Scaife, Roger Livingston (1875-1951). Head of publicity at Houghton Mifflin. An 1897 graduate of Harvard University, Scaife went to work for Houghton Mifflin in 1898 as assistant to Azaria Smith, head of the publicity department. Scaife subsequently assumed Smith’s position and became a shareholder of the corporation and secretary of the board of directors. In 1910, when Ferris Greenslet became editor in chief of the trade department, Scaife divided his shares 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. Scaife anonymously published three satirical novels with Houghton Mifflin, The Confessions of a Debutante (1913), Cape Codities (1920), and The Reflections of a T.B.M. (1920), and two books of children’s verse under his own name. Cather corresponded primarily with Greenslet about her novels, but in his absence she dealt with Scaife during the production of My Ántonia (1918), and her dissatisfaction with decisions made on his authority contributed to her decision to transfer her publishing business to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. In 1934 Scaife left Houghton Mifflin to become executive vice president of Little, Brown. He later became the fourth director of Harvard University Press.

Ford, James Lauren (1855-1928) (“Jim”). American journalist, literary critic, and author. Born in St. Louis, MO, Ford attended school in Stockbridge, MA, and came to New York City seeking work at age sixteen. His first job was as a correspondent for the Railway Gazette. For many years he was literary editor of the New York Herald, for which he wrote book reviews, including one of The Song of the Lark (1915). He was socially acquainted with Cather and attended Friday teas at 5 Bank Street. His employment at the Herald ended when Frank Munsey acquired the paper in 1920, merging it with the New York Tribune. Ford also published several volumes of humorous tales and a memoir Forty Odd Years in the Literary Shop (1923).

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1894). Scottish writer. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Stevenson refused to allow his always fragile health to suppress his adventurous spirit. After taking a law degree, he lived and traveled in France, where in 1876 he met his future wife, a married American, Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, in 1876. They were married in 1880, and he produced his best-known works—Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)—in the years that followed. In 1888 he set sail for the South Seas, settling on the Samoan island of Upolo in 1890, where he died and is buried. Cather admired Stevenson’s writing, discussing him in her journalism in the 1890s, and cherished her “Thistle Edition” of Stevenson’s collected works, published from 1895-1899 by Scribner’s.