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 |
3-13-'41
G.A.B. ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ February 25, 1941. My dear Bishop Beecher1:
You have probably heard from my friends that I have been unable to write since the middle of November, because of an injury3 to my right hand. I neglected the hurt and the consequences which followed have been rather serious. Even my Christmas checks to old friends at home had to be signed by Miss Bloom4, my secretary. The hand is still in splints and I do not know how soon I shall be able to use it. I took advantage of a slight improvement to set it to work again, and had a severe relapse.
Now, as to titles. If I say "my dear Bishop," why shouldn't you say "my dear Willa?" I don't like my first name very well - I never like feminine forms of masculine names. And if I had known when I began to write that I would eventually be rather extensively published, I would have used my mother's5 name. However, my old Red Cloud6 friends call me Willa, and a very few people in New York2 and England7 call me by my first name. I certainly would like to add Bishop Beecher to that small number. So henceforth, let it be Willa.
I spent Christmas and New Year's in the French Hospital8 here, and I can truly say it was a very happy Christmas, if not a merry one. It was pleasant to hear the French language about me all the time, and all the nurses are very intelligent and well trained.
I wish I could have been in the church9
with you all when you bade farewell to our dear Mollie
Ferris10. Elsie11 wrote me a very
moving description of that solemn service. I had hoped, as you know to be at home
for a time this winter, but this painful condition of my right hand (the tendon in
the ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩
right thumb was snapped and the inflamation of the sheath extended to the first and second thumb joint, and
which makes my whole hand absolutely
useless) made it impossible to travel. There is one consolation about having a hand
that is not working. I shall be able to go to service during Lent12 oftener than I ever have before. I carry my hand in a
sling13 and am able to take a
reasonable amount of exercise in the Park14. You may be sure that during the Lenten services, during every
service, my mind will go back to the little church at home and to my old friends in
Red Cloud and to my dear Bishop and his
wife15.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1530.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1530
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Allen Beecher1
- Date letter was written
- February 25, 1941
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (RG2639.AM), Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Cather significantly injured a tendon in her right thumb in November 1940 after signing hundreds of copies of her novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl. Her right hand was immobilized for months afterward, and the pain recurred often in later years.
In 1881 the French Hospital, established by the Société Française de Bienfaisance, opened at 131 West 14th Street, New York. In 1929 the hospital opened locations at 324-240 West 30th Street. Willa Cather stayed at the hospital in the spring of 1940 and returned in December that same year. Cather enjoying being surrounded by the French language and felt the hospital was an "escape from the active world" (#1514).
Grace Episcopal Church (Red Cloud, NE): Built in 1883, the Cather family joined Grace Episcopal Church in 1922. Cather and her siblings commissioned the installment of two stained glass windows in honor of each of their parents, as well as the altar rail in honor of their brother Douglass.
In 1941, Lent began on February 26, Ash Wednesday. Many Christian denominations hold services on each Wednesday of Lent, in addition to Sunday services.
A brace built specifically for her injured right hand by Dr. Frank Ober of Boston in 1941 (#2179).
Central Park, in New York City, was Cather's favorite place to walk.
Person Annotations
Beecher, George Allen (1868-1951). Western Nebraska Episcopal Bishop.
Born in Illinois, Beecher moved with his family to Kearney, NE, at
age 14. He studied for the Episcopal priesthood at the Philadelphia (PA)
Divinity School, graduating in 1892, and then spent fifty-one years in
Nebraska as a deacon, priest, and finally Bishop of the Missionary District
of Western Nebraska. Willa Cather met him in Red Cloud, NE, in December 1922
when he presided at her and her parents’ confirmation as members of Grace
Episcopal Church. She and Bishop Beecher corresponded frequently
thereafter.
Bloom, Sarah J. (1889-1961). Cather's personal secretary. Born in New York in 1889 to Russian immigrants Solomon and Bertha Bloom, Sarah J. Bloom worked for Cather from some time in the 1920s until Cather's death and continued to work for Edith Lewis on matters pertaining to Cather's literary estate thereafter. Bloom typed Cather's literary manuscripts and managed Cather's correspondence, typing dictated letters and sometimes responding for Cather when she was traveling. Bloom’s work for Cather supplemented full-time office employment in New York City (for many years she worked for the New York State Public Service Commission). She thus came to Cather and Lewis's apartment on weekends to take dictation, pick up and deliver typescripts, and deliver typed letters for signature. She died in New York city in 1961.
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in Virginia to William Lee Boak
and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and was a
schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872. Her
husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War while
her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the
Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage
she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa,
Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while
three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska
after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather
remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud,
NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928
Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their
families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in
Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times
but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for
her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia
Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932),
which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.
Ferris, Mollie (c. 1864-1941). Cather family friend in Red Cloud.
Ferris was a close friend of Cather’s mother. Willa Cather and
Ferris served jointly as godmothers when Cather’s niece Helen Louise Cather
was christened in Red Cloud, NE, in 1918. When Ferris died, Cather
contributed money for a stained glass window in her honor in Grace Episcopal
Church in Red Cloud.
Cather, Elsie Margaret (1890-1964) (“Bobbie”). Cather’s
sister. Born in Red Cloud, NE, shortly before Willa Cather
graduated from high school, Elsie attended the University of Nebraska in
Lincoln from 1908 to 1910, before transferring to Smith College, in
Northampton, MA, from which she graduated with an A.B. in English and Latin
in 1912. She undertook graduate study at the University of Nebraska in 1914
and in 1916 received her A.M. with a major in philosophy and a minor in
English. At both the undergraduate and the graduate level at Nebraska, she
studied under Louise Pound. She began a career in high school teaching in
1912, when she took a position in Lander, WY, where her brother Roscoe then
lived with his family. She also taught in Albuquerque, NM; Corning, IA;
Cleveland, OH; and briefly Red Cloud, when illness in the family brought her
home. Her longest tenure as a teacher was at Lincoln (NE) High School, where
she began teaching in 1920, with Olivia Pound and Mariel Gere as colleagues.
Willa Cather's expectation that Elsie be responsible for aging family and
friends and for legal affairs after their parents' deaths sometimes brought
the sisters into conflict. Elsie Cather retired from Lincoln High School in
1942. She died in Lincoln.
Beecher, Florence Idelia George (1867-1947). Episcopal churchwoman. Born in Kenosha, WI, Florence George moved to Kearney, NE, to teach school. In 1888 she met George Beecher there, and they married in 1893, after Beecher’s ordination as an Episcopal priest. They had one son and two daughters. In 1910, George Beecher became bishop of the Missionary District of Western Nebraska, and the family moved to Hastings, NE. Willa Cather came to know Florence Beecher after Bishop Beecher confirmed Cather and her parents as members of the Episcopal church in 1922. They seldom met but Cather included greetings to Florence Beecher in her letters to Bishop Beecher.
Place Annotations
