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 |
and Annex ACCOMMODATIONS FOR
200 GUESTS ALL MODERN
CONVENIENCES AT THE FOOT OF MONADNOCK MOUNTAIN
JAFFREY, N.H.2 November 28, 1938 My Dear President Butler1;
Mrs. Vanamee4 requests5 a formal letter of acceptance, addressed to you. Therefore let me very briefly say that with deep appreciation I accept a membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters6.
Very sincerely yours Willa Cather. AMERICAN PLANOPEN ALL OF THE YEAR
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1426.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1426
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. This letter was originally enclosed with #1427.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Nicholas Murray Butler 1
- Date letter was written
- November 28, 1938
- Place letter was written
- Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather, Willa (1873-1947), Member Archives, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
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).
On 16 November 1938 Grace Vanamee asked Cather to write this formal acceptance to Butler. Cather enclosed this letter in #1427.
Cather was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1929 and here is accepting her elevation to the more exclusive Academy, which is made up of Institute members.
Person Annotations
Butler, Nicholas Murray (1862-1947). American educator and diplomat.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Butler studied at Columbia
University, earning his PhD in 1884 at age twenty-two and joining the
philosophy department in 1885. In 1887 he co-founded what would become
Teachers College, Columbia University, and in 1902 became president of the
university, serving until his retirement in 1945. Active in Republican
politics and in international affairs, he worked with the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, sharing with Jane Addams the 1931 Nobel Peace
Prize. Columbia conferred an honorary degree on Cather in 1928, and she and
Butler kept in occasional touch thereafter; she wrote that she was in accord
with his public statements on world affairs. Butler was also president of
the American Academy of Arts and Letters when Cather was elected to it in
1938.
Vanamee, Grace Delle Davis (1876-1946). Assistant to the president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born in North Adams, MA, daughter of George and Electra Magoon Davis, Grace Davis attended the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston from 1899 to 1900. She published occasional verse, taught, and lectured in schools until her marriage to lawyer William Vanamee in 1909. After his death, she joined the staff of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1915, becoming assistant to the president from 1921 to 1941; she corresponded with Cather and many other writers on Academy business. In the 1920s Grace Vanamee was active in Republican politics in New York, once running on a ticket headed by Fiorello LaGuardia. She retired to Florida, where she died.
Place Annotations
