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 was detained in New York4 until the heat reached 99°, and when I reached this Island early in August I stayed in bed for ten days and subsisted on fruit Juice. Before I left town I had a letter from you which I loved and longed to answer, but I was not very well and was working hard on my new book5, which will probably be out in 2 December. You sent me also a water color which I did not like very well. I still love the costume sketch done by Hugo Rumbold6, and it shall always hang on my wall as long as I have a wall.
I finished my book up here, more or less to my satisfaction, and the proofs
of the first part are now bumping down upon me. I leave for New York in
three days and rather dread it. There are so many people there whom I will
have to see, and I 3don't feel quite equal
to seeing people. This note is merely to tell you that I often think of you,
and to beg your forgiveness for not writing before. There are times, you
know, when one must simply vegetate. This a
is a lovely spot for simple animal recuperation. I send you my love and a
thousand good wishes, my dear Zoë.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1489.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1489
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- [September 3 to 9, 1940]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Cather reports receiving proofs for Sapphira and the Slave Girl in this letter; these proofs first began arriving around September 3, 1940 (see #2714). She departed Grand Manan the week of September 9, 1940 (see #2339).
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library (#6494-6494-i), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA
Person Annotations
Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter.
Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted
verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected,
advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her
hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a
playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to
her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an
adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In
1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and
director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong
correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both
commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.
Rumbold, Hugo Cecil Levinge (1884-1932) (“Captain Rumbold”). British soldier and theatrical designer. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, son of a British diplomat, Hugo Rumbold was educated at Eton College, then entered the British Army in 1901, serving in South Africa in the second Boer war. He began his career in costume and set design before re-entering service during World War I, during which he was wounded and promoted to captain. Resuming his career, Rumbold worked with many distinguished managers and actors, and was part of a social set including Noel Coward and the Sitwell family; he was known as a wit, a dandy, and an occasional cross-dresser. In the late 1920s he became interested in film and went to California, where he met Zoë Akins, who was a Hollywood screenwriter; they collaborated on a play. In March 1932 Rumbold and Akins were married; he died eight months later.
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
Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940), by Willa Cather
