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 TWENTY-THIRD STREET
NEW YORK September sixth 1911. Dear Mr. Dwight1:
I wish we could use some of these verses, because I like them all,.
personally,
bBut I think they are just a little too intellectual for the Magazine3; that is, they would require on the part of
the reader too cultivated a taste. I never set about figuring out just what kind of
verse we could use in McClure's, but I find that the kind we do use successfully is
a sort of "reportorial" verse; most of it either makes a little picture or tells a
little story, and most of it is emotional rather than intellectual - that is,
it is the expression of common feelings rather than uncommon perceptions.
You will be in town2 before long now, will you not? Do let me know when you come. I am beginning to pull hard at the tether, and am more and more eager to get away.
Faithfully, Willa Sibert Cather Mr. H. G. Dwight, Montpelier4, Vt. Enc.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0203.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0203
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Harrison G. Dwight 1
- Date letter was written
- September 6, 1911
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Harrison Griswold Dwight (AC 1898) Papers, 1890-1959 (MA.00012), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst, MA
Person Annotations
Dwight, Harrison Griswold (1875-1959). American writer and diplomat.
Dwight was born in Constantinople, Turkey, to a missionary family.
His early education was abroad, but he graduated from Amherst College in
Amherst, MA, in 1898. He joined the consular service and later worked as a
translator during World War I. Cather apparently met him in 1906 in
connection with editorial work at McClure’s Magazine.
Cather and Dwight occasionally met socially; he apparently also knew
Cather’s Pittsburgh friends, Mary and May Willard. Her letters often report
her reactions to his work, including Stamboul Nights
(1916), which drew on his experience in the Middle East.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
