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 office ruling regarding "Paul's Case"3 was the result of a great over-use of "The Sculptor's Funeral"4 for serial purposes. That story was a very early one, exaggerated in feeling and carelessly executed, and I disliked having it spread about the country5 so much for young people to imitate.
The three stories6 in "Obscure Destinies"7 I have always held back from serial
publication simply because the use of any one of
them
they takes the heart out of the book. In this instance, however, I am
asking Mr. Knopf8 to make an exception, if he
can see fit to do so. Both Mr. Knopf and I have been so bothered by importunate
requests to include various stories and books of mine in Omnibuses, First Readers,
etc., etc., that we are very chary about breaking our rule of universal refusal.
Please excuse this untidy letter. My secretary9 is now on her vacation, and the substitute is very inadequate.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1554.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1554
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elizabeth Wheeler Manwaring 1
- Date letter was written
- November 14, 1941
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- , Wellesley College, Margaret Clapp Library, Wellesley, MA
Person Annotations
Manwaring, Elizabeth Wheeler (1879-1949). American academic. Born in Connecticut, daughter of Moses Warren Manwaring and Emmeline Comstock Manwaring, Elizabeth Manwaring graduated from Wellesley College in 1902. She was an instructor in English composition at Wellesley College by 1908 and became a professor there after receiving her PhD from Yale University in 1925. Cather wrote to Manwaring about the possibility of including one of her stories from Obscure Destinies in the anthology of American literature, Of the People (1942), which Manwaring co-edited with Harry R. Warfel.
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.
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
Work Annotations
"Paul's Case," The Troll Garden (1905), by Willa Cather
"The Sculptor's Funeral," McClure's Magazine (January 1905), by Willa Cather
"Old Mrs. Harris," Obscure Destinies (1932), by Willa Cather
"Two Friends," Obscure Destinies (1932), by Willa Cather
"Neighbour Rosicky," Obscure Destinies (1932), by Willa Cather
Obscure Destinies (1932), by Willa Cather
