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 |
letter from Evergreen
Colo.— March 28, 1944. My dear Bishop1:
What a wonderfulbeautiful Christmas present you sent me,!
aA letter which told me of your wonderful two-weeks trip through western
Nebraska3, holding services day and night in the scattered
missions, with all the members of your so-widespreading flock gathering to bring
children and grandchildren to their beloved Bishop.
Your letter has lain for all these weeks on a little table beside my bed where I always keep about half a dozen letters which I like to read over and over. Not many of them have such a triumphant lift as yours. It is a letter I shall always keep, because it is such strong testimony that good things triumph and fine effort is recognized even in a world which is now so darkened. Your Christmas letter awakens joy in my heart, and will always be treasured by me. I am glad you remembered the little church4 in Red Cloud5 where you confirmed me6 with my father7 and my mother8. I think of that service and that church very often. I haven’t many friends left in Red Cloud now, and I hear the little town is very much changed. Perhaps it is better to remember it as it was in those days of happy family reunions, when everything breathed love and confidence.
Just after the New Year came in, my right hand9 collapsed a
again, just when I had been working so happily on my new book.10 I am allowed to take off the brace11 for one hour a day to sign letters
and business papers. Please ask your doctor to explain
to you the results—and causes—of inflammation of the
sheath
of
the
big
tendon of the right thumb. Then you will understand
the true condition of my annoying disability, and you will not be deceived by by the rumors which float about Red Cloud, to the
effect that I have been paralyzed in the right arm. I’ll tell you something, my
Bishop; when no man rejoices in his his neighbour’s
misfortune, then there will be no more wars.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1662.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1662
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto and handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Allen Beecher1
- Date letter was written
- March 28, 1944
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (RG2639.AM), Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Grace Episcopal Church (Red Cloud, NE): Built in 1883, the Cather family joined Grace Episcopal Church in 1922. Cather and her siblings commissioned the installment of two stained glass windows in honor of each of their parents, as well as the altar rail in honor of their brother Douglass.
In December 1922, Willa Cather and her parents were confirmed in the Episcopal Church in Red Cloud by Bishop George Allen Beecher.
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.
In the early 1940s Cather worked on a historical novel of medieval France that was never published, which she titled Hard Punishments.
A brace built specifically for her injured right hand by Dr. Frank Ober of Boston in 1941 (#2179).
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.
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.
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.
Place Annotations
