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 |
Capek's3
book4 on the Cechs arrived today. The idea of advertising Antonia5 so conspicuously on the back cover is a splendid one, so
good that I hate to see it spoiled for many people by a stupid mistake. The
Bohemian who wrote that letter is a prominent man among his people in
Nebraska, as you say; he is well
known all over the state; but his name is SADILEK6, and your advertising people have printed it A Sadiler! Now, I very much doubt if Sadiler could be a Bohemian
name at all. Such a needless mistake distroys part of the authenticity and force of the letter. I have several
perfectly needless mistakes of that sort against your publicity
department.
Have you forgotten that when you were here you definitely promised me that every line of copy to advertise any of my books should be submitted to me in proof? With a stroke(sic!)of the pen I could have caught up this foolish mistake. Besides, that was an agreement.
I am looking forward to seeing you soon. There are a number of things I want to take up with you as soon as I can, not least among them is Mr. Linscott's7 remarkable letter8. You had better read it before you come, to be prepared, knowing me as you do, for my state of mind. Are there no diplomatic posts vacant?
I've just finished a really fine 15,000 word story9 that I did for a Christmas treat and to rest my hand from the long book. New York2 'studio episode', and it's turned out very well; and it's opened up a mine of untouched material, a long account in another bank,- on which I can draw pretty heavily when I want to. Attendez-moi10!
Hastily W. S. C.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0490.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0490
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- January 7, 1920
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MSAm1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
In #0489, Cather complained to Greenslet that Linscott's advertising copy for My Ántonia was indistinguishable from copy he would write for Clara Louise Burnam's books. On 31 December 1919, Linscott registered a "gentle protest" against Cather's charge, citing his sentence "She has the rare quality of being able to put into her books the flame and driving force of unconquerable youth" (which appeared on the dust jacket for the novel) as evidence against her charge. He also confessed that when he first started working at Houghton Mifflin in 1915, he found the latter part of The Song of the Lark so disappointing that he did not read My Ántonia until right before creating the ad for the Bookman. He promised to read her next novel in galleys.
Translation: Wait for me (French).
Person Annotations
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.
Čapek, Thomas (1861-1950). Czech-American banker and historian. Born in Krastovice, Bohemia, Thomas Čapek immigrated to the U.S. in 1880. He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1888 and practiced law in Omaha, NE, eventually serving on the Nebraska State Legislature (1890-1891). Čapek moved to New York City to serve as president to the Bank of Europe and later the Bank of Europe Trust Company. Known as “the historian of American Czechs,” Čapek wrote several books on Czech history and culture including: Bohemia Under Hapsburg Misrule (1915) and The Slovaks of Hungary, Slavs and Panslavism. Houghton Mifflin placed an advertisement for My Àntonia (1918) on the back-cover of Čapek’s most influential book, The Čechs (Bohemians) in America: a study of their national, cultural, political, social, economic and religious life (1920).
Sadilek, Frank J. (1851-1933). Bohemian-American civil servant and speaker. Born in Bohemia, Frank Sadilek was forced to stop his education in 1865 because of his family’s financial reverses. He was sent to America in 1868 to join a sister in Chicago, IL. In 1876 he married Tereza Jurková; they moved to Nebraska, settling in Wilbur, NE, where there was a growing community of Czech and Bohemian immigrants. He was elected to the state legislature, and served as the Saline County register of deeds from 1897-1919. He became well known across the state in part for the many funeral eulogies he delivered. Willa Cather may have met him when she visited Wilbur while she was writing My Ántonia (1918) and certainly knew of his reputation.
Linscott, Robert N. (1886-1964). American editor. Linscott began as an office boy at Houghton Mifflin in 1904 at age seventeen. He became the company’s advertising manager, handling publicity for some of Cather’s books, and later moved to the editorial side, handling works by Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, and others. He moved to Random House in 1944, where he edited several anthologies, including a best-selling edition of Emily Dickinson’s letters and poetry.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Čechs (Bohemians) in America : A Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic, and Religious Life (1920) by Thomas Čapek
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
"Coming, Aphrodite!," Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) by Willa Cather
