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 |
What an unpredictable man you are! It seems that your “retirement”3 has turned out to be not the introduction to
a season of rest but the preface to a new and strenuous form of work. I rejoice to
hear that it does not mean “rest”! You would never be happy resting. If I had been
in town2 when your letter arrived, I think I
would have got on a train for Washington4,
to be present at that Confirmation service. After bidding farewell to your
Nebraska5 field, here you emerge in a
field that is practically nation-wide. You recall to me the English song6, “Old
Soldiers Never Die”7. No, they just go on gloriously fighting for the
Lord.!
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1670.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1670
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- George Allen Beecher1
- Date letter was written
- June 10, 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
Bishop Beecher announced his retirement in April 1943 and formally retired in October 1943.
The World War I song "Old Soldiers Never Die," popular in the British army, concluded, "They simply [just] fade away."
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.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"Old Soldiers Never Die"
