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 York June 18, 1928. Dear Mr. Johnson1:
I am trying to take care of Miss Willa Cather's mail while she is away from New York2. She is now living on a small island4 off the cost of New Brunswick, Canada5, where she sometimes goes to work. I am not forwarding any letters to her except those from her family and intimate friends, as she went there to be undisturbed for the next few months. When she returns, however, I will see that your letter is brought to her attention.
Very truly yours, Sarah J. Bloom6Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0940.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0940
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Robert U. Johnson 1
- Date letter was written
- June 18, 1928
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather, Willa (1873-1947), Member Archives, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
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
Johnson, Robert Underwood (1853-1937). American editor, poet, and
diplomat. Born in Washington, DC, and educated at Earlham
College, Johnson began his career in publishing as a clerk at Scribner
Educational Books and was soon promoted to the editorial staff at Scribner’s Monthly, which evolved into the Century Magazine. He was promoted to editor in chief
of the Century in 1909 and resigned in 1913. At the
Century he accepted Cather’s “The Joy of Nellie
Dean” (1911) and rejected “Behind the Singer Tower” (1912). Johnson also was
a respected poet, an advocate of international copyright and environmental
conservation, the secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and
briefly (1920-1921) U.S. Ambassador to Italy.
Bloom, Sarah J. (1889-1961). Cather's personal secretary. Born in New York in 1889 to Russian immigrants Solomon and Bertha Bloom, Sarah J. Bloom worked for Cather from some time in the 1920s until Cather's death and continued to work for Edith Lewis on matters pertaining to Cather's literary estate thereafter. Bloom typed Cather's literary manuscripts and managed Cather's correspondence, typing dictated letters and sometimes responding for Cather when she was traveling. Bloom’s work for Cather supplemented full-time office employment in New York City (for many years she worked for the New York State Public Service Commission). She thus came to Cather and Lewis's apartment on weekends to take dictation, pick up and deliver typescripts, and deliver typed letters for signature. She died in New York city in 1961.
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.
