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.

Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and One of Ours (1922), partly because she was dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an important personal friendship.

Knopf, Blanche Wolf (1894-1966). Vice President of New York publisher Alfred Knopf, Inc. Blanche Wolf founded Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1915 with her future husband Alfred Knopf. They married in 1916 and their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Active in the business throughout her life, Blanche Knopf recruited a number of prominent European and Latin American writers to the Knopf list (in translation) by traveling to meet them. In recognition of her work with writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, she was inducted into the French Legion of Honor in 1949. She became president of Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1957 when her husband became chairman. Through her work in the publishing house she also promoted writers of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes. Cather’s letters to Knopf focus primarily on business but the two also became friends.

Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965). British politician and writer. Son of Lord Henry Randolph Spencer Churchill and Jeannette Jerome Churchill, daughter of a New York financier, Churchill had a long career in British diplomacy and politics, culminating in his service as Prime Minister during World War II. Cather was enthusiastic about Churchill's leadership during the war, following his speeches, reading biographies of him, and attributing his shrewdness to his American mother.