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 |
Your letter, transmitted to me through your Legation at Washington4, confers upon me great honor and gives me great pleasure. I am glad to have carried a message5 from the Bohemian neighbors, whom I loved as a child, to their home country6.
I have just returned to New York from Red Cloud, Nebraska7, where my father8 and mother9 still live. I spent the Christmas holidays with them, and while there I had the pleasure of taking the living "Antonia"10 and six of her many fine children11 to the first12 moving picture producation13 of "A Lost Lady."14 I have the good fortune to preserve friendly relations with most of my characters, even after I have put them into books. "Antonia" and her twelve splendid children are flesh and blood realities. Every time I go back to them I feel how much more interesting and lovable they are than my picture of them. I wish I could present them to you in person.
The life of our Middle West is so big and various, so ugly and so beautiful, that one cannot generalize about it. All one can do is to write of what came against one's own door-step, so to speak.
I regret that I cannot satisfactorily comply with your kind request for biographical material. I avoid biographers, asking them to wait until I get my work further along. My first novel15 was published in 1912, and a period of twelve years is scarcely long enough for a writer to find the form best suited to what he has to say. I was not young when I began to write, and though living is a good preparation for writing, it takes some time to acquire a simple and unobtrusive manner of presentation, however well one may know what one wishes to present.
I am able to send you a very good photograph, taken recently. I enclose a short biographical account16 which my publisher uses for publicity purposes, and some casual reviews. Biographies usually begin to come along just about the time a writer has no more to say, and I do not feel that that time has yet come to me.
I beg you, President Masaryk, to believe in my grateful appreciation of your letter.
Respectfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0768.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0768
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 1
- Date letter was written
- February 2, 1925
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Masaryk Garrigue Tomáš, Masaryk Institute and Archive of the ASCR, Prauge, Czech Republic
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.
While the film adaptation of A Lost Lady had its premiere in California in 1924, the first Nebraska run of the film was specially arranged in Red Cloud the week of January 5, 1925.
Person Annotations
Masaryk, Tomáš (1850-1937). Founder and first president of Czechoslovakia. Born in Moravia, which was then part of the Austrian Empire, Tomáš Masaryk received a doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1876. Studying in Leipzig, he met and then married American music student Charlotte Garrigue in 1878. Appointed professor of philosophy at the Czech University of Prague in 1882, he used his academic writings to promote the value of Czech culture. When he entered politics in the 1890s, he took up the cause of the Slovaks in northern Hungary. A key figure in the Czech-Slovak Union, he was elected Czechoslovakia’s first president in 1918. He resigned the presidency in 1935. Cather began corresponding with Masaryk in 1925 after he sent her a letter. She professed she was “glad” that her novel My Ántonia (1918) had “carried a message from [her] Bohemian neighbors” that she “loved as a child, to their home country” (#0768).
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 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.
Pavelka, Anna Sadilek (1869-1955) (“Annie”). Cather’s Webster County
friend. Anna Sadilek was born in Bohemia, now part of the Czech
Republic, daughter of Francis and Anna Sadilek. Her father, a weaver and
musician, brought the family to Nebraska in 1880, settling in north central
Webster County. After his death, Anna came to Red Cloud, NE, and worked as a
domestic servant for the J.L. Miner and Silas Garber families, among others.
She had a daughter by James William Murphy in 1892, and married John Pavelka
in 1896; they had twelve children together, three of whom died young. The
family farmed in northern Webster County. After Cather reestablished contact
with Anna Pavelka in 1915, they corresponded for many years, and Cather
occasionally sent gifts. Anna (usually referred to as Annie) served as the
prototype for Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia (1918).
Boyd, Elizabeth Adella Pavelka (1910-1993). Daughter of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Elizabeth Pavelka was the third daughter and seventh child of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). Elizabeth was probably the prototype for either Lucie or Nina in the novel, and Josephine in the story. She married Hugh Byron Boyd in the early 1930s; they moved to nearby Bladen, NE, where her mother, Anna Pavelka, lived with them during her last years.
