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 |
Miss Cather was out of town2 when your first letter arrived, and she returned with a bad cold which has kept her in bed ever since. She asked me to tell you not to worry about Mrs. Osborne4 bothering her. If she does get in touch with her, Miss Cather will, of course, recommend the Inn5 to her as a good place to work. Just as soon as Miss Cather is feeling better and can get caught up, she will write a more detailed letter.
Very truly yours, Sarah J. Bloom6 Secretary Mr. George Austermann1, Shattuck Inn, Jaffrey3, New Hampshire. CHURCH ST. ANNEX NY 202 JAN 31 1938 7 PM CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1396.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1396
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Austermann 1
- Date letter was written
- January 31, 1938
- 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
Shattuck Inn (Jaffrey, NH): Hotel built in 1910 in Jaffrey, N,H owned and operated by E. C. Shattuck until his death in February 1933, when operation was taken over by his daughter, Eleanor Shattuck Austermann, and her husband George Austermann. Cather stayed at the Shattuck Inn many times, often with Edith Lewis, finding it a useful place to work. In 1947, Cather wrote of the Shattuck Inn: “I have never found any place where I could work in such peace and happiness as in the little rooms up in the top of the Shattuck Inn” (#1748).
Person Annotations
Austermann, George (1899-1982). Hotelkeeper, the Shattuck
Inn. George Austermann, born in Missouri, married Eleanor
Shattuck in 1927; they had four sons, one of whom died in 1933. That same
year, after his wife’s father died, they took over the management of her
family’s hotel, the Shattuck Inn, in Jaffrey, NH, where Cather had been a
regular summer or fall guest since 1917.
Osborne, Mrs. In 1938, George Austermann referred a Mrs. Osborne to Cather to recommend the Shattuck Inn, but no further information is known about this person.
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.
Place Annotations
