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 |
- (1) might it not be clearer (to the slow-witted) if the “and” were omitted, and the text4 read as I have marked it on the page proof I am returning to you? If you think it better typographically to keep the word “and”, why do so, but I think it clearer with that word left out, as it is left out in the character-list on theatre programmes.
-
(2) As to the additional lines of text, why not say “here ends the chapter called December Night” or “Here ends the story of that December Night”? I rather prefer the first.
I am delighted with your whole idea for the presentation of the text and I know that
you and Mr. Von Schmidt5 will t do a distinguished piece of work.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1197.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1197
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elmer Adler1
- Date letter was written
- [October 21, 1933]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
October 21, 1933, was the Sunday following Adler's letter dated October 19, 1933, to which Cather is responding here.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (C1030), Princeton University, Firestone Library, Princeton, NJ
Individual Annotations
On 19 October 1933, per Alfred Knopf's instruction, Adler wrote Cather asking two questions about December Night, which is an excerpt from Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). First, he asked about "the setting of the matter that is to precede the story" in the form of a listing of "place, time, and characters," and second, he asked about text to fill in the space after the end of the story.
Person Annotations
Adler, Elmer (1884-1962). American printer, publisher,
editor, and author. After moving from Rochester, NY, to New York
City, Adler founded the Pynson Printers in 1922. He also became a partner in
Random House in 1922 and founded the Colophon: A Book
Collector’s Quarterly in 1930. Adler’s Pynson press produced deluxe
limited editions of April Twilights and Other Poems
(1923) and December Night (1933) (an excerpt from Death Comes for the Archbishop). He also designed the
edition of Death Comes for the Archbishop illustrated
by Harold von Schmidt (1927), the title page for My Mortal
Enemy (1926) and the title page and dust jacket for Shadows on the Rock (1931). Adler approached Cather
in 1929 about contributing to a planned series in the Colophon on “Getting into Print”; her essay “My First Novels
(there were two)” finally appeared in 1931. In 1940, Adler established the
Department of Graphic Arts at Princeton University, where he remained until
1952. He then moved to Puerto Rico to establish La Casa del Libro, with
which he was associated until his death.
Von Schmidt, Harold (1893-1982). American illustrator.
Born in Alameda, CA, Harold Von Schmidt trained at the California
College of Arts and Crafts. In 1924, after his first marriage ended, he
moved to New York City to study with Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central Art
School and achieved great success as a magazine illustrator specializing in
Western action scenes. Von Schmidt illustrated the serialization of Death Comes for the Archbishop for the Forum in 1927, and one of his drawings was adapted
for the book’s dust jacket. He also collaborated with Elmer Adler on the
deluxe illustrated edition of the novel published in 1929. In 1927 he
married his second wife, Forrest Gilmore, and moved to Westport, CT, where
they had two children. In 1948 he was recruited to help establish the Famous
Artist Course School there. He died in Westport.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
December Night (1933), by Willa Cather
