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 |
The book of verse4 has not reached me. I have
been ill in a private hospital here for several weeks and am now with
Margaret Deland5, at the dul dull business of getting well and reading
my book proofs6 on the flat of my back.
Perhaps your book of verse is held for me at the New York7 office. Because of my illness
they have not forwarded things. This is only to
tell you why you have not heard from me, and to thank you for sending me the
book, which will probably find its way to me ere long. With many good
wishes
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0211.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0211
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- February 6, 1912
- Place letter was written
- Boston, Massachusetts, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins papers, 1878-1959 (mssAU 1-5456), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Person Annotations
Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter.
Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted
verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected,
advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her
hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a
playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to
her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an
adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In
1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and
director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong
correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both
commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.
Deland, Margaret (1857-1955). American novelist, poet, and memoirist.
Born Margaretta Wade Campbell in Alleghany, PA, Deland attended
Cooper Union in New York City. After her marriage to Lorin Deland, she moved
to Boston, MA. In her long and prolific career, she wrote frequently about
the challenges facing women, tackling controversial issues such as divorce
and extramarital sex. The McClure Newspaper Syndicate syndicated some of
Deland’s works, and S. S. McClure may have introduced Cather to Deland as
early as 1905. In 1905, Witter Bynner, then working for McClure, Phillips,
& Co., sent a copy of The Troll Garden (1905) to
Deland, who regretted the “curious lack of a sense of beauty” in Cather’s
stories (#0105). Nevertheless by 1908, when Cather made her second trip to
Boston on assignment for McClure's Magazine, she and
Deland were friends, and Cather subsequently was a guest in Deland’s home on
trips to Boston. Although Cather and Deland corresponded through at least
1917, Cather’s letters to her have not been located.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Interpretations: A Book of First Poems (1912) by Zoë Akins
Alexander's Bridge (1912) by Willa Cather
McClure's Magazine
