John Meloy Stahl (November 11, 1926)

#0860: Willa Cather to John Meloy Stahl, November 11, 1926

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ November 11, 1926. My dear Mr. Stahl¹:

I have been away on a long vacation since the first of May, and have just returned to my desk. While I appreciate your invitation and by no means "dismiss it as ridiculous", I cannot accept it. I must complete my new novel³ within the next few months, as the serial publication of it begins in the Forum⁴ magazine in December. I do not feel that I could take even a few days to go to Chicago⁵ now, I am so behindhand with my engagements here.

Appreciating your courtesy, I am

Very cordially yours, Willa Cather

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let0860.xml
Letter identifier: 0860
Contents: Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
Person to whom letter was written: John Meloy Stahl ¹
Date letter was written: November 11, 1926
Place letter was written: New York, New York, United States²
Location of original letter: , Colby College, Miller Library, Waterville, ME

Person Annotations

1876

Stahl, John Meloy (1860-1944). Editor; advocate for farmers. Born in Mendon, IL, a son of farmer Elias Stahl and Ann Nitzell Stahl, John Stahl became editor of the Ohio Farmer in 1881, where he advocated for Rural Free Delivery of mail, the parcel post, good roads, and other issues of interest to agriculture, and was president of the Farmers’ National Life Insurance company of Chicago from 1913 to 1924. A writer also, he helped found the Midland Authors’ Society in 1914. Cather wrote him to decline an invitation to speak, probably to this group. Stahl’s memoir, Growing with the West, was published in 1930. He and his wife, Mary Constance Platt Stahl, retired to Asheville, NC, where he died.

Place Annotations

New York, New York, United States

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Work Annotations

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), by Willa Cather

Forum