Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer. Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to 1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children, Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett, who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.

Van Tuyll, Alverda. Houghton Mifflin staff member. Van Tuyll read the manuscript of The Song of the Lark (1915) and worked on promotional materials related to the novel. She also worked on the production of My Ántonia (1918).

Farrar, Geraldine (1882-1967). American opera singer. Born in Melrose, MA, to a professional baseball player father and an amateur singer mother, Geraldine Farrar began formal study of voice in Boston in 1894 and then studied in New York City from 1897 to 1899, when she, accompanied by her parents, left for study in Europe. Her operatic career began in earnest in 1900, and she made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1906 in Roméo et Juliette. As a regular opera goer in New York City, Cather often heard Farrar sing at the Met, and she met her when researching “Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad” (McClure’s Magazine December 1913). Cather comments on Farrar’s noted talent for acting, as well as singing, her operatic roles, and her indebtedness to French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who took Farrar under her wing in Paris. Elements of Farrar’s personality and career may have inspired aspects of Kitty Ayreshire, featured in Cather’s stories “A Gold Slipper” (1917) and “Scandal” (1919). Farrar retired from the operatic stage in 1922 but continued her regular concert touring in her personal Pullman rail car, bringing operatic music to small towns and working class audiences. She also acted in silent film versions of operas and was a popular recording artist. References in Cather’s letters suggest that Cather saw Farrar socially in New York City and may have corresponded with her, but no letters are known.