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 |
I went to Bryn Mawr4 on Wednesday, spoke5 Thursday night. Found many warm friends and had a very gay time. But I must have got pretty tired, for after I got home on Saturday a vicious LUMBAGO siezed me! All day yesterday I walked like a crooked stick, and today I’m in bed, awfully afraid I’ll miss the dinner of the Society of American Civil Engineers at the Plaza Wednesday night. I was going as the guest of Mr. Budd6, President of the Great Northern R.R., and was going to meet some awfully interesting men. Hard luck, isn’t it?
With love W. S. C. Mary Virginia Auld1 Baldwin House Northampton3 Mass. NEW YORK, N. Y. STA2 JAN 17 1927 10 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0870.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0870
- Contents
- Document is photocopy of one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Mary Virginia Auld1
- Date letter was written
- [January 17, 1927]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Bernice Slote, English Papers, 1870-1978 (RG/12-10-16), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Cather, when she accepted the invitation to speak at Bryn Mawr College, asked that her presence be kept quiet, lest other colleges would persist in asking her to speak also. Cather's friend, Elizabeth Sergeant, was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, which may have influenced Cather's decision to speak there.
Person Annotations
Mellen, Mary Virginia Auld (1906-1982) (“Virginia,” “M.V.”).
Cather's niece. Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld
and James William Auld, Mary Virginia graduated from Red Cloud High School
in 1924 and then spent a year at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA, to qualify for
admission to Smith College in Northampton, MA. In 1929 she received an A.B.
in psychology from Smith and then moved to New York City, where she found
work at Lord & Taylor before telling her aunt of her arrival. In 1930,
probably with Willa Cather's help, she secured a position in the Circulation
Department of the New York Public Library. In 1931, she entered the
library's internal training school and in 1932 was assigned to the Tremont
branch library in the Bronx. After Mary Virginia’s parents divorced in 1933
Cather took a quasi-parental role. She paid for vacations and when, in 1935,
Mary Virginia married Richard (Dick) Mellen, a graduate of Harvard Medical
School and roommate of her brother William Thomas Auld at Amherst College,
she supervised wedding arrangements. After Dick was commissioned as a doctor
in the Air Force, Mary Virginia—much to Cather’s
regret—accompanied him to Chattanooga, TN, where he was assigned. In
Cather's will, Mary Virginia was designated a beneficiary of the literary
estate.
Budd, Ralph (1879-1962). American civil engineer and railroad executive. Born on a farm near Waterloo, IA, Ralph Budd graduated from Highland Park College in Des Moines, IA, when he was nineteen. In 1902 he went to work on the Rock Island Pacific Railroad, where he met John Frank Stevens, who became chief engineer of the Panama Canal. Stevens put Budd in charge of the construction of the Panama Railway. Both men then went to work for James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railroad, who directed that Budd become president of the railroad after Hill’s death. Budd served as president from 1919 to 1932, when he became president of the Burlington Railroad. Willa Cather probably met Budd in the 1920s, and planned to attend a dinner meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers with him.
Place Annotations
