Mary Willard (December 26 [1941]) | Willa Cather Archive

#1567: Willa Cather to Mary Willard, December 26 [1941]

Plain view:

Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions

Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.

Textual Feature	Appearance
passage deleted with a strikethrough mark	~~deleted passage~~
passage deleted by overwritten added letters	~~overwritten passage~~
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

December 26^th Darling Marie¹;

I hung the dear wreath by candlelight on Christmas. It brought to me years and years of happy memories. You were so thoughtful to fill the empty place on my mantel where May³'s wreath has hung each succeeding winter for many years. Yes, it was a lovely thought you had, and it makes me know that the old tie is not broken. When you and I think of her we are together.

Lovingly Willa Miss Mary Willard¹ 864 Francisco Street San Francisco⁴ California NEW YORK, N.Y. STA. Y² DEC 26 1941 130 PM

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let1567.xml
Letter identifier: 1567
Contents: Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
Person to whom letter was written: Mary Willard ¹
Date letter was written: December 26 [1941]
Place letter was written: New York, New York, United States²
Location of original letter: Harrison Griswold Dwight Papers, 1890-1959 (MA.00012), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst, MA

Person Annotations

0259

Willard, Mary (1857-1944) (“Marie”). Elisa May Willard’s sister. Born in Vermont, Mary Willard lived, for a time, in Pittsburgh, PA, with her sister Elisa May Willard, Willa Cather’s close friend during her years in the city; however, it is not clear whether Mary lived in Pittsburgh before Cather’s move to New York City in 1906. The sisters later moved to California. Mary died in San Francisco, CA.

0180

Willard, Elisa May (1868-1941) (“May”). Librarian; Cather’s Pittsburgh friend. Born in Vermont, Willard graduated from Smith College in 1894, attended the New York State Library School from 1894-1895, and then moved to Pittsburgh to work at the Carnegie Library, where she served as Reference Librarian for twenty-two years. May Willard, Ethel Litchfield, Isabelle McClung, and Cather formed, as she wrote in a condolence letter to May’s sister Mary, a “little group” that “melted together” (#1540). Willard retired in 1917 and moved to California. Although only one letter from Cather to Willard is extant, they remained friends, and Willard visited Cather in New York City. She died in San Francisco, CA.

Place Annotations

New York, New York, United States

San Francisco, California, United States