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 |
Thank you with all my heart for writing me about Jobyna3. I hadn't heard of her death4 and might not have heard for months. O
Zoe, don't you sometimes wish we had been born in a kinder and less
"progressive" age than this, when people lived closer together and stayed at
home more and had a deeper and less scattered
life? So many sad and bitter things are happening to my old friends in
Nebraska5 that I can't feel very
happy. I can send them canned fruit and vegetables and checks to buy clothes
and fuel, but I can't bring their dead trees and ruined pasture lands back
to life. There five terrible years of utter
drouth and frightful heat have ruined their farms and their health. In my
own town6
two
months when the heat did not drop below 100
for a single day, and went as high as 117, usually about 110! I feel wicked
to be up here in this green flowery island2 in the north and to be wearing sweaters almost every
day. Since I wrote you I've not been awfully well, but I think it's worry
about my old friends that takes the energy out of me. Keep well, my dear,
and enjoy life—as you have a blessed gift for doing. One's life is all one
has, and I want yours to be long and happy. You'll miss Jobyna, but I'm so
glad she died on an up-grade and never went all
to pieces as I had a fear she might do. And to think of her business affairs
being in good order! Jobyna was always wiser
wiser than she let on to be—except about alcohol. Why do people guzzle, when
a little wine is so good?
This is not a letter, dear, but a note to thank you for writing me at once. These days I dread a pen like a red hot poker.
Lovingly Willa Mrs. Hugo Rumbold1 2041 Brigden Boulevard Pasadena7 California U. S. A. By AirInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1324.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1324
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of first leaf, and recto only of second leaf. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- August 30 [1936]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of the letter is established by Cather's reference to Jobyna Howland's death.
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins papers 1878-1959 (mssZA 1-7330), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Individual Annotations
Howland had died June 7.
Person Annotations
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’.
Howland, Jobyna (1880-1936). American stage and film actress.
Born in Indianapolis, IN, Jobyna Howland (named for her father, Joby
Howland), grew up in Denver, CO. She first became known as an artists’
model, most notably as one of Charles Dana Gibson’s tall stately “Gibson
girls.” She made her stage debut in 1898, becoming a member of producer
Daniel Frohman’s company. Her marriage in 1903 to Arthur Stringer impeded
her career briefly, as he forced her to retire for a few years; they
divorced in 1912. Howland moved to Hollywood, CA, and had minor roles in
silent films; her deep, distinctive voice brought more success after sound
films became practicable. Cather knew Howland through Zoë Akins, whose play
The Texas Nightingale (1922) starred Howland;
Howland also had a part in O Evening Star (1935).
Akins and Howland lived together in Hollywood in the 1930s.
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.
