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 |
I want to go up to the Inn5 for three or four weeks of steady work6. I am wondering whether the room formerly occupied by Mrs. Buck7 would not be the best one for me, if you think it would be quiet enough. It is at the end of a hall, and is large enough to be both bed room and study—would be warmer at this time of the year than my old quarters.
I expect8 to leave New York2 on Friday, October 14th, arriving at Worcester9 at 4:48 in the afternoon. Could you send the car for me with a careful driver? I was in a motor smash in the spring and am still a little nervous. In case of any change of plans (most unlikely to occur) I will wire you at once. I shall be heartily glad to be back with you again.
With my greetings to you all10 Willa Cather (over)P. S. If the room I mention is not free, please do the best you can for me in regard to a quiet and comfortable room at the end of a corridor.
Mr. George Austermann1 The Shattuck Inn Jaffrey3 New Hampshire NEW YORK.N.Y2 OCT 9 1938 3:30 PM Air MailTelegram 10/11booking 103
Meeting train
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1418.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1418
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Austermann 1
- Date letter was written
- October 9 [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
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.
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).
Cather was working on Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940).
Cather changed her plans, likely as a result of the news of Isabelle McClung Hambourg's death on 10 October 1938.
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.
Buck, Mrs. In the 1930s a Mrs. Buck was a guest at the Shattuck Inn, but no further information is known about this person.
Austermann, Eleanor C. Shattuck (1903-1994). Hotelkeeper, the Shattuck Inn. Eleanor Shattuck was born in New Hampshire, the eldest of Edmund and Helen E. Shattuck’s three children. She married George Austermann in 1927; they had four sons, one of whom died in 1933. That same year, her father died and she and her husband took over management of the Shattuck Inn, her family’s hotel in Jaffrey, NH, where Cather had been a regular summer or fall guest since 1917.
1811Austermann, George S. (1929- ). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in Peterborough, NH, George Austermann and his twin brother Edmund Austermann were the first-born children of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and as an adult, he moved to Massachusetts and worked for the Polaroid Corporation.
1812Austermann, Donald Jeremy (1933-2009). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in New Hampshire, Donald Austermann was the third-born child of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and later moved to New York and worked in publishing.
1813Austermann, Kurt (1937- ). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in New Hampshire, Kurt Austermann was the fourth-born and youngest child of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and later moved to Oregon and served as a spokesperson for both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
1815Shattuck, Helen E. Spofford (1882-1954). Hotelkeeper, the Shattuck Inn. Helen Spofford was born in Dublin, NH, and in 1903, she married Edmund Cutter Shattuck, the proprietor of the Shattuck Inn in Jaffrey, NH. The couple had three children, Eleanor, Daniel, and Richard. Eleanor and her husband George Austermann operated the inn after Edmund Shattuck’s death in 1933, and Helen Shattuck continued to live at the inn until her death. Cather was a regular guest at the inn beginning in 1917 where she became acquainted with Helen Shattuck.
Place Annotations
