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 surely was not feeling very ill the afternoon you came to see me, and I
enjoyed our visit so much - more than I can tell you. But the next day I
went to have my throat doctor paint my throat with argyrol, and for some
unknown reason he took my temperature. He found it was 102.8, and personally
conducted me to his hospital without letting me go home, (three blocks), to
get even a toothbrush. Well, the temperature went on jumping way up for some
days, and that let me in for a set of trying examinations besides making me
feel very weak - just liquid diet, etc. By poking me thoroughly the
doctors found a sore spot on my
right side - said to be inflamed gall bladder. That meant X-rays, etc. The
pictures did show some stones and that the pesky thing was not functioning
properly. After four or five days of this my temperature did drop to normal
and even below. Of course, the surgeons would like to operate as a
"preventive of further trouble", and think it would improve my general
health. But I have never had a single throb of pain there and did not know I had a gall bladder until
they scientifically poked me. I am not going to rush into an operation as a
"preventive," but I am going to follow a diet
and take care of the wretched thing for a while. Of course, the high fever
and liquid diet have taken the strength out of me a good deal, but today I
had a little solid food and feel
already better.
I write you about this, my dear, simply because I do not ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ see how I am able to give myself the visit in Red Cloud3 with Carrie4 and Mary5 which I have looked forward to so long. I hate to disappoint them and I hate to disappoint myself, but it will take me some time to get back my normal vitality6, and I suppose I shall have to keep this defective organ under observation for some time. I don't want any word about it spread abroad and I do not want Elsie7 to know about it, or anyone except Carrie and Mary - I know they will keep it to themselves. I hate to be sick and I hate to be "defective".
Well, we did have a nice visit, didn't we? And Roscoe8 is sitting
up and it looks as if he were
going to be himself again.! That is a great comfort. As soon
as I begin to lead a normal life again and see my friends and go to a few
concerts, I shall be happy and be
myself. But really, life on the flat of your
back and liquid diet is too dreary to be continued. I would rather take any
chance than submit to that. Yes, we did have a good visit, dear Irene, and
you must never come to New York2
without hunting me up. Promise me that, and you let Carrie and Mary know
about this queer upset.
I can't write about it again—though I suppose I must explain to Roscoe why I dropped out of his life as soon as he began to get better!
FROM CATHER 570 PARK.9, NEW YORK CITY2 Mrs. C. W. Weisz1, 3270 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago10, Illinois. NEW YORK,N.Y.2 APR 19 1942 230PM IllnessInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1576.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1576
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Irene Miner Weisz 1
- Date letter was written
- April 18, 1942
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Irene Miner Weisz Papers, 1912-1958 (Midwest MS Cather-Weisz), Newberry Library, Chicago, IL
Individual Annotations
Cather struggled with illness throughout the spring of 1942, and her gall-bladder and appendix were removed on 24 July 1942 by Dr. Allen Whipple at the Presbyterian Hospital (#2375). Her health remained poor for the rest of her life, and she never made her planned visit to Red Cloud.
570 Park Avenue (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis from December 11, 1932, until her death, located in the Manhattan borough of New York City, near Central Park. They had apartment 7D. Lewis continued to live there until her own death.
Person Annotations
Weisz, Irene Miner (1881-1971). Musician; Cather’s lifelong
friend. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest child of James L.
Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Irene Miner was educated in Red Cloud,
graduating in 1898 and played with the Cather children as part of the play
town of Sandy Point and in amateur theatricals. She studied piano with local
teachers, such as Mrs. P.E.B. Sill, then went to the Chicago College of
Music from 1899 to 1901. She met clerk Charles Weisz, later president of the
A.F. Shaw insurance company, there; they married in late 1915, settling in
Chicago. She visited Red Cloud frequently, but also travelled in the
American West and then to Europe in 1921 and around the world in 1934.
Cather corresponded with Irene Miner Weisz for many years and sometimes
stayed with her in Chicago when travelling to and from the West. My Ántonia is dedicated to Irene, model for Nina
Harling in the novel, and to her sister Carrie Miner Sherwood.
Sherwood, Carrie Miner (1869-1971). Sherwood, Carrie Belle
Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader; Cather's friend. Born in Waukon,
IA, to James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest
of their children. The family moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the
Miner Brothers store became the largest in town. Cather remembered meeting
Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie, her mother, and siblings were confirmed in
the Catholic church. In 1888, she studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at
Notre Dame, IN. She married bank clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they
had two sons. The Sherwoods travelled often in the West, and visited Europe
in 1930. They built a new house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in
1908; Cather sometimes sent materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious
attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood led local Red Cross work during the two World
Wars, served on the Red Cloud school board and park commission, and was
active in the League of Women Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace
Episcopal Church. Cather corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout
her life and dedicated My Ántonia to Carrie, model
for Frances Harling in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of
Mildred Bennett’s chief sources for The World of Willa
Cather (1951), and was instrumental in setting up what is now the
Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud.
Creighton, Mary S. Miner (1873-1968). Clubwoman; Cather’s
friend from childhood. Born in Iowa, Mary Miner was the second
daughter of James and Julia Miner, neighbors of the Cather family in Red
Cloud, NE. Willa Cather later recalled that when she first moved into town
with her family and enrolled in school in 1885, “Margie Miner was so jolly I
wanted awfully to know her.” They became lifelong friends and
correspondents, and Mary’s sisters Irene and Carrie were equally close to
Cather. Mary Miner wed local physician E. A. Creighton in 1900 and lived the
rest of her life in Red Cloud. She was the prototype for Julia Harling in
My Ántonia (1918).
Cather, Elsie Margaret (1890-1964) (“Bobbie”). Cather’s
sister. Born in Red Cloud, NE, shortly before Willa Cather
graduated from high school, Elsie attended the University of Nebraska in
Lincoln from 1908 to 1910, before transferring to Smith College, in
Northampton, MA, from which she graduated with an A.B. in English and Latin
in 1912. She undertook graduate study at the University of Nebraska in 1914
and in 1916 received her A.M. with a major in philosophy and a minor in
English. At both the undergraduate and the graduate level at Nebraska, she
studied under Louise Pound. She began a career in high school teaching in
1912, when she took a position in Lander, WY, where her brother Roscoe then
lived with his family. She also taught in Albuquerque, NM; Corning, IA;
Cleveland, OH; and briefly Red Cloud, when illness in the family brought her
home. Her longest tenure as a teacher was at Lincoln (NE) High School, where
she began teaching in 1920, with Olivia Pound and Mariel Gere as colleagues.
Willa Cather's expectation that Elsie be responsible for aging family and
friends and for legal affairs after their parents' deaths sometimes brought
the sisters into conflict. Elsie Cather retired from Lincoln High School in
1942. She died in Lincoln.
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).
Place Annotations
