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 |
Such wonderful, such melting cakes! I have had them for my tea every day since I unwrapped their beautiful box, which now sits under my orange tree with only about half its original supply of cakes inside it. But though I am so partial to the confections, I don't love them half so much as the picture of the three children. It simply couldn't be better. It is one one of my three writing desks, and I smile and feel pleased every time I look it. Thank you for sending it, thank you so much, and give the boys4 a hug for me.
Yours W. S. C. Mrs. George Whicher1 46 Amity Street Amherst3 Mass. NEW YORK, N.Y. STA.2 DEC 28 1925 10-AMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0815.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0815
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Harriet Fox Whicher1
- Date letter was written
- [December 27, 1925]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Literary and Historical Manuscripts (MA 2419 (9)), Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY
Person Annotations
Whicher, Harriet Fox (1890-1966). Mount Holyoke College English
Professor. Harriet Fox earned a BA from Barnard College at
Columbia University in New York City in 1910 and an MA from Columbia in
1911. She was an instructor in the Barnard College and Smith College English
Departments before she began a long career teaching English at Mount Holyoke
College in South Hadley, MA, from 1918 to 1944. Her long friendship with
Cather began in 1922 when she and her husband, George Frisbie Whicher, met
Cather at the Bread Loaf School of English, a summer program of Middlebury
College in Vermont. Cather enjoyed the company of their two sons, John Fox
Whicher and Stephen Emerson Whicher, and she corresponded with Harriet and
George until late in life. After Harriet Whicher’s retirement from teaching
she worked as a freelance copy editor at McGraw Hill and edited a collection
of her deceased husband’s essays and speeches.
Whicher, John Fox (1919-1972) (“Jack”). American attorney. Born in New York City, younger son of George and Harriet Fox Whicher, John Whicher grew up in Amherst, MA, where his father taught at Amherst College. After graduating from college, John became an actor briefly before enlisting in the U.S. Army in April 1942; he rose to the rank of captain. After the war he became an attorney. Later he and his wife, Susan Whicher, settled in Dallas, TX, where he died. Cather knew John Whicher through her friendship with his parents.
1608Whicher, Stephen Emerson (1915-1961). American professor of literature. Born in New York City, eldest son of George and Harriet Fox Whicher, Stephen Whicher graduated in 1936 with honors from Amherst College, where his father taught. He received his MA from Columbia University in 1937, and his PhD from Harvard in 1942. He married Elizabeth Trickey in 1940, and they had four children. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, resuming his academic career after the war. Whicher taught at Swarthmore College and Cornell University. Cather knew Stephen Whicher through her friendship with his parents.
Place Annotations
