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 just come back from the country3 and find your telegram, and the account of
Hugo's4 death in the Sunday
papers. What a dreadful shock for you, to have a big strong man go out like
that! It makes one catch one's breath to think of it. Wasn't t it fortunate that you had that jolly
honeymoon together in Mexico5, since
this was going to happen? But why did it happen so soon,—less than a year
after you were married. It's a brutal fact, Zoe, that after one is 45, it
simply rains death, all about one, and after
you've passed fifty, the storm grows fiercer. I never open the morning paper
without seeing the death of someone I used to know, e East or West, staring me in the face.
And in the days when I first knew you, people didn't use to die at all; the obituary page never had the slightest connection with our personal life. Death just becomes a deep, be-numbing fact in one's life long before it ends one.
Keep up your routine, dear Zoë, keep your life going as you've always done: you'll be less lonely that way than ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ if you sit and think about things. And, just for the time, cut out alcohol. One's very apt to over do that when one is hard hit, and no ordinary human being can keep up with Jobyna6 without disasterous results. I'm not knocking Jobyna, but she is rather special in capacity, as she is in size. I wish I could run out to see you for a week, but I've come back to town2 with a rather bad eye, (which now has a bandage on it) otherwise very well. I've just signed a lease for an apartment at 570 Park Ave7, but I won't be moving for several weeks yet—can't even think of it until my eye clears up. It's merely a slight infection, but painful. I'll soon get the better of it. Do get the most you can out of your house and mind and thoughts. Personal life is rather a failure, always; biologically so. But something rather nice does happen in the mind itself as one grows older. If it hasn't begun with you yet, keep your courage, it will happen. A kind of golden light comes as a compensation for many losses. You'll see!! I wish I could have saved you this hard knock, my dear.
Willa Mrs. Hugo Rumbold1 Green Fountains Brigden Road Pasadena8 California NEW YORK, N.Y. STA. D2 NOV 22 1932 1 PM Air MailInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1132.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1132
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of each leaf. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- November 21 [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
570 Park Avenue (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis from December 11, 1932, until her death, located in the Manhattan borough of New York City, near Central Park. They had apartment 7D. Lewis continued to live there until her own death.
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’.
Rumbold, Hugo Cecil Levinge (1884-1932) (“Captain Rumbold”). British soldier and theatrical designer. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, son of a British diplomat, Hugo Rumbold was educated at Eton College, then entered the British Army in 1901, serving in South Africa in the second Boer war. He began his career in costume and set design before re-entering service during World War I, during which he was wounded and promoted to captain. Resuming his career, Rumbold worked with many distinguished managers and actors, and was part of a social set including Noel Coward and the Sitwell family; he was known as a wit, a dandy, and an occasional cross-dresser. In the late 1920s he became interested in film and went to California, where he met Zoë Akins, who was a Hollywood screenwriter; they collaborated on a play. In March 1932 Rumbold and Akins were married; he died eight months later.
Howland, Jobyna (1880-1936). American stage and film actress.
Born in Indianapolis, IN, Jobyna Howland (named for her father, Joby
Howland), grew up in Denver, CO. She first became known as an artists’
model, most notably as one of Charles Dana Gibson’s tall stately “Gibson
girls.” She made her stage debut in 1898, becoming a member of producer
Daniel Frohman’s company. Her marriage in 1903 to Arthur Stringer impeded
her career briefly, as he forced her to retire for a few years; they
divorced in 1912. Howland moved to Hollywood, CA, and had minor roles in
silent films; her deep, distinctive voice brought more success after sound
films became practicable. Cather knew Howland through Zoë Akins, whose play
The Texas Nightingale (1922) starred Howland;
Howland also had a part in O Evening Star (1935).
Akins and Howland lived together in Hollywood in the 1930s.
Place Annotations
