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 |
Book 46— Page 674 William3 & Ella Osborne4
North-east quarter of
section 10, township two (2)
north, range 11 west, Webster
County.5 Dearest Irene1;
While you are in Red Cloud6 please drop in at the court house some time and see whether this new mortgage is recorded there in my name.
From W. S. Cather 35 Fifth Avenue7 New York, N.Y. Mrs. C. W. Weisz1 3270 Lake Shore Drive Chicago8 Ill. MADISONSQ.STA N.Y-32 OCT 27 1932 9-PM Auld LetterInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1128.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1128
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope and one enclosed letter from J. W. Auld to Cather.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Irene Miner Weisz 1
- Date letter was written
- [October 27, 1932]
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes enclosed letter from J. W. Auld dated October 19, 1932, on State Bank of Red Cloud stationery to Cather.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Irene Miner Weisz Papers, 1912-1958 (Midwest MS Cather-Weisz), Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
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
Weisz, Irene Miner (1881-1971). Musician; Cather’s lifelong
friend. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest child of James L.
Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Irene Miner was educated in Red Cloud,
graduating in 1898 and played with the Cather children as part of the play
town of Sandy Point and in amateur theatricals. She studied piano with local
teachers, such as Mrs. P.E.B. Sill, then went to the Chicago College of
Music from 1899 to 1901. She met clerk Charles Weisz, later president of the
A.F. Shaw insurance company, there; they married in late 1915, settling in
Chicago. She visited Red Cloud frequently, but also travelled in the
American West and then to Europe in 1921 and around the world in 1934.
Cather corresponded with Irene Miner Weisz for many years and sometimes
stayed with her in Chicago when travelling to and from the West. My Ántonia is dedicated to Irene, model for Nina
Harling in the novel, and to her sister Carrie Miner Sherwood.
Osborn, William Jennings Bryan (1898-1972). Webster County farmer. Born in Webster County, NE, William Osborn was one of the eleven children of laborer John Osborn and Emma Goss Osborn. He married Ellen Pauline Streit in 1922; they had two daughters, Evelyn and Doris. During the agricultural depression of the 1930s, Cather came to hold the mortgage on William Osborn’s farm in the Red Cloud area; he lost the farm in 1940 but continued to live on it as a renter.
Osborne, Ellen Pauline Streit (1902-1950) (“Ella”). Webster County farm wife. Born in Webster County, NE, only daughter of Rudolf Streit and Amelia L. Lambrecht Streit, Ella completed eighth grade. She married William Jennings Bryan Osborne, and they had two daughters, Evelyn and Doris. Cather held a mortgage on their farm.
Place Annotations
