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 haven't yet got over the joyful shock of your telegram3. I'm awfully disappointed that this year of all years I won't be in California4 to hear all about it and to see you established in your new house. There are so many things I want to ask you about how all this developed. You never were afraid to take a chance, and now you've taken this one! If anyone can make 2 matrimony go, you can. You are not fussy about trifles and you are elastic, and you have a natural power of enjoying life which I've often envied you. You came to New York2 at the right time—and left it at the right time, which is more important. And you bought a house at the right time. If I had a little more courage I'd quit this part of the world tomorrow, and go to San Francisco5.
Drop me a line when you have time and tell 3 me where you will be this summer. There are only two or three people in the world to whom I so want the Fates to be kind—and they will be, because you are kind to yourself and to everyone you care for. You've always had a sort of goddess glow about you, and you always will. Circumstances can't affect that much. It's your birthright. When things are going well with you, it rests me and gives me lots of pleasure just to think about you. Every good fortune that befalls you is a joy and a gain to me. We've been friends for nearly half a lifetime and never has there been one moment of strain!
My love to you, dear Zoë, with every confidence in the bright future—it'll be bright simply because you are! So I feel safe about you, my dear.
Yours always WillaInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1103.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1103
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- March 20 [1932]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Zoë Akins and Hugo Rumbold's marriage in March 1932.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins papers, 1878-1959 (mssZA 1-7330), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Individual Annotations
In #1099, Cather responded by telegram to Akins' news that she had married Hugo Rumbold.
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’.
Place Annotations
