Bakst, Léon (1866-1924). Russian painter and theatrical designer. Born in Russia, Lejb-Khaim Rosenberg decided to become an artist when he was twelve. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1889 he took the surname Bakst. In 1893 Bakst went to Paris to study for four years, becoming a part of Sergei Diaghilev’s avant-garde artistic group. He became known as a portraitist in the early twentieth century, then in 1909 turned to stage and costume design for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, the work for which he is now best known. In 1922 he visited the U.S., where his friend and patron Alice Warder Garrett had organized exhibitions of his work. Willa Cather met Bakst in Paris in 1923. When a women’s federation in Omaha was raising funds to have a portrait painted of her, Bakst suggested he do the portrait. Cather enjoyed talking with Bakst during the sittings, but, like other viewers, she had mixed reactions to the finished portrait.

Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and One of Ours (1922), partly because she was dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an important personal friendship.