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 |
RECEIVED
FEB 1 - 1923
DEPT. OF LABOR January 24, 1923. My dear Miss Abbott1:
The book came just at the right moment. I had just got home from the West, was knocked out by a hard cold and wanted something to read. I am sending it back to you with many, many thanks. I think it is the very best of hers I have read.
And thank you, too, for your kind words about my own books. In Chicago4, I had the most splendid visit with your dear sister5, who came way out into the suburbs to see me. I was awfully frightened about my mother6 just then, and her sympathy helped me over a hard place. She knew exactly how I felt that night. The next day I had good news from the Mayo Clinic7 and so everything turned out well. Won't you come to see me the next time you are in New York2?
Cordially yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0667.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0667
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Grace Abbott 1
- Date letter was written
- January 24, 1923
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- , University of Chicago, Special Collections Research Center, Chicago, IL
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.
Established in 1914 as a cooperative group clinic by Dr. William Mayo and Dr. Charles Mayo, the specialist physicians at the Mayo Clinic, supported by a large staff, diagnosed and intensively treated patients. The clinic grew in popularity during the 1920s and became known for training medical residents.
Person Annotations
Abbott, Grace (1878-1939). Social worker and reformer. Grace
Abbott was born in Grand Island, NE. After doing graduate work at the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln, she moved to Chicago, IL, and joined the
staff at Hull House. Like her sister Edith Abbott, Grace Abbott worked with
immigrants and for the protection of children. Both used sociological data
to lobby for progressive laws, including the Social Security Act of 1935.
Grace Abbott was professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago
from 1934 to 1939.
Abbott, Edith (1876-1957). Social reformer and educator.
Edith Abbott was born in Grand Island, NE. After graduating from the
University of Nebraska in 1901, she earned a PhD in economics from the
University of Chicago in 1905. She lived at Hull House from 1908 to 1920,
and became dean of the College of Social Service Administration at the
University of Chicago from 1924 to 1942. Like her sister Grace Abbott, Edith
Abbott worked for legislation to improve the lot of immigrants, women, and
children. Abbott and Cather were both awarded honorary doctorates from the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1917.
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.
Place Annotations
