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 |
The play3 is a splendid thing—splendid! And it's a splendid production4. Jobyna5 is really wonderful, what vitality and variety she brings to it—meets every demand as if it were a joy to let herself out—simply tosses it off! Certainly she is the handsomest thing on the New York2 stage at present—dazzling, walloping good looks. She dresses it wonderfully, the most expressive clothes, they simply ravish the eye. And her voice is lovely. She does so many things with it. And she's charmingly tender—a new side of that lady to me. She is your "Hollyhock", absolutely—nobody could do it better. It's a wonderful character part, and she does it wonderfully. She and Raymond6 would make a play if there were nobody else in it.
The relation between them is the unique and absolutely original theme of the play—it's never been done before, no, nor anything in the least like it. It follows one out of the theatre and one goes on turning it over and thinking about it. I hadn't imagined Raymond could be so good—it's a wonderful piece of acting. If ever a part was "created" that one is. I kept holding my breath for astonishment. Arliss7, in his best days, used to do things like that, but he was always more artificial. This boy is really terrible, and so real that he hurts! The silly, conventional fellow who does the violinist oughtn't to be permitted on the same stage with him. Those two are good examples of the two qualities there are in everything; the first-hand that is expensive and the second hand that is cheap enough.
NUMBER FIVE BANK STREETI didn't go up to your house last night simply because I had been in bed all day and I'm staying in bed today. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I'll be here8 from four till six. Run in if you can. I don't feel any anxiety about The Texas Nightingale. The play is too clever and too brilliant to be disregarded, and it presents two cases of superb acting. Jobyna is just as good as Raymond, and of course she carries the whole weight of the play on her gleaming shoulders—it's her reality and force that give Raymond and everybody else their chance to do anything at all. I don't know another actress anywhere who could do it. Look at that bunch of frumps9 in "Loyalties"10! There's not an English actress who could touch the part. She's glorious to look at, and her voice is all it should be. Then she puts into it what they've most of them simply not got to give,—drive and power—big power, with the smoothness and ease of the grandest, grandest French automobile—something big and gleaming that can drag a house and stop as quietly as a flower falls. That's a great combination, power and softness.
You may not be able to read this, for I'm writing in bed, but it carries my warm, happy, proud and affectionate congratulations to the author of "The Texas Nightingale" and the actress who so triumphantly impersonates her.
Yours always WillaInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0647.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0647
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of each leaf.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- [November 21, 1922]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The date of this letter is established by Cather's reference to the opening night of Akins's play The Texas Nightingale (1922)
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins Papers, 1878-1959 (mssAU 1-5456), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Individual Annotations
Akins's play The Texas Nightingale, starring Jobyna Howland, opened at the Empire Theatre in New York City on 21 November 1922.
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.
A production of Galsworthy's play opened at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City on 27 September 1922, featuring Charles Quartermaine, James Dale, Diana Bourbon, Jeanette Sherwin, Felixa Aylmer, and Cathryn Young.
Person Annotations
Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter.
Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted
verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected,
advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her
hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a
playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to
her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an
adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In
1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and
director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong
correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both
commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.
Howland, Jobyna (1880-1936). American stage and film actress.
Born in Indianapolis, IN, Jobyna Howland (named for her father, Joby
Howland), grew up in Denver, CO. She first became known as an artists’
model, most notably as one of Charles Dana Gibson’s tall stately “Gibson
girls.” She made her stage debut in 1898, becoming a member of producer
Daniel Frohman’s company. Her marriage in 1903 to Arthur Stringer impeded
her career briefly, as he forced her to retire for a few years; they
divorced in 1912. Howland moved to Hollywood, CA, and had minor roles in
silent films; her deep, distinctive voice brought more success after sound
films became practicable. Cather knew Howland through Zoë Akins, whose play
The Texas Nightingale (1922) starred Howland;
Howland also had a part in O Evening Star (1935).
Akins and Howland lived together in Hollywood in the 1930s.
Helton, Percy Alfred (1894-1971). American actor. Born in New York City, Percy Helton played in his father’s vaudeville act from early childhood. As a child he had roles in several of playwright-producer David Belasco’s plays. As an older child, Helton acted in several of George M. Cohan’s productions. After service in World War I, he played “juvenile” roles (very young men), such as that of Raymond, the nineteen-year-old son of the Texas nightingale in Zoë Akins’ play of that name (1922), the role in which Cather saw him. Damage to his voice forced him into character roles on the stage until the 1940s, when he became a character actor in films. In the 1950s and 60s, he played bit roles in many popular television shows. He married actress Edna Eustace in 1931.
Arliss, George (1868-1946). English stage and film actor. Born in London, England, George Augustus Andrews was educated at Harrow School. He went on the stage at eighteen, taking Arliss as his stage name. After playing supporting roles on the London stage, he went to the U.S. in 1901 with Mrs. Patrick Campbell’s company. Arliss and his wife, actress Florence Montgomery Arliss, remained in the U.S. until the late 1930s. He became a star of the stage, of several silent films, and of sound motion pictures, and was especially identified with the role of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli on stage and screen, receiving the Academy Award for best actor for the sound version of Disraeli. Cather knew the Arlisses socially in New York from around 1910 and apparently corresponded with Florence Arliss.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Texas Nightingale (1922) by Zoë Akins
Loyalties (1922) by John Galsworthy
