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 |
The sheet of paper sent to Willa Cather for the "Schrift Fest"3 to be presented to Dr. Damrosch4 is very wrinkled. Miss Cather is at present in California5 where her brother6 is very ill, and I am not forwarding any mail to her. It may therefore be some time before this matter can be brought to her attention.
Very truly yours, Sarah J. Bloom7 SecretaryInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1546.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1546
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Felicia Geffen 1
- Date letter was written
- August 12, 1941
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather, Willa (1873-1947), Member Archives, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
Bloom likely means Festschrift, writings in honor of a person collected and presented to them during their lifetime.
Person Annotations
Geffen, Felicia (1903-1995). American Academy of Arts administrator. Born in New York City, youngest daughter of a rare-book dealer, Felicia Geffen graduated from Hunter College, where she studied music. She became administrative assistant to conductor Walter Damrosch, who later became director of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She corresponded with members of the Academy, including Cather, about Academy business and functions. Geffen became executive director in 1941, retiring in 1973. She married immunologist George Heller, then after his death, she married muralist Stuyvesant van Veen.
Damrosch, Walter (1862-1950). German-American conductor and composer.
Walter Damrosch was born in Prussia, the son of conductor Leopold
Damrosch and opera singer Helene von Heimburg Damrosch. The family came to
the U.S. in 1871; by 1881 he was assisting his father in conducting the
Metropolitan Opera orchestra. In 1890 he convinced Andrew Carnegie to build
Carnegie Hall in New York. From 1894 to 1900 he led his Damrosch Opera
Company, which toured extensively (Cather saw and reviewed some of his
productions). He conducted the New York Symphony orchestra from 1903 to
1927, then hosted NBC radio’s music appreciation hour from 1928 to 1942.
Damrosch was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1898,
serving as its president in the late 1930s. Cather wrote Damrosch about a
proposal to change rules about the selection of members of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters from outside the National Institute of Arts and
Letters.
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
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.
Place Annotations
