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 |
Willa Cather ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Ash Wednesday, 1939 My dear Bishop Beecher1;
This note is to thank you for your dear Christmas letter to me, and to tell you that I never forget the happy Ash Wednesday when you dined here in my apartment3. I do feel almost as if there were blood kinship between us, because you have meant so much4 in the family life of the Cather family. I am glad to know that you thought of me among the other absent ones when you made the beautiful prayer for absent on Thanksgiving day.
News of the accident to your eye had reached me and caused me deep concern. I am
thankful that it is improving. I always hope all good things for you and Mrs. Beecher5. You are happy in having such
fine children
children6, and in the great
affection that is felt for you throughout your diocese. I write with love to you
both, dear friends.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1437.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1437
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Allen Beecher1
- Date letter was written
- [February 22] 1939
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Ash Wednesday was on February 22 in 1939.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (RG2639.AM), Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
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.
Bishop Beecher confirmed Willa Cather and her parents, Charles and Virginia Cather, in the Episcopal Church in December 1922, as well as other family members at other times.
Person Annotations
Beecher, George Allen (1868-1951). Western Nebraska Episcopal Bishop.
Born in Illinois, Beecher moved with his family to Kearney, NE, at
age 14. He studied for the Episcopal priesthood at the Philadelphia (PA)
Divinity School, graduating in 1892, and then spent fifty-one years in
Nebraska as a deacon, priest, and finally Bishop of the Missionary District
of Western Nebraska. Willa Cather met him in Red Cloud, NE, in December 1922
when he presided at her and her parents’ confirmation as members of Grace
Episcopal Church. She and Bishop Beecher corresponded frequently
thereafter.
Beecher, Florence Idelia George (1867-1947). Episcopal churchwoman. Born in Kenosha, WI, Florence George moved to Kearney, NE, to teach school. In 1888 she met George Beecher there, and they married in 1893, after Beecher’s ordination as an Episcopal priest. They had one son and two daughters. In 1910, George Beecher became bishop of the Missionary District of Western Nebraska, and the family moved to Hastings, NE. Willa Cather came to know Florence Beecher after Bishop Beecher confirmed Cather and her parents as members of the Episcopal church in 1922. They seldom met but Cather included greetings to Florence Beecher in her letters to Bishop Beecher.
Beecher, Sanford Dent (1902-1969). American attorney; son of Bishop George Beecher. Born in North Platte, NE, where his father was rector of the Episcopal church, Sanford Beecher attended the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, and graduated from Hobart College. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the office of the Pennsylvania state attorney general. In 1930 he married Sarah Horter of Germantown, PA.
1312
Brian, Ruth Allen Beecher (1896-after 1951). Daughter of Bishop
George Beecher. Born in North Platte, NE, where her father was
rector of the Episcopal church, Ruth Beecher graduated from Brownell Hall,
an Episcopal girls’ boarding school near Omaha, and attended the University
of Nebraska. She married Captain Adrian R. Brian, U.S. Army, with whom she
had three children. They lived in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey
before retiring to Tucson, AZ.
McNeil, Elizabeth Knox Beecher (1900-?). Religious educator; daughter of Bishop George Beecher. Born in North Platte, NE, where her father was rector of the Episcopal church, Elizabeth Beecher graduated from the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., and did post-graduate work at Columbia University. She was field secretary for the religious education department of the Episcopal church’s women’s auxiliary before her marriage in 1931 to the Rev. Frederick A. McNeil. They lived in Phoenix, AZ.
Place Annotations
