Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 |
Mr. Knopf3 intends to use this “Atlantic”4 article5 in a small book of essays6. Will you please attend to having the copyright transferred to me?
And please send me another copy of the biographical pamphlet on Alvin Johnson7.
Hastily Willa Cather RECEIVEDAPR 13 1936 AM
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1312.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1312
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- J. Florence Rubin1
- Date letter was written
- [April 12, 1936]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Records (MS-00062), University of Texas, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, TX
Person Annotations
Rubin, J. Florence. Staff member, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Cather corresponded with Rubin about permissions issues. Rubin also handled some of the miscellaneous personal tasks that the Knopf office undertook for Cather, such as securing tickets to musical performances.
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.
Johnson, Alvin Saunders (1874-1971) American economist, editor, and educator. Born on a farm near Homer, NE, Alvin Johnson graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1897. His autobiography, Pioneer’s Progress (1952), tells of having some of his papers graded by Willa Cather. In 1902 he earned a PhD in economics from Columbia University, going on to teach at various universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Chicago, and Stanford. In 1917 he became an editor of the New Republic, which published Cather’s essay, “The Novel Démeublé,” in April 1922. Johnson became one of the founders and later president of the New School of Social Research, retiring in 1945. During the 1930s he was instrumental in offering refuge to scholars fleeing Fascist countries, forming the University in Exile as part of the New School. In the 1940s Johnson helped draft New York’s anti-discrimination laws.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Atlantic Monthly
"A Chance Meeting," Atlantic Monthly (February 1933) by Willa Cather
Not Under Forty (1936) by Willa Cather
