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 |
GRAND MANAN2
NEW BRUNSWICK
CANADA July 17th Dear Mr. Greenslet1;
Just when I am shutting off all cheap editions3, I am sorry to have Mr. Cape4 steal a march5 on me. If I could see any possible way to stop it, I would. But I could hardly expect that your arrangement with Murray6 was of a nature that would prevent them from disposing of the book7 in whatever way they wished.
I have been travelling, and Cape's letter, with yours, reached me only a few days
ago. I am sending him the preface he asks for, simply because I do not want this
book to come out in England8 as a new book.
When you asked me9 to write a
preface for your new edition I had a hundred things on hand and was packing to go
West. I simply couldn't sit down and write a preface. But idf you wish to
use this one10 in later printings, I
have no objection.
I shall be here2 until September, at any rate.
Faithfully yours Willa Cather Postscript: Dear F.G.After I had sealinged my letter,
it occurred to me that it may be too late to include a Preface in future
printings because of change in pageing etc. If you wished to use this text on
the back of the jacket I would be willing, provided that you used as title of
the text "Preface written by the Author for the new English edition of THE SONG
OF THE LARK".
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1116.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1116
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- July 17 [1932]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by corresponding letters from Houghton Mifflin staff.
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MSAm1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
See #1111.
On 21 June 1932, Greenslet forwarded a letter from Jonathan Cape, approving Cape's proposal to put The Song of the Lark into Cape's Traveller's Library.
See #1087
On 28 July 1932, Greenslet wrote that Cape could "not have been stopped" from issuing The Song of the Lark in the Traveller's Library. He also suggested that Houghton Mifflin would use Cather's preface in later printings and rejected her suggestion in the postscript that it might appear on the back jacket.
Person Annotations
Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer.
Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from
Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as
associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to
1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children,
Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized
in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston
publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially
and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett,
who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to
submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published
novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief
of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of
the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as
partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet
negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent
from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became
a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department
in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of
her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and
undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters
to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.
Cape, Herbert Jonathan (1879-1960) (“Jonathan”). British publisher. Born in London, England, Cape began his career in his early teens as errand boy at Hatchard’s bookstore. He worked for the London branch of Harper’s as clerk and salesman, and then at publisher Gerald Duckworth’s company, rising to manager by 1911. In 1920, he and George Wren Howard founded the publishing company Jonathan Cape, which was known for the high quality of their design and fine list of authors, including some Americans. Cape bought the rights to Cather’s The Song of the Lark (1915) from the first British publisher John Murray and brought out a pocket edition in 1932. Cather was unhappy at the reduced royalties and transferred the rights to Cassell, which had become her British publisher.
Murray, John, IV (1851-1928). British publisher. In 1878 John Murray IV began working in the London publishing house of John Murray, established by John Murray I in 1768. John Murray IV was appointed publisher to Queen Victoria. In 1916 his firm issued The Song of the Lark (1915) after William Heinemann declined it.
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.
Work Annotations
The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather
