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. August thirtieth 1910. Dear Mr. Johnson1:-
Would you be kind enough to change the title of the story4 which I recently shortened for you? The story never really had a name, and I think it was called "Nellie Deane", or "The Story of Nellie Dean" provisionally. I think "The Flower in the Grass" would be a good title for it. That is really the idea of the story; a beautiful girl hidden away in the prairie country where nobody ever saw her. If you will ask one of your assistants to make the change on the manuscript, I shall be very grateful to you.
Very sincerely yours, Willa Sibert Cather Mr. Robt. U. Johnson, C/o The Century Magazine5, Union Square, New York City2.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0184.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0184
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Robert U. Johnson1
- Date letter was written
- August 30, 1910
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Century Company records, 1870-1924 (MssCol 504), New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York, NY
Person Annotations
Johnson, Robert Underwood (1853-1937). American editor, poet, and
diplomat. Born in Washington, DC, and educated at Earlham
College, Johnson began his career in publishing as a clerk at Scribner
Educational Books and was soon promoted to the editorial staff at Scribner’s Monthly, which evolved into the Century Magazine. He was promoted to editor in chief
of the Century in 1909 and resigned in 1913. At the
Century he accepted Cather’s “The Joy of Nellie
Dean” (1911) and rejected “Behind the Singer Tower” (1912). Johnson also was
a respected poet, an advocate of international copyright and environmental
conservation, the secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and
briefly (1920-1921) U.S. Ambassador to Italy.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
"The Joy of Nelly Deane," Century Magazine (October 1911) by Willa Cather
Century Magazine
