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 |
It's quite too late to write you for good manners, but I want to tell you again how pleasant I found my stay3 at Bryn Mawr4, and how much I enjoyed being in your home. I hope we'll meet often at Grand Manan5, and elsewhere.
Faithfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0872.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0872
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Marion Edwards Park 1
- Date letter was written
- [January 25 or February 1, 1927]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
In line with Cather's claim of writing a tardy thank you note, the conjectured date range encompasses Tuesdays in late January and early February after Cather delivered a lecture at Bryn Mawr on Thursday January 13, 1927 (see #0864).
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Collection Not Identified, Bryn Mawr College, Mariam Coffin Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr, PA
Individual Annotations
Cather delivered the Anne Sheble Memorial Lecture at Bryn Mawr College on 13 January 1927.
Person Annotations
Park, Marion Edwards (1875-1960). American academic and college president. Born in Gloversville, NY, Marion Park attended Bryn Mawr College, from which she received her BA in 1898, and her MA and PhD in classics. She taught and served as dean at Colorado College, Simmons College, and Ratcliffe College, then became the third president of Bryn Mawr in 1922, serving until 1942. Cather may have met Park at Grand Manan. In 1926 Cather accepted Park’s invitation to speak at the college, which she did in January 1927.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
