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 |
It is awfully nice of you to ask me for Thanksgiving, and unless something direful turns up4 between now and then I'll be delighted to come. I don't know why in the world we have been unaware of each other's existence for so long. What a splendid institution you've built up, though! I feel a personal pride in your success, and great admiration for it. It will be nice if Mary Virginia5 gives us an excuse for seeing each other again. Ask Miss Waldo6 please to write me the best train for Wellesley7,- I suppose the Boston and Albany?
Faithfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0752.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0752
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. This letter was originally enclosed in #0755.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Susan Adele Lathrop 1
- Date letter was written
- November 7 [1924]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The conjectured year is derived from Mary Virginia's enrollment at Dana Hall during the 1924-1925 academic year.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- , Colby College, Miller Library, Waterville, ME
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.
In #0755, Cather retracted her acceptance and enclosed this letter.
Person Annotations
Lathrop, Susan Adele (1875-1956) (“Adele”). American educator; Cather’s acquaintance. Born in Connecticut, Adele Lathrop accompanied Willa Cather’s friend Louise Pound on a trip to Europe around 1900. Lathrop then visited Pound in Lincoln, NE, in 1901, and entered the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1904. In 1908, having received her M. A. from Wellesley College, she was appointed instructor in English at Wellesley. In 1911 she became assistant principal of Dana Hall, a preparatory school for girls in Wellesley, and from 1916 to 1928 served as the second president of Pine Manor Junior College, which had been established in 1911 as a post-graduate division of Dana Hall. Lathrop traveled frequently to Europe until late in the 1930s. In 1902, Lathrop was in London, England, and showed Willa Cather and Isabelle McClung around the city.
Mellen, Mary Virginia Auld (1906-1982) (“Virginia,” “M.V.”).
Cather's niece. Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld
and James William Auld, Mary Virginia graduated from Red Cloud High School
in 1924 and then spent a year at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA, to qualify for
admission to Smith College in Northampton, MA. In 1929 she received an A.B.
in psychology from Smith and then moved to New York City, where she found
work at Lord & Taylor before telling her aunt of her arrival. In 1930,
probably with Willa Cather's help, she secured a position in the Circulation
Department of the New York Public Library. In 1931, she entered the
library's internal training school and in 1932 was assigned to the Tremont
branch library in the Bronx. After Mary Virginia’s parents divorced in 1933
Cather took a quasi-parental role. She paid for vacations and when, in 1935,
Mary Virginia married Richard (Dick) Mellen, a graduate of Harvard Medical
School and roommate of her brother William Thomas Auld at Amherst College,
she supervised wedding arrangements. After Dick was commissioned as a doctor
in the Air Force, Mary Virginia—much to Cather’s
regret—accompanied him to Chattanooga, TN, where he was assigned. In
Cather's will, Mary Virginia was designated a beneficiary of the literary
estate.
Waldo, Dorothy (1885-1960). American educator. Born in Connecticut, daughter of Leonard Waldo and Dora Fullerton Waldo, Dorothy Waldo graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1908, then taught English and composition in Massachusetts schools. In 1919 she came to the Dana Hall preparatory school in Wellesley, MA, as assistant to the head, Helen Temple Cooke, then became associate principal with Adele Lathrop; she was principal of Dana Hall from 1932 to 1938. In 1937 she earned a doctorate in education at Harvard University, then joined the faculty of the New Jersey College for Women in 1938 as professor of educational psychology. Cather may have met her when her niece Mary Virginia Auld attended Dana Hall.
Place Annotations
