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 |
I am, indeed, most grateful to you for the Petit3 letters4. They form a unique item in my large collection of memoirs and letters of missionary priests. Father Petit was a younger man than any other of the missionaries whose letters or reminiscences I have collected. The spirit of these letters is that of a very young man, indeed. His youthful enthusiasm and his romantic temperament must have perplexed his Bishop5 at times. But the Bishop seems to have been a wise man, and he handled his romantic young priest with affection and discretion, very much as George Washington6 handled the equally romantic and fervid young Marquis de Lafayette7. I thank you, dear Mr. Hitz, for these charming letters.
Cordially yours, Willa Cather Mr.Benjamin D. Hitz1, Brendonwood, Indianapolis8, Indiana. NEW YORK.N.Y.2 FEB 24 1942 11-PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1573.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1573
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, typewritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Benjamin D. Hitz 1
- Date letter was written
- February 21, 1942
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Benjamin D. Hitz Papers, 1913-1949 (Midwest.MS.Hitz-Cather), Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
Person Annotations
Hitz, Benjamin D. (1890-1949). American businessman and collector. Benjamin Hitz was born in Indiana and attended Indiana University. After his 1917 marriage to Elizabeth Holliday, he served with a medical unit in France during World War I. After the war he started a real estate business and began collecting materials on the history of Indiana and the Midwest, and on writers Mary Webb and Willa Cather. He commissioned Flora Bullock, Cather’s University of Nebraska classmate, to compile a bibliography of her early journalism, published during her student years. In 1942 he sent Cather materials relating to Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).
Petit, Benjamin Marie (1811-1839). French missionary to the United States. Born in the Brittany region of France, Benjamin Marie Petit trained as a lawyer before entering the seminary to become a Catholic priest. He traveled to the U.S. with a group led by Bishop Simon Bruté and in 1837 was sent as a missionary to the Potawatomi tribe in northern Indiana. Petit joined the Potawatomi on their forced march to a reservation near the Osage River in what is now Kansas. As he was attempting to return to Indiana, he died in St. Louis.
Bruté, Simon (1779-1839). French missionary to the United States. Born in the Brittany region of France, Simon Bruté trained as a physician before entering the seminary to become a Catholic priest. After joining the Society of Saint-Sulpice, he taught theology in seminaries in France and Maryland, eventually becoming president of Mt. St. Mary’s College. In 1834, Bruté accepted an appointment as the bishop of the newly created Diocese of Vincennes in Indiana. Facing a shortage of priests, he traveled to France, returning in 1836 with several recruits, including Benjamin Marie Petit. Bruté died in Vincennes and was buried under the sanctuary of his cathedral.
Washington, George (1732-1799). American president.
Washington was the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during
the American Revolutionary War. After the war, Washington helped to write
the U.S. Constitution and was then elected as the first U.S. President.
Lafayette, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de
(1757-1834). French military leader. A French aristocrat who
became enamored of the cause of the patriots in the American Revolutionary
War, Lafayette fought for the Continental Army as a major-general and formed
a friendship with George Washington. He returned to France, and during the
French Revolution, was forced to flee and did not return until 1799.
Lafayette was eventually elected to the Chamber of Deputies during the rule
of Napoleon.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The Trail of Death: Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit (1941) ; edited by Irving McKee
