Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 Telephone
Stuyvestant 6000 October 1st My Dearest Zoë1;
Where are you? The Barclay doesn't know. I'm in town2 for a few weeks and at this hotel4. Please telephone me me some day between five and six and give me your address and telephone number. I want awfully to see you.
With love W. S. C. Miss Zoë Akins1 c/o Lee Shubert3 225 West 44th St New York 2 MADISON SQ. STA. NY2 OCT 1 1928 1130 PM The Grosvenor 35 FIFTH AVENUE New YorkInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let0946.xml
- Letter identifier
- 0946
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- October 1 [1928]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins Papers, 1878-1959 (mssAU 1-5456), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
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
Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter.
Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted
verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected,
advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her
hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a
playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to
her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an
adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In
1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and
director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong
correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both
commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.
Shubert, Lee (1871-1953). American theatrical producer. Born in Lithuania, Lee Shubert was the eldest of the seven Shubert siblings who, beginning in 1900, began assembling what became the largest theater empire in New York City. Zoë Akins worked as a play reader for the Shubert organization, and Cather sent a letter to Akins care of Lee Shubert in 1928.
Place Annotations
