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 |
You must be thinking me either very un-mannerly or very stupid—for stupid I would be if I did not find a great delight in your book of verse3. It has lain buried in a stream of books that poured in—and buried I know not how long. I opened it only last night, and now I want very much to talk to you about it. The verses are so delicate and lively, and with a flavor and fragrance quite their own. I shall be in town,2 at the Grosvenor4, for a couple of weeks. Will you be here? If so do let me see you.
Faithfully yours Willa CatherI love the verse you call "Timid One."5
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1106.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1106
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Marion Gause Canby 1
- Date letter was written
- April 21 [1932]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Cather's reference to a poem that appeared in Canby's book of verse High Mowing (1932) and by Cather's reference to the fact that she would be at the Grosvenor Hotel in New York City.
- 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
Work Annotations
High Mowing (1932) by Marion Canby
"Timid One," High Mowing (1932) by Marion Canby
