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 |
Because you were kind enough to take an interest in the fate of the book, I want to
tell you4 that Heinemann5 is going to put out an English Edition of
"My Antonia"6. He also published "O Pioneers!"7 in London8. It was splendidly reviewed and had a very fair sale.
John Murray9 published "The Song of the Lark"10, but though the Manchestedr
Guradian11
pubilshed several editorials about it, and a very good signed review12 by Alice
Meynell13, the war conditions cut down the sale in England14. I do not think an English edition does
one much good unless there is someone over there to call attention to a book.
Perhaps your Irish friend can help in that. "O Pioneers!" did get to Edward Garnett15's attention, for he gave it some
very approving paragraphs16 in his general slam17 at American fiction in the Atlantic18 two years or so
ago.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0457.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0457
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- H. L. Mencken 1
- Date letter was written
- May 2 [1919]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is derived from Cather's report of the recent news that Heinemann would be publishing a British edition of My Ántonia (see #0456).
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- H. L. Mencken Collection, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD
Individual Annotations
5 Bank Street (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis beginning in 1912, located in Greenwich Village in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Subway construction forced Cather and Lewis to relocate in 1927.
Cather had just received this news from Ferris Greenslet (see #0456).
In a few sentences and as a contrast to works by Theodore Dreiser and Ernest Poole, Garnett pointed to the "freshness and charm" of Cather's representation of immigrant life and identified O Pioneers! as a member of "a precious, if small, class of American novels it is difficul to praise too highly."
Person Annotations
Mencken, Henry Louis (1880-1956) ("H. L."). American author, editor,
and journalist. Born in Baltimore, MD, into a German immigrant
family, Henry Louis Mencken worked in his father’s cigar factory for two
years after graduating high school. At age eighteen he became a cub reporter
for the Baltimore Herald, rising quickly through the
journalistic ranks while also publishing poetry and short stories in
national magazines. He became literary editor of the Smart
Set magazine in 1909, later becoming co-editor with George Jean
Nathan, while continuing to be a prolific and bold social and literary
critic. He and Nathan founded the American Mercury
magazine in 1923. Mencken reviewed many of Cather’s novels, and she began
corresponding with him about her work early in her career as a novelist. Her
stories “Her Boss” (1919) and “Coming, Eden Bower!” (1920) appeared in the
Smart Set, and from 1920 Cather and Mencken
shared Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., as a publisher (Mencken was a close personal
friend of both Alfred and Blanche Knopf). Mencken was one of the strongest
voices in favor of My Ántonia (1918), and Alfred
Knopf commissioned him to write an appreciation of Cather for The Borzoi 1920; however, Cather’s attempt to manage
his response to One of Ours (1922) by writing him in
advance of publication and soliciting a review failed—Mencken wrote one of
the most stingingly negative reviews of it. Mencken fell out of public favor
in the early 1930s but became popular again with the publication of his
fourth revision of The American Language in 1936,
which he continued to revise for the rest of his life. He spent the final
years of his life unable to write or speak as the result of a massive stroke
in 1948.
Heinemann, William (1863-1920). British publisher. Born in
Surrey, England, the son of a German banker and an English mother, Heinemann
aspired to a musical career. Instead he joined the music-publishing firm of
Nicolas Trübner. He founded his own company in 1896; one of the first books
published was Hall Caine’s best-seller, The Bondman
(1896). Heinemann also published Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson,
and Joseph Conrad, as well as translations and educational books. After
William Heinemann died, Frank Doubleday bought a majority interest. Cather
apparently met Heinemann through her work for McClure’s
Magazine, and until 1931 Heinemann’s company published most of her
books although he declined The Song of the Lark
(1915).
Murray, John, IV (1851-1928). British publisher. In 1878 John Murray IV began working in the London publishing house of John Murray, established by John Murray I in 1768. John Murray IV was appointed publisher to Queen Victoria. In 1916 his firm issued The Song of the Lark (1915) after William Heinemann declined it.
Meynell, Alice (1847-1922). British poet and journalist. Born
in England to Thomas James Thompson and his second wife, Christiana Weller,
Alice Thompson was educated at home by her father. The family lived abroad,
including in Italy, where she and her sister Elizabeth became fluent in
Italian. She married Wilfrid John Meynell in 1877, and the two supported
themselves by working as journalists even as Alice gave birth to eight
children. An accomplished poet from an early age, in 1892 she was nominated
to succeed Alfred, Lord Tennyson, as poet laureate. Meynell met Annie Adams
Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett on a trip to the U.S. in 1902 and became a
friend and correspondent. Jewett gave Cather Meynell’s The
Rhythm of Life, and Other Essays (1893), which Cather admired, and
Meynell reviewed The Song of the Lark (1915) for the
Manchester Guardian.
Garnett, Edward (1868-1937). British editor and writer. Born in London, as a teenager Edward Garnett took a menial job with publisher T. Fisher Unwin, beginning a long career as a reader of manuscripts for a succession of publishers. He is best known for his influence on and championing of Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence in their early careers.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
O Pioneers! (1913) by Willa Cather
The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather
Manchester Guardian
"The Making of a Singer," Manchester Guardian (May 1916) by Alice Maynell.
"A Gossip on Criticism," Atlantic Monthly (February 1916) by Edward Garnett
Atlantic Monthly