1047Pavelka, Clement Carl (1907-1993). Mechanic; son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Clement Pavelka was the sixth child and fourth son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). Clement Pavelka would have been a model for one of the sons depicted in those stories. In 1937 he married Ruth Kaufman and soon after the couple moved to Ventura, CA, where he died.
1048Pavelka, Edward John (1913-1982). Nebraska agronomist; son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Edward Pavelka was the ninth child and sixth son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). He was probably the prototype for the youngest boy, Jan, in the novel. He graduated from high school in 1931, possibly at the same time as his slightly older brother, Emil Pavelka. Willa Cather sent a letter congratulating them on this milestone. Edward Pavelka graduated from the Agriculture College of the University of Nebraska in 1936. In 1939, he married Elner L. Olson of Alma, NE, where they lived for a time before moving to Lincoln, NE, where he lived until his death.
1049Pavelka, Emil. Son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Emil Pavelka was the fifth son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). Emil Pavelka would have been a model for one of the sons in those stories. He died in Red Cloud, NE.
1050Pavelka, Hugo J. (1899-1971). Webster County farmer; son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Hugo Pavelka was the eldest son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). In 1925 he married Etta Alberts of nearby Blue Hill, NE; they had three children. Cather took a particular interest in Hugo Pavelka’s career as a farmer, offering advice and other help. Hugo Pavelka, who married a non-Bohemian town girl and struggled in his early years farming, served as the prototype for the eldest son characters in both My Ántonia (Rudolph Cuzak) and “Neighbour Rosicky” (Rudolph Rosicky).
1051Pavelka, Leo Paul (1903-1991). Webster County farmer; son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Leo Pavelka was the third son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). One of Ántonia’s sons in the novel is named Leo, and is said to resemble Leo Pavelka. Leo graduated from high school in 1921 and married Eleanor Lemmerman around 1930; they had at least two children. After farming near the Anna Pavelka home, the family moved to Campbell, NE, farming on the western border of Webster County.
1052Pavelka, Louis (1901-1988). Son of Anna and John Pavelka. Born in north central Webster County, NE, Louis Pavelka was the second son of Anna Sadilek Pavelka and John Pavelka, the prototypes for Ántonia Shimerda and Anton Cuzak in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia (1918) and for Mary and Anton Rosicky in Cather’s “Neighbour Rosicky” (1930/1932). He may have served as a model for young Anton Cuzak in the novel, and for Frank Rosicky in the story. Louis Pavelka married Fern Davidson; they lived in Wichita, KS, where he died.
2203Kort, Antonette Marie Pavelka (1905-2002). Daughter of Anna Pavelka. Antonette Kort was born in Webster County, NE, to John and Anna Pavelka. In 1924, she married Robert Dvoracek of Saline County and settled in Blue Hill, NE, for a few years. The couple had one daughter, Mildred Dvoracek. After divorcing Dvoracek, Antonette married Emil Kort of Blue Hill. In the early 1930s Antonette and her daughter Mildred met Cather at the Pavelka farmhouse in Webster County.
2204Skupa, Julia Irene Pavelka (1897-1944). Daughter of Anna Pavelka. Julia Pavelka was born in Webster County, NE, the eldest daughter of parents John and Anna Pavelka. She and her husband, Johnny J. Skupa, farmed in Franklin County, NE, and had two children, John and Antonette. Julia and her family were friends with Cather.
2207Pavelka, Victor. Son of Anna Pavelka. Victor Pavelka was the son of John and Anna Pavelka who died as an infant.
2208Pavelka, Helen (1906-1906) Daughter of Anna Pavelka. Helen Pavelka was born February 1906 to John and Anna Pavelka in Webster County, NE. She died in infancy.
2257Pavelka, Emma. Daughter of Anna Pavelka. Emma Pavelka was the daugter of John and Anna Pavelka who died as an infant.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
My Ántonia (1918), by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady (1924), directed by Harry Beaumont
A Lost Lady (1923), by Willa Cather
Alexander's Bridge (1912), by Willa Cather
Willa Cather: A Biographical Sketch, an English Opinion, and an Abridged Bibliography (1926), by Anonymous [Willa Cather]
