Allan Nevins (March 22 [1938]) | Willa Cather Archive

#1403: Willa Cather to Allan Nevins, March 22 [1938]

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passage deleted with a strikethrough mark	~~deleted passage~~
passage deleted by overwritten added letters	~~overwritten passage~~
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
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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

⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ March 22^nd Dear Mr. Nevins¹;

It was kind of you to write and reassure me, because the letter³ I wrote you in the summer of 1934 was not a very formal one, as you will see. For my secretary⁴ went back into her note books until she found the stenographic version of the letter, and here it is, four years after it should have reached you. I trust her to find addresses (in this city² they change so often); she thinks she sent the letter c/o Harper & Brothers.

At any rate the mistake has brought me a very charming letter from you, and the assurance of your friendly feeling.

Cordially yours Willa Cather

It is scarcely necessary to say that a revised edition of your Frémont⁵ would be warmly welcomed!

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let1403.xml
Letter identifier: 1403
Contents: Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes enclosed typed copy of letter sent to Nevins on May 24, 1934 (#3148).
Person to whom letter was written: Allan Nevins¹
Date letter was written: March 22 [1938]
Explanation of conjectured date: The year of this letter is established by Cather indicating that she sent the enclosed letter (#3148) four years earlier, in 1934.
Place letter was written: New York, New York, United States²
Location of original letter: Rare Book and Manuscript Library General Manuscripts Collection, 1789-2013 (MS#0001), Columbia University, Butler Library, New York, NY

Individual Annotations

See #3148 for the letter as originally sent.

Person Annotations

1263

Nevins, Allan (1890-1971). American journalist and historian. Born in Camp Point, IL, Allan Nevins graduated from the University of Illinois and first worked as an editorial writer for the New York Evening Post. Between 1924 and 1926 he served as literary editor of the New York Sun and after a term teaching history at Cornell University became literary editor for the New York World. Nevins taught history at Columbia University for 30 years, while continuing to work for the World until 1931. He also wrote two Pulitzer Prize-winning historical biographies: Grover Cleveland (1932) and Hamilton Fish (1936). Cather recalled reading Nevins's Frémont, the West’s Greatest Adventurer (1928) with “especial pleasure” (#1226). In 1939 Nevins founded the Society of American Historians, which Cather declined an invitation to join (#1443). Nevins also first alerted Cather of an “enterprise” to “popularize a number of American books in cheap editions among English readers”; in 1943 Heinemann, in collaboration with the Readers Union, produced a wartime edition of My Ántonia (1918) (#2752).

0102

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

New York, New York, United States

Work Annotations

Frémont: The West's Greatest Adventurer (1928) by Allan Nevins