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 |
You letter has lain unanswered on my desk for a long time. When I
returned from a vacation in the
West4, I found so many letters awaiting me that it has taken me
three weeks to answer them.
all. I cannot reply to yours very fully,
simply because there are so many letters
still ahead of yours. You ask me one or two questions which I can touch upon
briefly.
I am always glad when people tell me they like "My
Mortal Enemy"5, because it was a rather difficult story to write.
You ask me why Ewan Grey and Esther do not come into the story again. Simply
because their only use was to flash into the story for a moment, as one of
the many examples of Myra's extravagant friendships. To have mentioned them
again in the latter part of the story would have been both confusing and
misleading. She could not possibly keep all these people in her life,
especially after she was ill and, so to speak, in exile. And I, who was
merely painting a portrait of Myra, with reflections of her in various
looking glasses hung about the room, would have been very foolish to try to
account for any of these people whom Myra had loved and left behind. And it
was the extravagance of her devotions that made her, in the end, feel that
Oswald was her mortal
enemy6-- that he had somehow been the enemy of her soul's peace. Of
course, her soul never could have been at peace. She wasn't that kind of
woman. Besides,
⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ I knew her7 very well indeed, and she was very much as I
painted her. At least, many of her friends and relatives wrote to me that
they recognized her immediately, although the story was not written or
published until fifteen years after her death.
I think it is better to answer one question fully than to say a word in reply to half a dozen questions. I heartily appreciate your friendly and cordial letter, and I declare you a thoroughly well-posted reader. As to writing, you will do well at it if you enjoy it. I advise you, as I do many young writers, to devote a good deal of your leisure to a study of the French language and literature. They are the best correctives for the faults to which we American are prone. Good luck, and believe me,
Very cordially yours, Willa Cather Mr. Pendleton Hogan1, 1523 Allison Street, N. W., Washington 3, D. C. NEW YORK. N.Y2 FEB 6 1940 2 PM
