Margaret Livingston Lee Crofts (December 13 [1933])

#0810: Willa Cather to Margaret Livingston Lee Crofts, December 13 [1933]

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ December 13th Dear Mrs. Crofts¹;

Three members of my far-flung family are going to be with me for Christmas this year, so I can't make any engagements, you see. This truth is, ~~that~~ I am making any engagements at all until after March first. I am working hard and rather happily, after a lazy summer. Engagements always meake me feel that my days don't belong to me. To get any fun out of working at a desk I have to feel absolutely free. I do things, lots of them, on the spur of the moment. If I feel ~~lile~~ like going to a concert after dinner, I go. But if I am engaged to go , I don't really lost myself in my own form of amusement all day long. That is the reason I don't accept invitation when I have anything interesting in hand. Maybe you can come in for tea some afternoon, or meet me for tea at the Casino³ when I am walking in the Park⁴? I should love that. I can really enjoy encounters that don't have to be arranged ahead. This isn't an essay I'm writing you, please! It's just that I'd like you to know the truth about why I steadfastly refuse invitations just now.

Faithfully yours Willa Cather

Please excuse bad typing—I never use a machine, so when I do try I come off badly!

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let0810.xml
Letter identifier: 0810
Contents: Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
Person to whom letter was written: Margaret Livingston Lee Crofts¹
Date letter was written: December 13 [1933]
Explanation of conjectured date: The conjectured year is based on Cather's description of her "lazy summer" followed by hard work in two other letters from late 1933 (#2900 and #1204), as well as her reference to walking in Central Park, which suggests the letter was written after she moved to 570 Park Avenue in December 1932. See also the note on the history of the Casino in Central Park.
Place letter was written: New York, New York, United States²
Location of original letter: Margaret Lee Crofts Papers (2017570073), Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Individual Annotations

Opened in 1864 near East 72nd Street as a refreshment pavillion for unaccompanied female visitors to Central Park, the Casino later served both men and women. In 1934 parks commissioner Robert Moses served the management with an eviction order, and the building was demolished in 1936.

Central Park, in New York City, was Cather's favorite place to walk.

Person Annotations

0326

Crofts, Margaret Livingston Lee (1893-after 1952). Writer and hostess. Margaret Livingston Lee was born in North Carolina; she married textbook publisher Frederick S. Crofts in the early 1920s, about the time she became acquainted with Cather. They corresponded mainly about social events. In 1937, Margaret Crofts published a novel, Armed with Light. She and her husband had a country home in Stamfield, CT, to which they relocated when Frederick Crofts retired and sold his business to Appleton-Century.

Place Annotations

New York, New York, United States