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 | |
| 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 |
I am so glad to know that you have had a pleasant summer, and that you have met dear friends of mine. I have been very busy with the details of getting out a new book3. I have been in lovely country places, but a good deal bothered by letters and telegrams. Now at last the book is out, and I shall remain quietly on this island until about October 1st. Here I have utter quiet, a cottage with a splendid work room all to myself, and pleasant friends to meet at dinner. Best of all, the mail comes only three times a week, on a little steamer from the Canadian shore. It is utterly wild country, with trails along the wooded cliffs which rise sheer from the sea for several hundred feet. You will see me early in October, I hope. Meanwhile, I send my love.
Affectionately Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0617.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0617
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Charlotte Stanfield 1
- Date letter was written
- September 4 [1922]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Cather was in Grand Manan on September 8, 1922, when One of Ours was released.
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library (#6494-6494-i), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA
Person Annotations
Stanfield, Charlotte L. (1847-1932). Mother of Harriet Boas. Born in Germany and married to the German-born Theodore Stanfield, Charlotte Stanfield was a naturalized American citizen. After her husband’s death, she and her daughter Harriet Boas, also widowed, shared a home in New York City, where Cather knew both the mother and daughter. It is not clear when and where they met, but Cather’s surviving letters to her suggest a warm friendship with social visits.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
One of Ours (1922) by Willa Cather
