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 am very sorry to seem disobliging but radio and phonograph reproductions of my books is a thing I have to fight constantly. It is disastrous in every way to a writer who has any conscience or any taste. There is no way in which to control these reproductions and the vocalization is often done by people with horrid voices and sentimental mannerisms. I cannot explain to you1 in detail how many chances a professional reader has to over-stress and over-sentimentalize a writer's work. Of course, if I could break my rule at all, I would do it for such a purpose3 as that you mention but I tell you frankly the whole idea of the reproduction of books by sound machines is very distasteful to me and the struggle to keep out of the hand of sound machine people takes a good deal of my time and energy. Sound machines are all very well for reproduction of music, but I don't want to have my books made into records - they are not written for voice reproduction."
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1250.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1250
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alexander Woollcott1
- Date letter was written
- Febuary 8, 1935
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943. Alexander Woollcott correspondence, ca. 1856-1943 (MS AM 1449), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
On 17 March 1935, Woollcott "serenaded" Cather over the radio (see #2114). Cather was likely rejecting his proposal to have her work read over the radio as part of this tribute.
Person Annotations
Woollcott, Alexander (1887-1943). American critic and radio
personality. Born in Phalanx, NJ, Alexander Woollcott graduated
from Hamilton College in 1909. Joining the New York
Times as a cub reporter after graduation, he became drama critic in
1914. After serving in the U.S. Army as a reporter for the Stars and Stripes (1917-1918), he returned to the Times and subsequently worked for the New York Herald, the New York
World, and the New Yorker and was associated
with the Algonquin Round Table group in the 1920s and 30s. Throughout his
career Woollcott was known for his flamboyance and acerbic wit. He became
host of “The Town Crier” radio program in 1929. He retired to an estate in
Vermont in the 1930s, but he returned to New York City in 1940 to play
Sheridan Whiteside, the title character of George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s
play The Man Who Came to Dinner, an annoying New York
critic and radio celebrity modeled on himself. It is not clear when Cather
met Woollcott, but she called him “one of my best friends” (#1633) and was
pleased when he “serenaded” her on his radio program and responded
positively to his request that her Death Comes for the
Archbishop (1927) be put into an Armed Services Edition. However,
she declined to allow him to anthologize her work or have it read over the
air.
Place Annotations
