Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter. Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected, advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In 1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.

Hambourg, Isabelle McClung (1877-1938). Cather’s longtime friend. Cather met Isabelle McClung, the daughter of a socially prominent, Pittsburgh (PA) family, in 1899 in the dressing room of actress Lizzie Hudson Collier. McClung seems to have been the first woman to reciprocate Cather’s romantic affections. In 1901, McClung invited Cather to live in her family’s large home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. She and Cather traveled together to Europe in 1902, and McClung accompanied Cather on a visit home to Nebraska in 1905. After Cather moved to New York City in 1906, she frequently visited McClung in Pittsburgh, finding the familiar house a congenial place to write, and McClung visited New York City, staying with Cather and Edith Lewis. Cather and McClung also rented a vacation cabin in Cherry Valley, NY, in 1911, and traveled together to Virginia in 1913. In late 1915, shortly after the death of her father, Judge Samuel McClung, Isabelle announced her intention to marry violinist Jan Hambourg. Cather reacted negatively to the marriage (which took place in 1916) but eventually reconciled herself to it, enjoying long visits with the Hambourgs in Toronto, Ontario, in 1921 and France in 1923 and 1935. Cather and Edith Lewis also spent time with the Hambourgs in Paris is 1930 and 1935. The latter trip occurred after Isabelle sought treatment in the U.S. for the kidney disease that killed her several years later in Italy. Her death came only four months after Cather’s brother Douglass died, leaving her feeling bereft. “No other living person cared as much about my work, through thirty-eight years,” she wrote her brother Roscoe (#2137). After Isabelle’s death, Jan sent to Cather the six hundred letters from Cather to Isabelle in his possession, and Cather destroyed them, although a few letters from Isabelle and Cather postcards to Isabelle are extant.

Hambourg, Mark (1879-1960). Russian-British concert pianist. Born in Russia, Mark Hambourg moved to London, England, with his family in 1889, where he made his debut as a pianist in 1890. Sponsored by Ignacy Jan Paderwesi, he studied under Theodor Lescheititzky in Vienna from 1891 to 1894 and began his first world tour in 1895. He married violinist Dorothea Muir Mackenzie in 1907. He performed as a soloist and also with his brothers, violinist Jan Hambourg and cellist Boris Hambourg, in the Hambourg Trio.

Hambourg, Boris (1885-1954). Russian-Canadian cellist. Born in Russia, Boris Hambourg moved to London, England, with his family in 1889. He began his musical studies in 1892, first studying piano before taking up the cello. He studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfort-am-Main from 1898 to 1903 and studied under Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium from 1904 to 1905. He performed with his brothers, violinist Jan Hambourg and pianist Mark Hambourg, in the Hambourg Trio. After touring widely, in 1910 he settled in Toronto, Canada, where he helped to found and directed the Hambourg School of Music there.

Bourda, Alphonse (1880-1938). Husband of Joséphine Bourda. Born in Nay, France, Alphonse Bourda married Joséphine Brun in 1909. The couple moved to New York City in 1913, living with Joséphine's father. They had three daughters. The family returned to France in 1935, when Alphonse's health began to fail. He died in 1938 and was buried in the village of Saint Pé de Bigorre. Though Joséphine Bourda worked for Cather and Edith Lewis for many years, it is unclear if Cather ever met Alphonse Bourda.

Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and One of Ours (1922), partly because she was dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an important personal friendship.