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 |
Of course I'd rather have you do such an article3 than
anyone else, and they've been after me through several people who knew nothing at
all about me. I'm fairly sick of this legend4 of a pale creature who has sacrificed her life to art. I never in
my life made a sacrifice to 'art'. Even as to teaching5, I simply taught because I found it l less distasteful than newspaper
work6. All my life I've shoved away the less agreeable for the more
agreeable. The things w that really attracted me
were so much more attractive that I never found it at all hard to push aside the
minor attractions, even when they were very pleasant. I've lead a life of self-indulgence, if ever anybody did. I wanted to see the world
a bit and meet all sorts of people, so I spent five years7 on McClure's8
doing it. When I'd had enough, I stopped. I expect I'eve spent as much time hearing
music as most people do spend on their profession- -
- pure self indulgence. This is the truth, you know. So please don't make me either
noble or pathetic. Of course , in youth, when one is poor, one struggles; but what
else is youth o for? If one were rich and buried
under tutors and 'advantages', there would be another kind
of struggle. And I never shut myself away from the people I cared for, you know
that. I shut out the crowd to be 'all there' with my friends.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1158.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1158
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher1
- Date letter was written
- [late January 1933]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Though the article referenced in this letter was not published until May, other correspondence with Canfield Fisher confirms the article was drafted in early 1933. This letter was most likely written after #1148 and before #1164.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Dorothy Canfield Collection (MSS-975), University of Vermont, Bailey-Howe Library, Burlington, VT
Individual Annotations
In her article about Cather, Canfield Fisher echoes Cather's language: "I understand a legend is going the rounds which presents Willa Cather as a pale victim sacrificed to art."
Cather began teaching at Central High School in Pittsburgh, PA, in the spring of 1901. She remained at Central High until taking a position in the fall of 1903 at Allegheny High School in Allegheny, PA (which became part of Pittsburgh in 1907). She taught at Allegheny High until the spring of 1906.
Cather worked at several newspapers as a writer and editor in her early professional life, including the Nebraska State Journal, the Lincoln Courier, and the Pittsburgh Leader.
Hired as part of the editorial staff in 1906, Cather was managing editor of McClure's Magazine from 1908 until she resigned from the position at the end of 1911.
Person Annotations
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield (1879-1958). American novelist; educational
and social reformer. Dorothy Canfield and Willa Cather became
friends in 1891 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Canfield's
father, James Canfield, had come to serve as Chancellor. The family moved to
Columbus, OH, in 1895 when James Canfield assumed the presidency of Ohio
State University, from which Dorothy graduated in 1899. She then followed
her father to New York City, where he became Librarian of Columbia
University, and she pursued graduate study in Romance Languages at the
University of Paris and Columbia, from which she earned a PhD in 1904. On
Cather’s first trip to Europe, she spent time in France and England with
Canfield, including an awkward visit to the home of poet A.E. Housman.
Cather derived the central character of “The Profile” (1907) from Canfield’s
friend Evelyn Osborne, whom Cather had met in Europe. Cather and Canfield
became estranged for more than a decade because Canfield objected to the
story’s planned inclusion in The Troll Garden (1905).
Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, and their primary residence
was Arlington, VT. Canfield Fisher had spent 1916-1918 in France engaging in
war relief work, and Cather’s consultation with her about the accuracy of
her depiction of wartime France in One of Ours (1922)
led them to reconcile. In 1925 Canfield Fisher became a founding member of
the Book of the Month Club selection committee. She published her novels
(most of them very popular) under the name Dorothy Canfield but her various
nonfiction works as Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"Willa Cather, Daughter of the Frontier," New York Herald Tribune (May 28, 1933) by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
McClure's Magazine
