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 wis[missing]h you could know how much pleasure it gives me to hear from you. It is, indeed, a very long while since we met, but I remember both you and Mr. Field3 as if we had been together only a year ago. You wrote me such a cordial letter after the publication of "Obscure Destinies"4, and I have always felt that we have more or less been in touch. I did not know of your husband's death, and I find it hard to realize that such a strong and commanding figure could be swept out in a moment. Of course, as you say, we would all like to go in a moment. My father5 went so, but my mother6, after a paralytic stroke, had to bear three years of tedious illness in Pasadena7. During her illness there were always two of her children with her, and I believe she had a great deal of happiness even during those years of illness.
I am much interested to hear that when you left Shepardstown8 you went to see your
niece9 married to Lieutenant
Cresswell10, whom we have all read about. My twin nieces11 both graduated from college
with high honors, married very soon afterward, and both of them now have fine babies12. While they were still in
college they spent two wonderful summers with me on the Island of Grand Manan13, in the mouth of the Bay of Funday14. I have a little cottage there. This
last autumn when I was spending a few weeks at Williamstown, Massachusetts15, I met a Williams College professor16 who was born in Shepardstown and grew up
in the fine old brick house almost opposite the house of ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩
Mrs. Henry Shepard17, who was our very pleasant
hostess. He told me that Henry Shepard18 died
some years ago, and that Mrs. Shepard married again
and now lives in Washington19.
Thank you, Mrs. Field, for telling me about the pleasant place where you are staying in Santa Barbara20. I cannot go to Grand Manan this summer because the war-time food situation there is so bad. I might even suddenly appear at the Hotel Upham this summer. Wouldn't it be delightful if we should meet again? While my mother was ill I spent some weeks at Santa Barbara; not in the town itself, but back on the hills, at an hotel which rented small guest houses. The place was formerly a lemon packing orchard, and I found it very pleasant.
I am sorry not to be writing to you by hand, dear Mrs. Field, but I recently had the bad luck to sprain the tendon21 of the thumb of my right hand and my hand has to be immobilized for the time being. If you should tie your right thumb to a stick for a day, you would find that there is not one of the simplest acts of life you can perform without your right thumb. You simply have to have a personal maid, temporarily, and that is a great nuisance. I can, however, write my signature without a thumb.
Thank you so much for writing to me. Your letter has brought up happy memories.
Faithfully yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1626.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1626
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elsie Field1
- Date letter was written
- April 19, 1943
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949 (MSS 6494), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA
Individual Annotations
Cather significantly injured a tendon in her right thumb in November 1940 after signing hundreds of copies of her novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl. Her right hand was immobilized for months afterward, and the pain recurred often in later years.
Person Annotations
Field, Mrs. There is insufficient evidence for a definitive identification, but this may be Emilia Agusta Rousch Field (1872-1956). Born in New Haven, CT, Emilia Rousch married Theron Rockwell Field in 1895. The two possibly met Cather in Shepherdstown, WV, in May 1927 before attending the wedding of Emilia Belknap Field and Lt. Leonard B. Cresswell in Norfolk, VA. In 1931, she privately published Record of the Life of David Dudley Field: His Ancestors and Descendants. After the death of her husband, she established the Theron Rockwell Field Prize at Yale University, a yearly award to be used for poetic, literary, or religious scholarship.
Field, Mr. There is insufficient evidence for a definitive identification, but this may be Theron Rockwell Field (1869-1940). Born in Southwick, MA, Theron Field received his PhB from Yale University in 1889 and subsequently moved west to work a civil engineer for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company. By 1890, he began a lifelong career working for the Colorado National Bank in Denver, CO, eventually serving in various leadership roles. In 1895, he married Emilia Agusta Rausch and the two possibly met Cather in Shepherdstown, WV, in May 1927 before they attended the wedding of Emilia Belknap Field and Lt. Leonard B. Cresswell in Norfolk, VA. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in the Virginia to William Lee
Boak and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and
was a schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872.
Her husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War
while her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the
Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage
she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa,
Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while
three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska
after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather
remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud,
NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928
Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their
families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in
Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times
but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for
her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia
Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932),
which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.
Belknap, Emilia Field (1906-1982). American military wife. Emilia Belknap was the daughter and granddaughter of U.S. Navy admirals and a descendant of Jonathan Edwards Field, Sr. After graduating from Vassar College in 1926 she married U.S. Marine Lt. Leonard B. Cresswell on June 1, 1927. After his death she retired to Newport, RI, where she was active in community affairs.
Cresswell, Leonard B. (1901-1966). American Marine Corps officer. Cresswell joined the Marines after graduating from college, and married Emilia Field Belknap in 1927. Lieut. Colonel Cresswell received the Navy Cross in 1943 for his actions at the battle for Guadalcanal in 1942, and rose to the rank of major general.
Ickis, Elizabeth Cather (1915-1978) (half of the “twinnies”).
Cather’s niece. Elizabeth and her twin sister Margaret were born
in Lander, WY, to Roscoe and Meta Cather, and moved with the family to
Casper, WY, in 1921. Elizabeth and Margaret both attended the University of
Colorado, graduating in 1937, and visited Willa Cather and Edith Lewis on
Grand Manan during the summers of 1936 and 1937. In Cather’s later letters
to them she often refers back to their summer visits as a magical time.
Elizabeth moved to Colusa, CA, with her parents in 1937 and married Lynn S.
Ickis, an electrical engineer, in April 1938. They lived in Cleveland, OH,
and had two children, Margaret and John.
Shannon, Margaret Cather (1915-1996) (half of the “twinnies”).
Cather’s niece. Margaret and her twin sister Elizabeth were born
in Lander, WY, to Roscoe and Meta Cather, and moved with the family to
Casper, WY, in 1921. Elizabeth and Margaret both attended the University of
Colorado, graduating in 1937, and visited Willa Cather and Edith Lewis on
Grand Manan during the summers of 1936 and 1937. In Cather’s later letters
to them, she often refers back to their summer visits as a magical time.
Margaret moved to Colusa, CA, with her parents in 1937. After she married
Richard Shannon in September 1938, she moved with him to Boston, MA, where
he earned an MBA from Harvard University in Cambridge. In 1940 they moved to
the New York City area, where their first child, Richard, was born in 1943.
The Shannons moved to Washington, DC, in 1944, where their daughter Kathryne
was born. Cather did not see Margaret again after she left New York, and
Margaret’s other three children, Patricia, Margaret, and Elizabeth, were
born after Cather’s death. Kathryne and Patricia became caretakers for a
large family archive of letters preserved by their mother, which they
donated to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as the Roscoe and Meta Cather
Collection.
Fernbacher, Margaret Ickis (1939- ). Cather's great niece. Born in Cleveland, OH, Margaret Ickis was the first child of Lynn Ickis and Elizabeth Cather Ickis (Willa Cather’s niece). In 1975, she married Frank Fernbacher, and the couple had one son, Michael. They lived for many years in Willoughby, OH. She likely met Willa Cather when she was a young child.
0812Shannon, Richard Stoll, III (1943-2004). Cather’s great nephew. Born in New York City to Richard Stoll Shannon, Jr., and Margaret Cather Shannon (Willa Cather’s niece), Richard Shannon, III, earned degrees in classics from Stanford University (BA 1966, MA 1969) and Harvard University (PhD 1973). He taught at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 1978, when he left academia for the business world. At the time of his death he was president of Shannon Management Co. and general partner of Pioneer Investment Co. in Englewood, CO.
Licklider, Albert (1874-1959). Williams College English professor. Born in Shepherdstown, WV, Licklider received both his BA (1896) and MA (1897) from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1907 and published his dissertation Chapters on the Metric of the Chaucerian Tradition in 1910, which was his best-known work. In 1914, he joined the English department at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and taught literature until he retired in 1941. Cather met Licklider during her 1942 visit to Williamstown.
Shepherd, Mrs. No further information is available about this person.
Shepherd, Henry. No further information is available about this person.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
Obscure Destinies (1932) by Willa Cather
