotations
Hueffer, Elizabeth Martindale (1876-1949) (“Elsie”). Wife of Ford Madox Hueffer. The daughter of William Martindale, a pharmacist and his wife, Mariah Harrison Martindale, Elizabeth Martindale eloped with her school friend Ford Madox Hueffer in 1894 because her father opposed their marriage. On Cather’s 1909 visit to England on McClure’s Magazine business, she met Ford Heuffer, who lived in London while Elsie Hueffer lived in Smeeth with their two daughters. Elsie became implicated in her husband’s failed attempt to arrange a meeting between Cather and author Joseph Conrad. By the the time Elsie Hueffer’s husband began calling himself Ford Madox Ford in 1919, the two had long been estranged but she refused to grant him a divorce.
Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924), British novelist and master mariner.
Born in the Ukraine to Polish patriot parents, Conrad's fiction, all
written in English, often drew on his maritime experiences. He published
only one story in McClure’s Magazine, “The Brute”
(1907), but had various other dealings with S. S. McClure’s other publishing
enterprises from 1898 to 1910. During a trip to London in 1909, Cather
attempted to secure more material from him for the magazine. Cather's
letters indicate that she continued to read Conrad, often praised as a
modern master of narrative technique, closely and seriously.
Ford, Ford Madox (1873-1939) (“Ford Madox Heuffer”). British author, editor, and critic. Born in Surrey, England, Ford Madox Heuffer was brought up in London. In 1894 he eloped with his school friend Elizabeth Martindale, whose father opposed their marriage. The couple had two daughters and lived in Winchelsea, where Ford Hueffer befriended many local authors, including Joseph Conrad, with whom he collaborated on Romance (1903), a novel about pirates. After a 1904 breakdown, he spent time in Germany; on his return to England, he lived mostly in London, apart from his wife and children, and established the English Review. His novel The Good Soldier (1915) established his reputation as a novelist, but his complicated romantic life and his wife’s refusal to grant him a divorce undermined his personal reputation. After serving in the British Army during World War I, in 1919 he changed his name to Ford Madox Ford. He lived in the Provence region of France during the 1920s, and then in the U.S. from 1929 until his death. On a 1909 trip to London for McClure’s Magazine, Cather met Heuffer and was disappointed that he failed to arrange a promised meeting between her and Conrad. Ford’s account of Cather’s time at McClure’s in his memoir Return to Yesterday (1932) contains multiple obvious errors, and Cather disputed the accuracy of his account of her 1902 meeting with A.E. Housman.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
