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 |
Oh, you were a dear to send me a birthday letter! But you must write me only when you feel an impulse to do so. I have to write so many letters from duty, that I never write to the people I love except when I want to feel them nearer. Edith4 has written you about how Yehudi5 and Nola6 brought the baby7 to see me on my birthday. Wasn’t it lovely of them?
My dear, I want to tell you a little secret. I ordered a package sent to your
mother8 for Christmas—some books.
You must tell her I don’t expect to read them all, but I would like to have
them at Los Gatos3 in your house.
One Volume9 has some bad verse in it which
will shock my Yaltah. But the verses have a sort
of right to le be second-rate poetry, for
they are all ballads, and the English ballad, you know, is made only
to
tell
a
story—directly or indi indirectly. Ballads are the poetry of the people, not the
poetry of poets. Besides, these verses were made when the writer was too
young to be very critical,—or very wise.
No, I have not walked with Zamira in the Park. She goes for her walk early, ten oclock or before. But I did meet her accidentally in the Park one morning, attended by both her parents. It was the morning of Yehudi’s recital10 in Carnegie Hall. It was nice to meet by chance like that. We chatted for a few moments, and then Zamira (vocally) reminded me that her father was going home to rest for his concert, and that I should follow my trail toward the 72nd street entrance, which I did.
The recital that evening was glorious. I don’t think Yehudi has ever had such an overwhelming reception in New York2. One felt so much love in it, thousands of human hearts trying to say what joy he had given them—as if they had found again a lost treasure or a lost faith.
Your loving Aunt Willa Miss Yaltah Menuhin1 Los Gatos3 California P.O. Box "P" NEW YORK, N. Y. 2 DEC 19 1939 530 PM 193912Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1464.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1464
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Yaltah Menuhin1
- Date letter was written
- December 19 [1939]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (C1030), Princeton University, Firestone Library, Princeton, NJ
Individual Annotations
Yehudi Menuhin's Carnegie Hall recital was on 5 December 1939.
Person Annotations
Menuhin, Yaltah (1921-2001). Pianist. Born in San Francisco,
CA, to Moshe and Marutha Sher Menuhin, immigrant Russian Jews by way of
Palestine, Yaltah began studying piano at the age of three. The studies and
career of her older brother, violinist Yehudi, dominated the family (their
second child, Hepzibah, was also a pianist). In 1930, the Menuhin family
took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan
Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg and became a family friend; the
children called her “Aunt Willa.” In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the
Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City.
Cather took the Menuhin children on walks around Central Park, read
Shakespeare with them, and gave them books as gifts. The family purchased a
ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935. As Yaltah grew older and wanted to pursue
her own musical career, her relationship with her mother grew
difficult—Marutha supported Hepzibah’s role as Yehudi’s accompanist
but believed a solo career inappropriate for a woman (even though many
recognized that Yaltah was the most gifted musician of the three children).
In June 1938, just shy of her seventeenth birthday and apparently under
duress from her mother, Yaltah married William Stix, a lawyer from St.
Louis, MO, who worked in Washington, DC; Cather attended the wedding. In
1939 Yaltah first separated from and then divorced Stix. In 1941, she eloped
with U.S. Army officer Benjamin Rolfe. Her parents publicly disavowed the
marriage and she and her mother stopped speaking to one another. The Rolfes
had two children, Robert and Lionel. None of Cather’s extant letters to
Yaltah mention the turmoil surrounding her marriage, divorce, and
remarriage, however. Yaltah’s final marriage to American pianist Joel Ryce
was long and happy, and during it she pursued a performing career. According
to her son Lionel Rolfe, she treasured her letters from Cather and often
reread them. She eventually gave them to him so he could sell them and use
the funds to support his aspiration to become a writer.
Lewis, Edith Labaree (1881-1972). Magazine editor,
advertising copywriter, and Cather's domestic partner. Born in
Lincoln, NE, to Henry Euclid Lewis and Lillie Gould Lewis, Edith Lewis
attended the preparatory school associated with the University of Nebraska,
earning college credits from the University before transferring to Smith
College in Northampton, MA, in 1899. She received an A.B. in English from
Smith in 1902 and returned home to teach elementary school. She met Willa
Cather in the summer of 1903 at the home of Sarah Harris, publisher of the
Lincoln Courier. Moving to New York City soon
afterward, Lewis settled into a studio on Washington Square and found work
at the Century Publishing Company. Cather was her guest when she visited the
city from Pittsburgh. In 1906, at Cather's suggestion, Lewis applied for a
position as an editorial proofreader at McClure's
Magazine, and the two women worked together on the McClure's staff for six years. In 1908, they moved
into a shared apartment at 82 Washington Place, and then, in 1912, to Five
Bank Street. Lewis left McClure's in 1915 to become
managing editor of Every Week Magazine, where she
stayed until the magazine folded in 1918. In 1919 she began a long career as
an advertising copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson Co. In 1926 Edith Lewis
acquired the land on which she and Cather built their cottage on Grand Manan
Island. When they lost their apartment on Bank Street to subway construction
in 1927, they shared quarters at the Grosvenor Hotel when they were both in
New York City. In 1932 they took an apartment at 570 Park Avenue. Throughout
their relationship, Lewis was closely involved in Cather's creative process,
reading and editing her work in pre-publication forms. Cather's will
appointed Lewis as executor of her literary estate and a beneficiary of her
literary trust. Lewis authorized E.K. Brown as Cather's first biographer and
published her own memoir of Cather, Willa Cather
Living (1953). She remained in their Park Avenue apartment after
Cather's death and died there after a long period of illness and invalidism.
