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 |
Cleveland Friday night Dearest Irene1;
I had a large and "distinguished" audience3, mostly young people and very "dressy", and about one
fourth of them men. The hall was lovely—done in a deep shade of blue with
splendid soft lights. Consequently the
lecture ran along like a rippling purling stream—I
rather enjoyed the nice colors and lights and interesting faces. I will
never speak in an ugly hall again—it makes
me wretched and I can only stutter. The
Tonight it really went smoothly and well.
I slept well on the train in spite of having behaved like a silly and making so much trouble for you about my tickets.
I find I can leave here2 at six p.m. and arrive in Springfield4 at 8 the next morning.
I had a lovely visit with you, dear, and how I did enjoy that gay young opera!
Lovingly Willie Mrs. C. W. Weisz1 818 Lafayette Parkway Chicago5 Ill. CLEVELAND, OHIO2 NOV 21 1925 230 PM LectureOpera HOTEL STATLER CLEVELAND2
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0805.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0805
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Irene Miner Weisz 1
- Date letter was written
- [November 20, 1925]
- Place letter was written
- Cleveland, Ohio, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Irene Miner Weisz Papers, 1912-1958 (Midwest MS Cather-Weisz), Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
Individual Annotations
At the invitation of Nathaniel Butler, Cather gave one of the William Vaughn Moody lectures at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall on 17 November 1925.
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.
Place Annotations
