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 read Seasoned
Wood3 up on the Island4 this summer, and I was more than glad to have a thoughtful
book in a place where I had time to think. I particularly enjoyed Aunt Lavinia, and
Miss
Peck! You will laugh at me, but I to me it is thrilling to see a person some so completely brought across with so little
introduction. I say person, not 2not a character. She set me
thinking how different persons and characters are. She isn't made or fashioned at
all—she simply is. And how strongly one feels her! Her
actual presence, I mean. And I love her laconic inscriptions—which are so like her,
though I can't for the life of me tell why. Mr. Hulme is awfully good, but I begin
to shrink from things as sad as that—from the fine people who get a 3a heard break, I mean. Such a very hard break! I
wonder why you gave him your father5's middle
name. Your father wasn't a bit like that. He was much more rugged and sturdy, and
had a twinkle in his eye, which I do not find in Principal Hulme's. My dear,
teachers ought not to be as consciencious at that—youngsters don't deserve it. And anyhow the best we get we get for
ourselves, and our teachers 4 can't help us much—except
very, very indirectly.
Concerning the state of the world we have no call to speak. I am reading my Michelet6's Histoire de
France7, and Guizot8's at the same
time. I am still in Le Moyen age9, and it's diverting
to see how history repeats itself. I get Guizot mixed up with Walter Lippmann10. If only gasoline had continued to
slumber in depths with prehistoric A remains where
it belongs, we'd be no worse off than human tribes and races have always been.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1459.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1459
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher1
- Date letter was written
- November 8 [1939]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by the publication of Canfield Fisher's Seasoned Timber in 1939.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Dorothy Canfield Collection (MSS-975), University of Vermont, Bailey-Howe Library, Burlington, VT
Person Annotations
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield (1879-1958). American novelist; educational
and social reformer. Dorothy Canfield and Willa Cather became
friends in 1891 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Canfield's
father, James Canfield, had come to serve as Chancellor. The family moved to
Columbus, OH, in 1895 when James Canfield assumed the presidency of Ohio
State University, from which Dorothy graduated in 1899. She then followed
her father to New York City, where he became Librarian of Columbia
University, and she pursued graduate study in Romance Languages at the
University of Paris and Columbia, from which she earned a PhD in 1904. On
Cather’s first trip to Europe, she spent time in France and England with
Canfield, including an awkward visit to the home of poet A.E. Housman.
Cather derived the central character of “The Profile” (1907) from Canfield’s
friend Evelyn Osborne, whom Cather had met in Europe. Cather and Canfield
became estranged for more than a decade because Canfield objected to the
story’s planned inclusion in The Troll Garden (1905).
Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, and their primary residence
was Arlington, VT. Canfield Fisher had spent 1916-1918 in France engaging in
war relief work, and Cather’s consultation with her about the accuracy of
her depiction of wartime France in One of Ours (1922)
led them to reconcile. In 1925 Canfield Fisher became a founding member of
the Book of the Month Club selection committee. She published her novels
(most of them very popular) under the name Dorothy Canfield but her various
nonfiction works as Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
Canfield, James Hulme (1847-1909). Educator, chancellor of the
University of Nebraska. James Canfield was born in Ohio but grew
up in Vermont and New York City. After graduating from Williams College in
1868, he went west, where he married Flavia Camp in 1873. Their children
were James A. Canfield and Dorothy Canfield (Fisher). He was appointed
professor of history at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1877; from
there he was called to be chancellor of the University of Nebraska in 1891.
Cather’s class made him an honorary member of their class, as they had all
entered the university that year. A dynamic man, he was popular with the
students and with people throughout Nebraska, a tireless campaigner for the
value of the rapidly growing university to the state. Ohio State University
called him to its presidency in 1895; from there he went to Columbia
University as head librarian from 1899 until his death in 1909.
Michelet, Jules (1798-1874). French historian.
Born in Paris, France, the son of a printer, Jules Michelet’s brilliant student career led to his appointment as a professor of history at age 23. In 1831 his appointment as head of the historical section of the French Record Office gave him deep access to documents on which he built his masterpiece, the Histoire de France, published in nineteen volumes between 1833 and 1867. Michelet was interested in social, artistic, and religious matters, as well as political, and his vigorous and personal style made his history a literary masterpiece also. Cather read Michelet at several times in her life, and took from him the saying she renders as “The end is nothing, the road is all.”Guizot, François Pierre Guillaume (1787-1874). French historian and politician. Born in Nîmes, France, François Guizot and his family fled to Geneva, Switzerland, after his father was killed during the Reign of Terror. In 1805 he returned to France, and in 1812 he was appointed professor of history at the University of Paris. He combined historical and political activity, publishing histories of France, England, and Europe, and serving successively as minister of education, minister of foreign affairs, and, in 1847-48, prime minister. In 1939 Cather noted reading Guizot’s history of France (probably that of 1872-76) along with Michelet’s history.
Lippmann, Walter (1889-1974). American writer and journalist. Born in New York and educated at Harvard University, Lippmann had a long career as a writer, reporter, and editor. The author of many books about politics, philosophy, society, and media, his nationally syndicated "Today and Tomorrow" column, started in 1931, reached millions of readers. Through his publications and media appearances Lippmann was a highly visible and influential social commentator and analyst until the end of the 1960s.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
Seasoned Timber (1939) by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Histoire de France (1860) by Jules Michelet
Histoire de France: Le Moyen Âge (1855) by Jules Michelet
