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 |
All3 my friends who went to Florida4 this winter were ill down there. The place must have been under a curse. It was a cold, raw winter here2, but I got through it without anything worse than a cold or two. The state of the world is not conducive to high spirits.
Marrying a Mellon5 was the only wise thing Isabelle's brother6 ever did. He was a great disappointment to his father, Judge McClung7. Alfred was a very handsome young man, and I hear he has kept his good looks.
This stupid note is only to say that I am glad you are back—and better.
Faithfully yours Willa Cather April 19Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1537.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1537
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Ferris Greenslet1
- Date letter was written
- April 19 [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 5 April 1940, Greenslet wrote Cather that his stay in Florida had been extended by a case of the flu bad enough to require admission to the hospital. He also reported that he spent time at Cove Tavern, where he met Alfred McClung.
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.
McClung, Mary Mellon (1884-1974). Isabelle McClung’s sister-in-law. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to Mary Caldwell Mellon and Thomas Alexander Mellon, Mary Mellon married Herman Kampmann in 1905. The couple had two children and lived in San Antonio, TX, before their divorce. In 1917, Mary Mellon married Samuel A. McClung, Jr., in New York City. The couple had three children, Samuel III, Cynthia, and Isabelle. McClung published one novel, Sheepshead Point (1946).
McClung, Samuel Alfred, Jr. (1880-1945) (“Alfred”). Pittsburgh lawyer; Isabelle McClung’s brother. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to Samuel A. McClung and Fannie Merritt McClung, Samuel Alfred McClung, Jr., graduated from Shadyside Academy in 1900 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1901, when his sister Isabelle invited Cather to move into the family’s home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, he was likely still at MIT, but by 1904 was a clerk at the First National Bank of Pittsburgh. He was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh in 1911 and practiced law there. In 1917, he married Mary Caldwell Mellon Kampmann, a divorcee with two children and a member of the wealthy and influential Mellon family of Pittsburgh. They had three children together, Samuel III, Cynthia, and Isabelle. In the 1930s he retired from the practice of law, and he and his family lived on their farm in Cherry Valley, NY.
McClung, Samuel A. (1845-1915) American jurist, Isabelle McClung’s father. Born in Alleghany County, PA, to a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Samuel McClung graduated from Washington College in 1863 and in 1868 was admitted to the bar and moved to Pittsburgh, PA. He was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1872 and was known for his conservatism. He married Fannie Merritt in 1874 and they had three children, Isabelle, Samuel Jr., and Edith. In 1901 Isabelle McClung invited Willa Cather to reside in the McClung family home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and she lived there until her 1906 move to New York City. Cather often returned there to write until Judge McClung’s death caused the sale of family home in 1916.
Place Annotations
