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 |
Will you be my Santa Claus again? I feel that you are my long arm in
Nebraska3. Please go to
Mrs. Burden4 and have some
thinhgs packed for Mrs.
Lambrecht5. For her box get four pounds of Butternut coffee,
two dozen big oranges, two pounds of dates,
and some canned figs. Use five
dollars for her. The other two dollars I wish you would invest in Butternut
coffee for aAnnie Pavelka6.
I sent Annie a check for fifty dollars at Thanksgiving, to help her with her taxes and interest, and a
few weeks ago I sent her two boxes of clothing I had discarded. The enclosed
letter will tell you she is making good use of all I sent. Goodness
knows, I wish I could send
carloads of good things to my old friends out there7!
bBut right here in this city2 I have so many friends who are down
and out. It's desperate to be without money in a big city, worse than o to be poor in the country. Please put a
card from me in the things you send out for me. I have sent a check and some
clothing to [missing] who is pretty badly off.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1205.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1205
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Carrie Miner Sherwood1
- Date letter was written
- December 14 [1933]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Cather placed a similar order through Carrie Miner Sherwood in December 1932 (see #1137), suggesting this letter was written in 1933.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Sherwood, Carrie Miner (1869-1971). Sherwood, Carrie Belle
Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader; Cather's friend. Born in Waukon,
IA, to James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest
of their children. The family moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the
Miner Brothers store became the largest in town. Cather remembered meeting
Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie, her mother, and siblings were confirmed in
the Catholic church. In 1888, she studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at
Notre Dame, IN. She married bank clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they
had two sons. The Sherwoods travelled often in the West, and visited Europe
in 1930. They built a new house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in
1908; Cather sometimes sent materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious
attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood led local Red Cross work during the two World
Wars, served on the Red Cloud school board and park commission, and was
active in the League of Women Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace
Episcopal Church. Cather corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout
her life and dedicated My Ántonia to Carrie, model
for Frances Harling in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of
Mildred Bennett’s chief sources for The World of Willa
Cather (1951), and was instrumental in setting up what is now the
Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud.
Burden, Theo (1885-1959). Red Cloud storekeeper. Born in Missouri, Theo married Darrell Burden in 1916. She worked with her mother-in-law, Anna Lockhart Burden, in Anna’s millinery store, taking it over when Anna retired to California in the 1920s. She also helped her husband run the grocery store his father, Jim Burden, had started. Cather would ask Carrie Miner Sherwood to have Theo Burden pack groceries to send to elderly friends in Webster County. Theo Burden also wrote occasionally to Cather about local matters, and Cather valued her thoughts.
Lambrecht, Charlotte Preussner (1851-1941). Cather’s Webster County neighbor and friend. Charlotte Preussner was born in Germany and came with members of her family to the U.S. She married Carl F. Lambrecht in 1874 in Freeport, IL. The Lambrechts came to the Catherton area of Webster County, NE, in 1878, homesteading south of the Cather family’s lands. Their eight children were similar in age to the children of the Charles Cather family. In later life, Charlotte Lambrecht was one of the old friends to whom Willa Cather would send presents.
Pavelka, Anna Sadilek (1869-1955) (“Annie”). Cather’s Webster County
friend. Anna Sadilek was born in Bohemia, now part of the Czech
Republic, daughter of Francis and Anna Sadilek. Her father, a weaver and
musician, brought the family to Nebraska in 1880, settling in north central
Webster County. After his death, Anna came to Red Cloud, NE, and worked as a
domestic servant for the J.L. Miner and Silas Garber families, among others.
She had a daughter by James William Murphy in 1892, and married John Pavelka
in 1896; they had twelve children together, three of whom died young. The
family farmed in northern Webster County. After Cather reestablished contact
with Anna Pavelka in 1915, they corresponded for many years, and Cather
occasionally sent gifts. Anna (usually referred to as Annie) served as the
prototype for Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia (1918).
Place Annotations
