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 |
I must apologize for not replying to your letter, but when I am away in the summer very little mail is forwarded to me. Your request is a rather difficult one to answer, and I do not know exactly what you mean when you speak of my "pilgrimage" to Housman. I did meet Mr. Housman3 once, a long while ago, but how, my dear Mr. Clemens, can you describe an incident concerning which you have no information, and you cannot have any reliable information on this matter unless you had it from A. E. Housman or his brother4. I think I have never given out any information about it, unless, perhaps, I may have mentioned it to one or two people5 who were working on McClure's Magazine6 at the same time that I was. Certainly I never described my meeting with him to anyone, and I shall be deeply grateful if, in your biography7, you will omit any reference to my meeting with Mr. Housman.
Mr. Housman so intensely disliked personal publicity that I do not feel that I owe it to him to give out any information about him. My meeting with him was a purely personal matter. It came about almost by chance, and was in no sense an interview. Why, therefore, should it be mentioned in a biography of Mr. Housman? I certainly do not wish to be advertised at the expense of a man who so disliked every form of advertising. Is it quite considerate of you, Mr. Clemens, to press me for information about when or where I happened to meet anyone, when I do not wish to give that information? I certainly would not feel that I could take that liberty with you.
Very sincerely yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1336.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1336
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Cyril Clemens1
- Date letter was written
- December 11, 1936
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library (#6494-6494-i), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA
Individual Annotations
Cather did discuss the Housman visit with Viola Roseboro' (see #0089) and perhaps also with Witter Bynner, both of whom were McClure's Magazine staff at the time.
Person Annotations
Clemens, Cyril (1902-1999). American biographer. A distant cousin of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), Cyril Clemens was born in St. Louis, MO, to James R. and Kathryn T. Clemens, and received his BA and MA from Washington University (St. Louis). He founded the International Mark Twain Society in 1930 and edited its journal, the Mark Twain Quarterly, from 1936-1982. He wrote biographies and biographical sketches of his famous cousin and other literary figures, including G.K. Chesterton and A.E. Housman. The Mark Twain Society awarded a medal to Cather in 1934; Clemens asked Cather for contributions to the journal and pressed her for information about her 1902 visit to Housman.
Housman, Alfred Edward (1859-1936) (“A. E.”). British poet and
scholar. Born in Worcestershire, England, the eldest son of a
solicitor and his wife, Housman won a scholarship in 1877 to St. John’s
College, Oxford University, where he studied classics. Although he was a
promising scholar, he failed to obtain his degree and took a job at the
patent office in London. He continued as an independent scholar, and the
brilliance of his work led to his appointment in 1892 as professor of Latin
at University College, London, and in 1911 to Trinity College, Cambridge. He
published A Shropshire Lad (1896), his most famous
collection of poems, at his own expense, but its reputation steadily
increased. Cather discovered Housman’s poems soon after they appeared in the
U.S., and they influenced much of her early poetry. Shropshire was one of
the first destinations on her European trip in 1902, and Housman was one of
the people she most wanted to meet. The meeting was awkward and became the
subject of speculation and stories by others in later years.
Housman, Laurence (1865-1959). British writer and artist. Born in Worcestershire, England, to Edward Housman and Sarah Jane Williams Housman, Laurence Housman was the brother of famous poet A. E. Housman. In 1883 he moved to London to work as a wood-engraver for the Pear Tree Press while studying art. Housman wrote art criticism for the Universal Review, the Manchester Guardian, and Yellow Book, produced two volumes of poetry, Green Arras (1896) and Spikenard (1898), and wrote several plays. Willa Cather was a great admirer of A. E. Housman’s verse but thought Laurence Housman’s poetry was “awful” (#0089).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
An Evening with A. E. Housman (1937) by Cyril Clemens
