Mrs. Babcock ([1921]) | Willa Cather Archive

#0551: Willa Cather to Mrs. Babcock, [1921]

Plain view:

Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions

Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.

Textual Feature	Appearance
passage deleted with a strikethrough mark	~~deleted passage~~
passage deleted by overwritten added letters	~~overwritten passage~~
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

⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Thursday Dear Mrs. Babcock¹;

I am so glad I am to have you for a comrade-at-arms! I cannot write you a message to be read at the Federation meeting just now, because I have had to spend several days in bed, and that has put me behind with the world. I 'ma sure, moreover, that you will know how to present the matter to your audience better than I would. I feel grateful to you for taking it up.

Please, in your appeal, attack the curious social prejudice that has sprung up against the cottonwood³. Because it grows so easily, because it grew here in the old, rough times, the cottonwood has become deéclasseé; people think it is old-fashioned and ‘common’. Can’t they feel that the true beauty of a great landscape myst come from its natural riches, from what grows freely and vigorously in its soil- - - not from some exotic toy-trees⁴ in a garden? In a great flat country like this the one tree that grows to the size of a forest tree is doubly precious.

Try your club people out on the subject, and if you think there is any real feeling in them, any sentiment about the native timber that makes their summers and autumns so lovely, I will be gald to write something on it for your next federation meeting.

I was so sorry not to see you the other night, but I was quite down and out.

Faithfully yours Willa Cather

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let0551.xml
Letter identifier: 0551
Contents: Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
Person to whom letter was written: Mrs. Babcock¹
Date letter was written: [1921]
Explanation of conjectured date: Cather spoke publicly about cottonwood trees in October 1921 in Hastings, NE, suggesting that this letter was written around the same time.
Place letter was written: unknown place²
Location of original letter: WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE

Individual Annotations

In an interview published in the Lincoln State Journal on 2 November 1921, Cather defended the cottonwood tree: "Miss Cather is particularly interested in saving the cottonwoods planted by the pioneers out in the state. 'The pioneers feel that the cottonwoods are bound up with their lives,' said Miss Cather. 'Yet everywhere the tall rugged trees are being cut down. [...] The cottonwood is the only tree of beautiful form that grows easily and naturally in this state without any care.'" See Bohlke.

In an interview published in the Lincoln State Journal on 2 November 1921, Cather describes how "'Cottonwoods are out of date. The soft maple is the thing.'"

Person Annotations

0274

Babcock, Mrs. No further information is available about this person.

Place Annotations

unknown place