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 |
Miss Cather has just returned after a long absence caused by illness in her family. She is sending you today a contribution to your "Schrift Fest"3 to be presented to Doctor Damrosch4 on his birthday. In case this contribution reaches you too late for your purpose, will you be kind enough to return it to me, as Miss Cather would like to send it to him herself on his birthday. My address is: Room 1202, 7 Dey Street, New York City2.
Very truly yours, Sarah J. Bloom5 Secretary Miss Felicia Geffen American Academy of Arts & Letters 633 W. 155th Street New York CityInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1558.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1558
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Felicia Geffen 1
- Date letter was written
- November 26, 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.
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
