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 have come down from Canada3 on a short business trip, and I want to tell you how pleased I am with your very graceful and understanding review4 of my last book5—or rather of my last two books6. You seem to know7 exactly why they were written, and the particular kind of admiration which made me take up themes I never expected to experiment with. Sometimes one yields to the charm of a person, sometimes to the charm of a place or a kind of life. The underlying theme in both books is, as you say, a certain moral quality in the French people. But I must not report your own words to you—you have summed it up rather better than I can.
Since I began this note, strangely enough, the bellboy brings me a note from you,
enclosing Edward Sheldon's8 telegram. Yes, I
know enough of his story to be more than glad that he
liked it
the book and that it seemed real to him. To a great many
people it is not real, you know, but more side-stepping—a cook book fondly and
foolishly substituted for an epic. There are a great host of very clever people who
either don't know Dutch interiors (in painting) or don't care for them.
With all my best wishes to you, and to Edward Sheldon also.
Sincerely yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1077.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1077
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of the first leaf, and the verso only of the second leaf.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alexander Woollcott1
- Date letter was written
- October 15 [1931]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Cather's reference to Alexander Woollcott's review of Shadows on the Rock.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MSAm1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
Woollcott praises how Cather "sings and serves and celebrates...the spirit of the unswerving priests" who "carried the Word" into the wilderness in both of these historical novels. He describes the protagonists of both as "staunch, undaunted exiles" who have "adventures in the new world" but who also feel "nostalgia for, and their loyalty to, the one they left behind." He identifies "Miss Cather's relish for their own steadfastness" as the source of "the gentle radiance" of each narrative. He also distinguishes Shadows on the Rock from Death Comes for the Archbishop, noting that "the central place is no mission but an apothecary's shop," where the apothecary and his daughter hold on to French culture by guarding it "like a flame cupped by the hand in a storm."
Person Annotations
Woollcott, Alexander (1887-1943). American critic and radio
personality. Born in Phalanx, NJ, Alexander Woollcott graduated
from Hamilton College in 1909. Joining the New York
Times as a cub reporter after graduation, he became drama critic in
1914. After serving in the U.S. Army as a reporter for the Stars and Stripes (1917-1918), he returned to the Times and subsequently worked for the New York Herald, the New York
World, and the New Yorker and was associated
with the Algonquin Round Table group in the 1920s and 30s. Throughout his
career Woollcott was known for his flamboyance and acerbic wit. He became
host of “The Town Crier” radio program in 1929. He retired to an estate in
Vermont in the 1930s, but he returned to New York City in 1940 to play
Sheridan Whiteside, the title character of George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s
play The Man Who Came to Dinner, an annoying New York
critic and radio celebrity modeled on himself. It is not clear when Cather
met Woollcott, but she called him “one of my best friends” (#1633) and was
pleased when he “serenaded” her on his radio program and responded
positively to his request that her Death Comes for the
Archbishop (1927) be put into an Armed Services Edition. However,
she declined to allow him to anthologize her work or have it read over the
air.
Sheldon, Edward (1886-1946). American dramatist. Born in
Chicago, IL, into a wealthy family, Edward Sheldon graduated from Harvard
University, where he founded the Harvard Dramatic Club, in 1908 and began
writing plays. He achieved immediate success, writing many plays that became
Broadway hits. At age 29 he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and
lost his sight by 1930. He then began to collaborate with other playwrights
and coach actors. As reported to Willa Cather through their mutual
acquaintance, Alexander Woollcott, Sheldon read and liked Shadows on the Rock (1931) (#1077).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"Miss Cather Speaks Again," McCall's (November 1931) by Alexander Woollcott
Shadows on the Rock (1931) by Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather
