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 have had two lovely letters from you in the last few months and I have replied to them only by a Christmas greeting. I do want to say more than that. Your letter written December 23rd has been read over many times, and has been a great comfort to me. I am still not altogether sure that a gall bladder operation3 is worth all it costs in vitality. My case was not acute, and I think I could have rubbed along by careful dieting and by avoiding any kind of emotional strain - which always has a very bad effect on such cases. But I found I could not face living the life of a semi-invalid. It is just not my nature to pussyfoot through life in that way. I would rather quit living altogether than to live guardedly and parsimoniously.
I, of course, have not regained anything like my original vitality as yet, and I am ten or twelve pounds under normal weight and so far unable to make it up. I am not quite strong enough to take a railway train and go anywhere I please (just now where I would most like to go is Red Cloud4), but I am every so much less languid than I was even three months ago and I see light and freedom ahead. How often during the days when I had to keep very quiet (especially in last August and September, when I was still in bed and the heat in New York2 was quite terrible) I thought of you and Mrs. Beecher5 and Mr. Bates6 and, Oh, so many of the old friends, some of whom are not living now. I have had a pretty busy life and I never before had much time for memory and reflection. But last summer when I was quite down and out, I had a happy reunion, in my mind and heart, with all the old places and the old friends. How much they mean in one’s life - one never knows until one has a period of enforced idleness like that.
Lovingly to you both, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1619.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1619
- Contents
- Document is photocopy of one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Allen Beecher1
- Date letter was written
- March 7, 1943
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Bernice Slote, English Papers, 1870-1978 (RG/12-10-16), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
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).
Person Annotations
Beecher, George Allen (1868-1951). Western Nebraska Episcopal Bishop.
Born in Illinois, Beecher moved with his family to Kearney, NE, at
age 14. He studied for the Episcopal priesthood at the Philadelphia (PA)
Divinity School, graduating in 1892, and then spent fifty-one years in
Nebraska as a deacon, priest, and finally Bishop of the Missionary District
of Western Nebraska. Willa Cather met him in Red Cloud, NE, in December 1922
when he presided at her and her parents’ confirmation as members of Grace
Episcopal Church. She and Bishop Beecher corresponded frequently
thereafter.
Beecher, Florence Idelia George (1867-1947). Episcopal churchwoman. Born in Kenosha, WI, Florence George moved to Kearney, NE, to teach school. In 1888 she met George Beecher there, and they married in 1893, after Beecher’s ordination as an Episcopal priest. They had one son and two daughters. In 1910, George Beecher became bishop of the Missionary District of Western Nebraska, and the family moved to Hastings, NE. Willa Cather came to know Florence Beecher after Bishop Beecher confirmed Cather and her parents as members of the Episcopal church in 1922. They seldom met but Cather included greetings to Florence Beecher in her letters to Bishop Beecher.
Bates, John Mallory (1846-1930). Red Cloud-based Episcopal clergyman.
Born and educated in Connecticut, Rev. Bates worked as an Episcopal
priest in New England for several years before moving west, first to Kansas
and then to Nebraska. He became rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Red
Cloud, NE, in 1903, while also serving as missioner of the Republican
Valley. He retired as rector and missioner in 1920 but continued to serve as
priest-in-charge at Grace Church until his death. He befriended the Cather
family long before Willa Cather and her parents were confirmed as members of
Grace Church in 1922. An amateur botanist and ornithologist, he shared Willa
Cather’s interest in the native plants and birds of Nebraska and is reputed
to have offered corrections to perceived botanical mistakes in her fiction.
His herbarium, held by the University of Nebraska State Museum, incorporates
specimens collected by Cather.
Place Annotations
