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 |
Please explain to Mr. Totheroh5 that if I would not allow an old friend like you to make a play of one of my books (and I wouldn't!) there is not much likelihood that I would let anyone else do it. I long ago made my decision about the question of dramatization, and it is absolute and final. Until I write a very different sort of novel, I shall never have one dramatized. I need make no explanation beyond the fact that I don't wish "A Lost Lady"6 dramatized. The legal aspect of my position I looked up long ago (Mr. Totheroh is by no means the first enthusiastic applicant) and I am, as you probably know, absolutely protected. The former sale of screen rights7 does not in anyway break down my ownership of the book. I am heartily sorry the young man wasted his time and energy, but he should not have built his bungalow on my land before informing himself whether it was for rent or for sale.
I will hold the ms. if you are coming on in January, as I am afraid I have defaced some pages by scrawling comments on the margins; these I will explain to you, and you can pass them on to the young man if you wish. I hear from several sources that he is very fine fellow, and intelligent. This is a business letter, and I must be brief. There are a good many demands made on me, you know.
Devotedly always W. S. C. Mrs. Hugo Rumbold1 2041 Brigden Boul. Pasadena3 California NEW YORK N.Y. STA. Y2 DEC 15 1936 10 PM Air MailInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1337.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1337
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- December 15 [1936]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins Papers, 1878-1959 (mssAU 1-5456), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Individual Annotations
Warner Brothers paid Cather $10,800 for the 1925 silent film version of A Lost Lady.
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’.
Totheroh, Webster Daniel (1894-1976) (“Dan”). American playwright and screenwriter. Born in San Francisco, CA, younger son of John E. Totheroh and Emma Ashman Totheroh, Dan Totheroh began writing plays in high school. His ambition to become an actor was subverted by being drafted to fight in World War I, but he eventually achieved some success as a playwright and screen writer. He married Kay Morrison in 1927. Totheroh had seven plays produced on Broadway between 1924 and 1945; most had very brief runs. He is best known for collaborating on screenplay adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) by Alexandre Dumas (père) (movie 1934) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936) by Stephen Vincent Benét (movie 1941). Through Zoë Akins, his play script for an adaptation of A Lost Lady (1923) (apparently co-authored with Donald X----), got to Cather. She strongly criticized both the language and dramatic construction of the play.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
A Lost Lady (1923) by Willa Cather
