Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken (October 27 [1926])

#0855: Willa Cather to Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken, October 27 [1926]

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Jaffrey N.H.² October 27 My Dear Elizabeth¹;

You were good to write me about my story⁴. I've been trying to write it—in my mind—for years. Some day, the next time you come to New York⁵, I'll tell you how I happened to write it at last, if you care to know. There was a review⁶ in Chicago Tribune⁷ October 23 which really states what I was trying to get at. Most of them say "Ah, we are each ~~our~~ his own Worst Enemy!" Sad and true, but not the point in this instance!

I hope not to be quite so hard driven this winter, so if you come to N.Y. please let me know. My telephone is Watkins 7736. Wasn't it glorious to see May Willard⁸ again? I've had a splendid autumn up here, and have done some mountain climbing I'm very shirty about. Now-a-days I'm only really happy when I'm away from New York, alas.

My love and admiration to your mother⁹, as always.

Yours W. S. C. Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken 5308 Ellsworth Ave. Pittsburgh³ Penn. JAFFREY N. H.² OCT 28 1926 6 30 AM Willa Cather

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let0855.xml
Letter identifier: 0855
Contents: Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto. Includes one handwritten envelope.
Person to whom letter was written: Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken¹
Date letter was written: October 27 [1926]
Place letter was written: Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States²
Location of original letter: Literary and Historical Manuscripts (MA 1342 (7)), Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY

Person Annotations

0940

Vermorcken, Elizabeth Moorhead (c.1866-1955). American writer and academic. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Elizabeth Moorhead married Frederick Vermorcken in 1891, although the marriage did not last long, and she soon returned to Pittsburgh. In 1910 she began an eighteen-year teaching career as an Assistant Professor of English at Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburgh while also writing short stories and articles that appeared in national magazines. After retiring from teaching in 1928, she wrote three novels. After moving to Florence, Italy, in the 1930s, she began writing The Whirling Spindle (1942), about her family and friends in Pittsburgh, where she returned after Italy’s entry into WWII. Vermorcken likely met Cather in Pittsburgh in 1905, and they remained friends after Cather moved to New York City. Vermorcken wrote the first biographical account of Cather’s Pittsburgh years, These Too Were Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather (1950).

0180

Willard, Elisa May (1868-1941) (“May”). Librarian; Cather’s Pittsburgh friend. Born in Vermont, Willard graduated from Smith College in 1894, attended the New York State Library School from 1894-1895, and then moved to Pittsburgh to work at the Carnegie Library, where she served as Reference Librarian for twenty-two years. May Willard, Ethel Litchfield, Isabelle McClung, and Cather formed, as she wrote in a condolence letter to May’s sister Mary, a “little group” that “melted together” (#1540). Willard retired in 1917 and moved to California. Although only one letter from Cather to Willard is extant, they remained friends, and Willard visited Cather in New York City. She died in San Francisco, CA.

1398

Moorhead, Emily Butler Black (1844-1929). Mother of Elizabeth Vermorcken. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Emily Black married William Moorhead in 1864; they had five children who lived to adulthood. The eldest child, Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken, became a friend of Willa Cather, who admired Emily Moorhead’s courage and spirit. Widowed in 1908, Emily Moorhead shared her household with her divorced daughter, Elizabeth Vermorcken, and other family members.

Place Annotations

Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

New York, New York, United States

Work Annotations

My Mortal Enemy (1926) by Willa Cather

"My Mortal Enemy is a Masterpiece, by Willa Cather," Chicago Daily Tribune (October 23, 1926) by Fanny Butcher

Chicago Tribune