She is buried at Cather's side in Jaffrey, NH.
Menuhin, Yehudi (1916-1999). Violinist and conductor. Born in
New York City to Moshe Mnuchin and Marutha Sher Mnuchin, immigrant Russian
Jews by way of Palestine who changed the spelling of their surname and moved
the family to San Francisco in 1918, Yehudi started violin lessons at age
four and made his first public appearance in 1922. His two younger siblings,
Hepzibah and Yaltah, studied piano, although his parents prioritized the
musical career of their son over their daughters. With the support of patron
Sidney Ehrman, the Menuhin family followed Yehudi’s teacher Louis Persinger
to New York City. Ehrman also sponsored Yehudi for a year of study in Paris,
France, with Georges Enesco. Yehudi began attracting national attention in
1927 and recorded and toured the U.S. in 1929. That year at Carnegie Hall,
his performance of concertos by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms with Bruno
Walter and the Berlin Philharmonic inspired Albert Einstein to proclaim “now
I know there is a God in Heaven”; Cather was also in the audience for this
concert. In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where
Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung
Hambourg and became a family friend; the children called her “Aunt Willa.”
In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during
their frequent stays in New York City. Cather took the Menuhin children on
walks around Central Park, read Shakespeare with them, and gave them books
as gifts. Yehudi’s sister Hepzibah accompanied her brother on piano; they
made their first recording together in 1933 and often performed together.
The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, and after a world
tour that year, Yehudi withdrew from performing for 18 months and stayed at
the ranch with his family. He returned to the concert stage in 1937 and met
and married Nola Nicholas in 1938 (Hepzibah married Nola’s brother Lindsay).
Yehudi and Nola had two children, Krov and Zamira. Cather enjoyed a late
life visit from Hepzibah and Yehudi and their families in 1947. Cather
corresponded regularly with the adult Yehudi, giving him personal advice,
although only one original letter has surfaced. In 1947, Yehudi and Nola
divorced and he married British ballerina Diana Gould, with whom he had two
more children. Living in Europe, he continued his career as a performer and
also became a conductor, established a school in England, and became a
British citizen. He died in Berlin, Germany, while on tour.
Williams, Nola Ruby Nicholas Menuhin (1919-?). Australian socialite Born in Australia, daughter of George and Ruby Nicholas, Nola Nicholas met Yehudi Menuhin in London, England, in 1938; they were married two months later. Nola’s brother George Lindsay Nicholas married Yehudi’s sister, Hephzibah Menuhin. Yehudi and Nola had two children before divorcing in 1947. She subsequently married Wing-Commander Anthony Williams.
Benthall, Zamira Menuhin (1939- ). Yehudi and Nola Menuhin’s daughter. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Zamira Menuhin and her brother Krov lived in the U.S. with their mother, Nola Menuhin, while their father Yehudi Menuhin toured internationally as a violinist. After her parents’ 1947 divorce, she moved frequently with her mother. In later life, she and her second husband, Jonathan Charles Mackenzie Benthall, became important patrons of the arts in Britain.
Menuhin, Marutha Sher (c. 1892-1996). Mother of Yehudi, Hepzibah and Yaltah Menuhin. Born in Russia, Marutha Sher married Moshe Mnuchin, a Hebrew teacher, in 1914. After brief stays in Palestine and New York City, where son Yehudi was born, they moved to San Francisco, CA, in 1917 and changed their surname to Menuhin. Their daughters Hepzibah and Yaltah were born in San Francisco. They educated all three children at home and sought out musical instruction for them when each was a small child. However Yehudi’s career as a violinist was given top priority. With the support of Yehudi’s patron Sidney Ehrman the family moved to New York City and Paris to advance Yehudi’s musical studies. In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg. Cather evidently approved of Marutha’s parenting of her gifted children, and they became friends. In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City, and Marutha encouraged Cather’s growing relationship with her children. The family purchased a ranch in in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, which became Marutha’s primary residence when she was not on tour with her children. Her relationships with Yehudi and Hepzibah remained strong as they emerged into adulthood, but Yaltah rebelled against her mother’s authority and the two became alienated from one another. Although only one brief letter from Cather to Marutha Menuhin is known, they evidently carried out a regular correspondence. Marutha Menuhin died in Los Gatos.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
April Twilights (1903) by Willa Cather
