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 |
Mrs. Lambrecht's3 birthday is sometime
in July, I don’t know the day, but will you please stop at Mrs Burden's4 and select a lot of nice
canned fruits that might tempt an old lady’s appetite? I know their garden
failed, but they don’t like canned vegetables, except of their own
canning.! Perhaps she would relish some good coffee more
than most things. Your judgement would be better than mine.
The heat here2 is ghastly, but I have
satayyed on to finish LUCY GAYHEART5, the new book that my hurt hand
stopped work on for three good winter months. It is done, but the book
publication will be delayed, as
the story will be serialized6 in
The Woman’s Home Companion7, beginning
April 1935. They offerred me a good price for the serial rights, and in these hard times one
must not refuse money from honorable people. The book will come out8 when the serial ends,
September 1st, 1935.
You won’t get the most favorable impression of the story if you read it in serial form, but I suppose I can’t expect my old friends to be patient and wait for the book. Anyhow, you must read it over again in book form, for the first part does not mean very much until you get to the last part; it’s built that way.
I was so sorry to read of Mrs Platt's9 death, because I know she will be missed by many of my friends. I watch the ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ weather reports and keep hoping to see “Rain in the West” in the papers. I think every day of you and yours and love you all with all my heart.
I hope to get off for Canada10 about July 15th. Then my address will be Whale Cove, Grand Manan11, New Brunswick, Canada.
Devotedly always WillieInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1228.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1228
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Carrie Miner Sherwood1
- Date letter was written
- July 3 [1934]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is derived from Cather's reference to finishing Lucy Gayheart, as she reviewed proofs of the novel by September 1934 (see #1234).
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Individual Annotations
Lucy Gayheart was serialized in five installments in the Woman's Home Companion from March to July 1935.
Lucy Gayheart was published in book form by Alfred A. Knopf on 1 August 1934.
Person Annotations
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.
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.
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.
Platt, Maggie May Lindley (1863-1934) (“May”). Red Cloud social leader. Born in Illinois, daughter of drugstore owner S. P. Lindley, May came with her family to Red Cloud, NE, in the early 1880s. She married Charles J. Platt in 1884 and became a social and cultural leader in Red Cloud. A wide reader, she was one of the people upset with Cather’s portrayal of former Red Cloud resident Lyra Garber in A Lost Lady (1923). After seeing a notice of May Platt’s death in June 1934, Cather noted that her friends in Red Cloud would miss her.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
Lucy Gayheart (1935), by Willa Cather
Woman's Home Companion
