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 |
I think you are in Red Cloud4! But if you are in Chicago3, can I spend Sunday afternoon with you? I will arrive LaSalle St. station on Sunday, the 21st, at one oclock p.m. and will go out on the Burlington at six the same afternoon. If I don't get a telegram from you by Saturday morning, I'll know you are not at home and I'll wire Edith Abbott5 to meet me.
Dear Irene, the book-ends6 are the greatest pleasure. They are on the table that holds books I'm really reading, and I like them better every day.
Lovingly Willa Mrs. C. W. Weisz1 818 Lafayette Parkway Chicago3 Ill NEW YORK, N.Y. STA. C2 DEC 17 1924 930 PM Book EndsInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0760.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0760
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Irene Miner Weisz 1
- Date letter was written
- [December 17, 1924]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Irene Miner Weisz Papers, 1912-1958 (Midwest MS Cather-Weisz), Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
Individual Annotations
See #0753.
Person Annotations
Weisz, Irene Miner (1881-1971). Musician; Cather’s lifelong
friend. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest child of James L.
Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Irene Miner was educated in Red Cloud,
graduating in 1898 and played with the Cather children as part of the play
town of Sandy Point and in amateur theatricals. She studied piano with local
teachers, such as Mrs. P.E.B. Sill, then went to the Chicago College of
Music from 1899 to 1901. She met clerk Charles Weisz, later president of the
A.F. Shaw insurance company, there; they married in late 1915, settling in
Chicago. She visited Red Cloud frequently, but also travelled in the
American West and then to Europe in 1921 and around the world in 1934.
Cather corresponded with Irene Miner Weisz for many years and sometimes
stayed with her in Chicago when travelling to and from the West. My Ántonia is dedicated to Irene, model for Nina
Harling in the novel, and to her sister Carrie Miner Sherwood.
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.
Place Annotations
