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 |
left alone with my parents3 and one little nephew4 to catch my breath. We've had lots of snow and cold, and it's been the jolliest Christmas I've had in many years. After a few weeks more of winter and quiet here2, I am going down to Tucson, Arizona5, for awhile. I suppose I'll be here in New York6 in March—to do my income tax! But really, Zoë1, I almost doubt if I ever live there again. It's not worth the trouble.
A Happy New year to you, my dear, my love and a thousand good wishes from this winter-white country. I'm going skating on the frozen river this afternoon It's a sport I love.
Yours always WillaInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0662.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0662
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Document is a fragment.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- [December 26 to 31, 1922]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Cather visited her family in Red Cloud, NE, in late 1922, including Christmas. In this letter, she suggests that she will not return to New York City until March. However, by January 1, 1923, she had to change her plans to take her mother to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (see #0522), and she traveled back to New York City from there. In light of these circumstances and Cather's New Year's wishes in this letter, it seems likely that she wrote it after Christmas 1922 but before January 1, 1923.
- Place letter was written
- Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins Papers 1878-1959 (No collection identified), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
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’.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in the Virginia to William Lee
Boak and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and
was a schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872.
Her husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War
while her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the
Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage
she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa,
Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while
three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska
after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather
remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud,
NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928
Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their
families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in
Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times
but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for
her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia
Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932),
which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.
Auld, William Thomas (1908-2000) (“Tom,” “Will”). Cather's nephew.
Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld and James William
Auld, William Thomas Auld graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1927 and
Amherst College in Amherst, MA, in 1931. His roommate at Amherst, Richard
Hager Mellen, would later marry his sister, Mary Virginia Auld. He graduated
from Stanford University Medical School in 1936, the same year he married
Helen Jane Wall. From 1938 until his retirement, Auld practiced pediatrics
in Stockton, CA, except for the four years (1942-1946) he served in the Army
Air Force Medical Corps. He and his wife had no children. Willa Cather seems
to have had minimal contact with her nephew as an adult, and there are no
known letters from her to him.
Place Annotations
