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 |
pernicity offtimes
oftimes Five Bank street3 January 12th 1921 Dear Mr. Greenslet1;
After our last talk at the Brevoort4 I did not see Mr. Knopf5 for three weeks or more, but during this time I watched his advertising pretty carfully and decided that I would let him publish "Claude"6. My decision is based entirely upon the conviction that his publicity work is, for me, much more spirited and effective than Houghton Mifflin's has been. The publicity work he has done on this volume of short stories7 has helped me along very much indeed. The influence of the 'strong talk' on the jacket8 was perceptible in nearly all the reviews, and in his advertisements he did not hesitate to express an enthusiasm about my books which he says he quite genuinely feels. I have always believed that you have a strong liking for them, but your publicity department does not express this liking very convincingly.
I think you know that the publicity work is the only feature of my the Houghton Mifflin handling of my books that I
have seriously found fault with. Perhaps in a few years I will not feel that an
enthusiastic publicity department is s so vital to
me. At any rate, I hope you won't feel that you must consider this departure a final
break. I don't want to consider it as such. It is only a break with your publicity
man or men9. I would like still to
call you my publisher, if you don't mind, and maybe the
next novel will be the Pittsburgh10
story11 you have always wanted. That you
published my first novel12, and that you
used to urge me to try my hand at long stories, long before that.,I do not
forget. Just now I am really going away from your firm for Claude's13 health; because I feel so sure
that he particularly needs 'presentation', a certain kind of publicity work. But,
unless you see it otherwise, I shall refuse to say that I have 'left' you. I would
like to say that I hvehave by no means left you, but that it is
true that Knopf is going to publish this next book.
Mr. Knopf, by the way, has not heard these glad tidings, though I think I will try to see him tomorrow. No, I remember no that I shall be seeing him on Saturday evening at a party, and I'll tell him then that I'm going to let him try it out with this book.
You've always graoned a little at the War--as do I!--and a great deal about the West, and this novel is so wholly West and War14 that maybe you will feel a little relief as well as, I hope, some decent regret, at not having to be responsible for it. Anyhow, please don't lose interest in my humble affairs, please keep those of my books you have now on the market, and please don't reject the next novel I send you.
Always faithfully yours [missing]When do you go to England15? I want to write you a personal letter before you go—that is, unless I can see you. Please let me know if you are to be in N.Y.2
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0528.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0528
- 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 12, 1921
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company Correspondence and Records (MSAm1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
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.
Hotel Brevoort (New York, NY): Built in 1845 and located on the north side of Washington Square at the northeast corner of 8th Street and Fifth Avenue, the Hotel Brevoort was purchased by Raymond Orteig in 1902. When Willa Cather and Edith Lewis lived in Greenwich Village, they often ate dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Cather also used the restaurant as a meeting place, and in 1924 she attended a dinner there honoring Robert Frost on his fiftieth birthday.
On the Youth and the Bright Medusa dust jacket, Knopf praises Cather's stories as "a new exhibition of the writer's power and remarkable artistry." He singles out "Coming, Aphrodite!" as "the most interesting from an artistic point of view," "The Diamond Mine" for its "ironic simplicity," and "Paul's Case" for being "studied, imitated, [and] plagiarized by young writers."
Cather does not name names, but that she was directing her criticism at Roger Livingston Scaife would have been obvious to Greenslet.
Cather never published a novel set in Pittsburgh, although "Uncle Valentine" (Women's Home Companion March 1925) and "Double Birthday" (Forum February 1929) are set there.
Later, Alfred Knopf would convince her to change the name of the novel to One of Ours (1922), but here and after this change, she conflates the novel with its protagonist, Claude Wheeler.
The first half of the novel is set in Nebraska and the second half in France, where protagonist Claude Wheeler goes to fight in World War I.
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.
Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York
publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from
Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc.,
in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their
son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher
beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and
One of Ours (1922), partly because she was
dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also
because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what
she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing
the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as
well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence
testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an
important personal friendship.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
One of Ours (1922) by Willa Cather
Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) by Willa Cather
Alexander's Bridge (1912) by Willa Cather
