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 |
Why not3
Ferdinand4? Seriously, I am willing to
change the name of my bull to Andrew
Jackson5, for this edition of one
thousand only. I do it as an accommodation to you,.
nNot for five hundred dollars,
but because you helped me to save6
"Antonia"7 from Grant Wood8. Please, when you return from Florida9, write me an agreement10 signed by yourself and another officer of the
company, to the effect that the bull's name is to be
changed for 1,000 copies only. My father11's
two bulls were named Gladstone12 and Brigham Young13. I like both names—one refers to
disposition (stubborn,) and the other to physical
adequacy.
P.S. Of course I am in accord with you on the suggested proposal14 regarding the sale of a set of the autograph edition for the Finland15 fund.
W. S. C.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1477.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1477
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- February 24 [1940]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by corresponding letters from Houghton Mifflin staff.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944 (MS AM 1925), Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA
Individual Annotations
On 20 February 1940, Greenslet wrote that "a bookseller in Utah" wanted "to buy, for some special market, 1,000 copies of MY ANTONIA, at the full, regular, wholesale price," a transaction that would produce $500 in royalties for Cather. The bookseller pointed out that the fact that two bulls in the novel are named Gladstone and Brigham Young would make the book unsuitable for his purposes and requested a special change.
Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf, a children's book about a gentle bull who refuses to fight, appeared in 1936.
See #1385.
It is not clear whether the change was ever made. Greenslet wrote on 5 April 1940 that the bookseller had submitted the proposal to a committee, and the matter is not mentioned again.
On 20 February 1940, Greenslet explained that Houghton Mifflin had been "asked to donate copies of our selected publications" to a fair raising money for Finland (then battling Soviet forces attempting to annex it), and he asked whether Cather approved having "a set of your collected writings" donated to be sold at a fundraising auction at the fair.
Person Annotations
Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer.
Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from
Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as
associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to
1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children,
Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized
in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston
publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially
and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett,
who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to
submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published
novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief
of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of
the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as
partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet
negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent
from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became
a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department
in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of
her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and
undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters
to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.
Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845). American soldier and statesman; seventh President of the U.S. Born in the Carolinas before the American Revolution, Jackson first came to national attention for his leadership in wars against Native Americans in the southern U.S. and for victory against the British in the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. His supporters founded the Democratic Party; he defeated John Quincy Adams in the 1828 Presidential election and served as President from 1829 to 1837. During his presidency, Jackson crafted a plan for relocating southeastern Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River to open up more land for white settlement. A prosperous planter, Jackson supported slavery throughout his career.
Wood, Grant (1891-1942). American artist. Born in Anamosa, IA, Grant Wood attended the Minneapolis School of Design and Handicraft in 1910 and afterwards made jewelry and metalwork. In 1923 he studied painting at the Académie Julian in Paris and was influenced by a 1928 trip to Germany, developing the style that became emblematic of the Midwestern regionalist movement in the visual arts in the 1930s. Wood gained international acclaim when American Gothic (1930) was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1932 he co-founded the Stone City Colony and Art School and in 1934 became a professor at the University of Iowa. Willa Cather respected Wood’s work but rejected a 1937 proposition from Houghton Mifflin that Wood be commissioned to illustrate My Ántonia (1918).
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Gladstone, William Ewart (1809-1898). British statesman and Prime Minister. Over the course of sixty years, William Gladstone served for twelve years as prime mister of Great Britain (his terms spread out over the years from 1868 to 1894), and served four times as Chancellor of the Exchequer. A member of the Liberal Party, he supported reforms that transformed the tradition of aristocratic governance and endeared him to working class Britons. Two of Gladstone’s sons and one of his grandsons followed him into Parliament, resulting in four generations of Gladstone men serving as MPs.
Young, Brigham (1801-1877). American religious leader and politician. Brigham Young served as the second president of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1847 until his death. He led the movement of the Mormons from Illinois to the Utah Valley (then part of Mexico) beginning in 1846, a migration that took them through Nebraska. When Utah became a U.S. territory, he became its government. Young advocated for polygamy in the church (a practice that had to be disavowed for Utah to enter the union as a state). He himself had 56 children by 16 of his 55 wives.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
