Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 |
The magic lozenges came3 on Saturday, the curtains are washed and in place. I was delighted to get that book of Upton4's, it's just what I wanted and supplements the three of his I have already. A world of thanks to you for both. I met Lewellen Jones5 at a dinner the other night and agreed with him that New York2 is a very poor place to shop.
I sent you a newspaper article on a writer in whom Josephine Gund6 was interested; please send it on to her.
I also send you another article, by Professor Brown7 of Bowdoin College, Maine8, on a writer in whom you and Carrie9 are interested. Please read it yourself and send it on to Carrie. She can send it back someday.
And someday please send me the letter10 from Collier's11, with a note from you, to tell me how things are going and what you are doing. It's nice to fish a few letters I want out of the many I don't want, of a morning!
My love, as always WillieInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0779.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0779
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Irene Miner Weisz 1
- Date letter was written
- [March 24, 1925]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The conjectured date of this letter is based on #0773, with March 24, 1925, being the earliest Tuesday on which her request in #0773 could have been fulfilled.
- 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
Cather requested them in #0773.
Cather had enclosed it in #0773.
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.
Upton. There is insufficient information for a definitive identification, but Cather was likely referring to George Putnam Upton (1834-1919), music critic for the Chicago Tribune and author of several books on music, including opera.
Jones, Llewellyn (1884-1961). British-American literary critic. Jones was born in Castletown on the Isle of Man, Great Britain, the first of two children born to John and Katherine Jones. He attended King William’s College and the Douglas School of Science, and in 1903 he moved to the U.S. Jones worked as an editor for a variety of periodicals and publishing firms throughout his career, including the Chicago Evening Post (1914-1927), the Chicago Herald-Examiner (1933-1934), Willett, Clark and Company (1935-1937), and the Christian Register (1937-1941). Along with his editorial work, Jones also taught briefly at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University and published a variety of books and essays on literary criticism, including First Impressions: Poetry, Criticism, and Prosody (1925) and How to Read Books (1930). Jones died at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Cather met Jones at a dinner in 1925, while he was also a Knopf author.
Leighton, Josephine Gund (1902-1963). American foundation executive. Born in Red Cloud, NE, Josephine Gund was the eldest child of Margaret Miner Gund and Charles Frederick Gund; she grew up in Blue Hill, NE. In 1923 she graduated from the University of Nebraska, where she subsequently taught Latin, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1925-26 she went to France to study at the Sorbonne. Around 1928 she moved to New York City; beginning as a private secretary she rose to become a director of the Guggenheim Foundation in 1941. In 1931 she married George R. Leighton of New York City; they had one son.
Brown, Frederic Willis (1876-1948). American academic.
Born in Concord, MA, Frederic Willis Brown earned both his BA (1897)
and PhD (1906) from Harvard University. From 1907 until his retirement in
1945, he taught French and Italian at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. On
May 13, 1925, Brown introduced Cather at Bowdoin for her lecture “The Talk
About Technique.” Brown praised Cather for her editorial work on The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, which had been
released earlier that spring.
Sherwood, Carrie Belle Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader;
Cather's friend. Born in Waukon, IA, to James L. Miner and Julia
Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest of their children. The family
moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the Miner Brothers store became the
largest in town. Cather remembered meeting Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie,
her mother, and siblings were confirmed in the Catholic church. In 1888, she
studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at Notre Dame, IN. She married bank
clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they had two sons. The Sherwoods
travelled often in the West, and visited Europe in 1930. They built a new
house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in 1908; Cather sometimes sent
materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood
led local Red Cross work during the two World Wars, served on the Red Cloud
school board and park commission, and was active in the League of Women
Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace Episcopal Church. Cather
corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout her life and dedicated
My Ántonia to Carrie, model for Frances Harling
in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of Mildred Bennett’s
chief sources for The World of Willa Cather (1951),
and was instrumental in setting up what is now the Willa Cather Foundation
in Red Cloud.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Collier's Magazine
