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 |
Regarding your change of plans3, as explained in your
l letter of July 2nd, I can only say that I will
consent to any modification of the original plan which Alfred Knopf4 approves. He is away, my
secretary5 is away on vacation, I am trying to direct the maid about
closing6
the apartment7.
(1) In the first place, let me say that, although I have made him
Mr.
Evans8 a great deal of trouble by asking for revises and
changes, our correspondence9 has been
entirely satisfactory to me. He has never made a suggestion that was not technically
"right", or asked for anything which
that was not reasonable.
(2) My relations with the editorial department have not been so happy. They have
It sent me proofs which were not proofs!
Have made suggestions which I adopted
I agreed to, when they had (in their possession) letters from Mr. Rogers10
which stateding his
objections to these same suggestions.
(3) This is the important paragraph. I had
to write the captions for the illustrative material. Those sent to me from the
office were incorrect both as to form and fact. I wrote the captions carefully. I
wrote them with the understanding that you wished my name to be under each personal
photograph. Now Mr. Eaton11 suggests that he
can easily delete my name, if I wish it? Can't he see that my name id is a structural part of the captions which I took
the treouble to write? Can't he see that "Photographed
"From a photograph12 by Ensminger13
in 1937"
⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ is not a caption? It might be, on a
page full of pictures of the same person. But alone?
Now, the conclusion of the preceeding paragraph is as follw
follows: until you have sent me proofs of the captions or Motoes "mottoes", placed under the engravings which they
explain (that is, a proof of the engraved page as it will appear in each volume,
photograph and caption,) I cannot sihnsign any signatures. That
Is is the only way in which I can feel sure of
light-hearted mistakes not creeping in at the last moment.
Oh, by the way, I don't carry ink in my bag! George Stimson14 always got in to me in Canada15 without any trouble. Last year Alfred' secretary16 sent a lot of inks. I guess anybody could who took a little trouble.
My dear F. G., the reason I am annoyed is that there has been such a lot off useless trouble made for me because other people were careless. I didn't
begrudge any amout of work I put on the book17 I almost rewrote18, but I hate to have
hate to word
to work because your people have not read Rogers' letters, or because they send me proofs that are not proofs.
My compliments to Mr. Evans, and to the type men who did so well by those shocking proofs.
Of course, I'm awfully sorry I ever let myself in for the worry of the whole thing. And there need have been no worry at all!
Faithfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1369.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1369
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- July 3, 1937
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company contracts, 1831-1979 (MS AM 2346), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
On 2 July 1937, Greenslet explained that the original plan for the subscription edition of Cather's collected works entailed 770 sets of the autographed, limited edition to be sold at $8.00 a volume, with a "considerable part" of the "institutional" (non-limited) edition to be sold to an English publisher. However, Cassell and Heinemann had expressed an interest only in an autographed edition at a lower price, which Houghton Mifflin thought would be unfair to U.S. limited edition purchasers. Greenslet proposed amending Cather's contract to raise the price on the limited edition and to abandon the institutional edition.
Cather and Edith Lewis were about to depart for Grand Manan, where they stayed through late September.
570 Park Avenue (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis from December 11, 1932, until her death, located in the Manhattan borough of New York City, near Central Park. They had apartment 7D. Lewis continued to live there until her own death.
Cather's correspondence with staff at Houghton Mifflin other than Ferris Greenslet about the collected edition of her works has not been located.
Cather earlier sent this proof of the Ensminger image to Houghton Mifflin criticizing the quality of the printing. She wrote on it: "Sharp blacks and whites, no middle tones - look at photograph. Please look at this and compare with the accompanying photograph from which it was made. Regard the awful eyes? The face absolutely ironed out." As published, the full caption, including Cather's name, did appear.
While Cather made some small changes to other books, she substantially revised The Song of the Lark, including making substantial cuts in the later sections of the novel.
Person Annotations
Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer.
Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from
Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as
associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to
1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children,
Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized
in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston
publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially
and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett,
who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to
submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published
novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief
of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of
the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as
partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet
negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent
from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became
a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department
in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of
her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and
undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters
to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.
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.
Bloom, Sarah J. (1889-1961). Cather's personal secretary. Born in New York in 1889 to Russian immigrants Solomon and Bertha Bloom, Sarah J. Bloom worked for Cather from some time in the 1920s until Cather's death and continued to work for Edith Lewis on matters pertaining to Cather's literary estate thereafter. Bloom typed Cather's literary manuscripts and managed Cather's correspondence, typing dictated letters and sometimes responding for Cather when she was traveling. Bloom’s work for Cather supplemented full-time office employment in New York City (for many years she worked for the New York State Public Service Commission). She thus came to Cather and Lewis's apartment on weekends to take dictation, pick up and deliver typescripts, and deliver typed letters for signature. She died in New York city in 1961.
Evans, Mr. Houghton Mifflin employee. Cather corresponded with someone she refers to only as Mr. Evans about the Autograph Edition of her works published by Houghton Mifflin. However, her letters to Evans have not been located and no further information is available about him.
Rogers, Bruce (1870-1957). American book designer and typographer.
Born in Lafayette, IN, Bruce Rogers received a BS from Purdue
University in 1890. In 1896 George H. Mifflin of Houghton Mifflin asked him
to join the Riverside Press on the basis of his experience as a newspaper
illustrator. In 1900 he took charge of the limited editions division at
Riverside and began designing type fonts. He left in 1912 to work
independently as a designer, with his crowning achievement being the Oxford
Lectern Bible, commissioned in 1929 and completed in 1935, set in his
Centaur typeface. In 1937, Houghton Mifflin hired Rogers to design the
Autograph Edition of Cather’s works. When Sapphira and the
Slave Girl (1940) was added to the set in 1941, Cather and Rogers
corresponded about design issues. Yale, Harvard, and Purdue awarded Rogers
honorary degrees, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him
the gold medal for graphic arts. He died at his home in New Fairfield, CT.
Eaton, Mr. Houghton Mifflin employee. Cather refers to someone only as Mr. Eaton about the photos and captions for the Autograph Edition of her works, published by Houghton Mifflin. No further information is available about this person.
Ensminger, Harry Foster (1896-1983) (“H. Foster”). American photographer. Born in Morristown, NJ, Harry Foster Ensminger was an active photographer in the 1930s, working for the Harry Watts Studio in New York City, where he photographed Cather in 1936.
Stimson, George Mirick (1882-1950). Printer employed at Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in Ponta Delgada in the Azores to an American father and an English mother, by 1916 George Stimson was working as a printer at the Riverside Press of the Houghton Mifflin Co. In the late 1920s, he worked in the production department of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Willa Cather corresponded with him about design and printing issues. By 1942 he had left Knopf for the Macmillan Co.
Kenyon, Marjorie Scott (1898-1989). Staff member at Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in St. Louis, MO, to Margaret L. Scott Kenyon and Samuel S. Kenyon, Marjorie Scott Kenyon worked as a secretary for Alfred A. Knopf and corresponded with Willa Cather. Kenyon also worked as a secretary for Ed Hanley of KSRO Radio, William A. Townes, the manager of the Press Democrat, and for Herbert Slater Junior High.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather
