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 |
S.S. Mc CLURE CO.
ROBERT MATHER.
VICE PRESIDENT.
CAMERON MACKENZIE.
TREASURER.
CURTIS P. BRADY.
SECRETARY.
M.W. FYLNN.
ASST. SEC'Y & TREAS. Mc CLURE'S MAGAZINE,
44-60 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET,
NEW YORK. CABLE ADDRESS
"AIDDECAMP," NEW YORK
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
372 GRAMERCY.
LONDON OFFICE:
186 OXFORD STREET, WEST March third 1911. Dear Mr. Kennan1:-
This morning I received the following cable from Mr.
McClure3, who is in London4:
"Can Kennan sail next week have
arranged Russian
matter his com-
pensation to come out of book."
You know as much about the "Russian matter" as I do. I have heard nothing from the
Chief about it since the letter which I forwarded to you a few weeks ago. This
cable, of course, is not very clear. I do not clearly understand about the book, or
who is to publish it. Mr. Mackenzie5 says he
thinks the Chief means that the Magazine6 is to pay
your passage over and back, and that the rest of your compensation will come out of
the book arrangements. You will probably feel that this leaves the thing a good deal
in the air, so if you will draft a cable stating your terms, or asking Mr. McClure
more definite questions, I will be glad to send it for you. If you could telephone
me
PUBLISHED BY
S.S. Mc CLURE CO.
ROBERT MATHER.
VICE PRESIDENT.
CAMERON
MACKENZIE.
TREASURER.
CURTIS P. BRADY.
SECRETARY.
M.W.
FYLNN.
ASST. SEC'Y & TREAS.
Mc CLURE'S MAGAZINE,
44-60 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET,
NEW YORK.
CABLE ADDRESS
"AIDDECAMP," NEW YORK
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
372 GRAMERCY.
LONDON OFFICE:
186 OXFORD
STREET, WEST about this before twelve o'clock, I will get the cable off at
once, as I shall not be at the office either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0189.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0189
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Kennan1
- Date letter was written
- March 3, 1911
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- George Kennan Papers (ms013131), Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Person Annotations
Kennan, George (1845-1924). American explorer and journalist.
Born in Ohio, Kennan became famous for his books and public lectures
on his travels through Russia, especially in Siberia and the Caucasus, in
1864, 1870, and 1885. After the 1885 trip, he became a critic of the tsarist
government, advocated for revolution and was banned from Russia. He served
as a war correspondent and foreign correspondent, and was considered the
foremost American expert on Russia. As editor of McClure’s, Cather wrote Kennan about his projected book on Russia,
but the magazine did not publish his later works.
McClure, Samuel Sidney (1857-1949) (“S.S.”). Irish-born
American publisher. McClure immigrated to the U.S. at age nine,
living with his family in Indiana. Despite poverty and the limited education
he had received in Ireland, he graduated from high school and then Knox
College in Illinois. He then moved to Boston, MA, where from 1882 to 1884 he
edited the Wheelman, a bicycling magazine. Despite
opposition from her parents, he married his Knox College classmate Harriet
Hurd in 1883. The couple had four biological children (Eleanor, Bess, Mary,
and Robert), and adopted one (Enrico). In 1884, S.S. started McClure’s
Syndicate, which placed fiction in newspapers across the country. In 1893
with his college classmate John Sanborn Phillips he started McClure's Magazine, which was best-known for the
"muckraking" exposés by writers such as Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens,
but which also published literature. After his cousin H.H. McClure, who
worked for the McClure Syndicate, brought Cather to S.S. McClure’s
attention, McClure, Phillips & Co. brought out Cather’s first book of
fiction, The Troll Garden (1905). When most of the
editorial staff, including Steffens and Tarbell, resigned from McClure’s in 1906, he hired Cather as an editor; she
later became managing editor. After she left her position at McClure’s in 1912 and when S. S. McClure had lost
control of the magazine still bearing his name, Cather ghost wrote his
autobiography (McClure’s serial 1913-1914, book
publication 1914). McClure made repeated—and ultimately
failed—attempts to reestablish himself in journalism and magazine
publishing, often trying to enlist Cather in these enterprises. She almost
went with him to Europe in 1915 to report on the war for the Evening Mail, and she remained personally loyal to
her mercurial and often-irresponsible former employer. He served as the
prototype for Marcus O’Mally, editor of the Outcry,
in her story “Ardessa” (1918), and it has been suggested that Cather modeled
the courtship and marriage between Myra and Oswald Henshaw in My Mortal Enemy (1926) on that of the McClures.
Mackenzie, Cameron (1882 -1921). American magazine editor and journalist. Born in Wilkes-Barre, PA, Cameron Mackenzie graduated from the Lawrenceville School, which his father founded, and studied at Yale University for a year before enrolling in the New York University Law School, from which he graduated in 1907. In 1907 he also married Elizabeth McClure, daughter of S. S. McClure. His father-in-law put him on the editorial staff of McClure’s Magazine, where he worked with Cather. In 1912 he and Frederick Collins wrested control of the magazine from S. S. McClure. Mackenzie resigned from McClure’s in 1915, subsequently writing two novels and serving as a correspondent for the London Morning Post during World War I. He died unexpectedly of pneumonia on board the Cunard liner Aquitania shortly after the ship departed London for New York City.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
