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 |
35 FIFTH AVENUE
New York2 May 29th Dear Mrs. Canby1;
I think you are puzzling things out the right way. If you never hunt for a subject, but let the subject hunt, not to say haunt, you, you will find the ease of expression which makes a thing truly your own. And the more it is your own, the better it will be. I hate the word "original"—there is no such thing, really. But there are feelings and memories and pictures and wishes that are one's own. "Invention" is merely recalling these, setting them free.
I'm going north in a few days now, and in the autumn we must meet again and talk at length. I did enjoy that afternoon!
Faithfully always Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0935.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0935
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Marion Gause Canby 1
- Date letter was written
- May 29 [1928]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Cather's travel itinerary in 1928 and her residence at the Grosvenor Hotel (see #0936).
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Henry Seidel Canby Papers (YCAL MSS 64), Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, CT
Individual Annotations
Grosvenor Hotel (New York City): When Cather and Edith Lewis lost their 5 Bank Street apartment in 1927, they moved into the Grosvenor Hotel, where they continued to live until 1932. The hotel was located at 35 Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Person Annotations
Canby, Marion Ponsonby Gause (1885-1974). American poet. Marion Ponsonby Gause was born in Wilmington, DE, and was educated at a private school. She married Henry Seidel Canby in 1907; they had two sons. She published two volumes of poetry, High Mowings (1932) and On My Way (1937). Cather probably met the Canbys in the early 1920s; her extant correspondence with them, together and individually, began in 1922.
Place Annotations
