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 |
How kind you were to send the glorious camelias! They reached my door3
as fresh as when they left the garden, and are in a low-squatting glass bowl
on my writing table at this moment—some of the petals just a little darkened
at the tip. They have given me so much pleasure through this week of storm
and snow and bitter cold. With Yehudi4's orange tree and Nola5's cyclamen, they and
yours. They, all together, have given me a
tropical interior to live in.
Last night three more inches of snow fell—on top of a sea of slush. My writing hand6 is pretty bad as you can judge. I take it out of its brace7 for two hours every
morning with to write on a story8 that absorbs me. It is
better to carry my hand around in a sling than to be bored to death all
the
time! I have just loved your flowers, Zoë.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1688.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1688
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Zoë Akins 1
- Date letter was written
- [January 16, 1945]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Zoë Akins papers 1878-1959 (mssZA 1-7330), Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
Individual Annotations
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.
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.
Dr. Frank Ober, a specialist from Boston, constructed a brace to immobilize her injured tendon (see #2179)
Cather may have been working on "The Best Years" (published 1948), Hard Punishments (survives only in handwritten fragments), or one of several unpublished stories she left instructions to destroy after her death.
Person Annotations
Akins, Zoë (1886-1958). American poet, playwright, and screenwriter.
Akins’ friendship with Cather started in 1909, when she submitted
verse to McClure’s magazine, which Cather rejected,
advising her to stay with playwriting. Akins subsequently moved from her
hometown of St. Louis, MO, to New York City and achieved success as a
playwright. She moved to California in the 1930s, adding screenwriting to
her accomplishments. Her play The Old Maid (1935), an
adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In
1932, Akins married Captain Hugh Rumbold, a British theatrical designer and
director; he died eight months later. Cather and Akins carried on a lifelong
correspondence, with Cather writing affectionate letters that included both
commentary on her own works and criticism of Akins’.
Menuhin, Yehudi (1916-1999). Violinist and conductor. Born in
New York City to Moshe Mnuchin and Marutha Sher Mnuchin, immigrant Russian
Jews by way of Palestine who changed the spelling of their surname and moved
the family to San Francisco in 1918, Yehudi started violin lessons at age
four and made his first public appearance in 1922. His two younger siblings,
Hepzibah and Yaltah, studied piano, although his parents prioritized the
musical career of their son over their daughters. With the support of patron
Sidney Ehrman, the Menuhin family followed Yehudi’s teacher Louis Persinger
to New York City. Ehrman also sponsored Yehudi for a year of study in Paris,
France, with Georges Enesco. Yehudi began attracting national attention in
1927 and recorded and toured the U.S. in 1929. That year at Carnegie Hall,
his performance of concertos by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms with Bruno
Walter and the Berlin Philharmonic inspired Albert Einstein to proclaim “now
I know there is a God in Heaven”; Cather was also in the audience for this
concert. In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where
Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung
Hambourg and became a family friend; the children called her “Aunt Willa.”
In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during
their frequent stays in New York City. Cather took the Menuhin children on
walks around Central Park, read Shakespeare with them, and gave them books
as gifts. Yehudi’s sister Hepzibah accompanied her brother on piano; they
made their first recording together in 1933 and often performed together.
The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, and after a world
tour that year, Yehudi withdrew from performing for 18 months and stayed at
the ranch with his family. He returned to the concert stage in 1937 and met
and married Nola Nicholas in 1938 (Hepzibah married Nola’s brother Lindsay).
Yehudi and Nola had two children, Krov and Zamira. Cather enjoyed a late
life visit from Hepzibah and Yehudi and their families in 1947. Cather
corresponded regularly with the adult Yehudi, giving him personal advice,
although only one original letter has surfaced. In 1947, Yehudi and Nola
divorced and he married British ballerina Diana Gould, with whom he had two
more children. Living in Europe, he continued his career as a performer and
also became a conductor, established a school in England, and became a
British citizen. He died in Berlin, Germany, while on tour.
Williams, Nola Ruby Nicholas Menuhin (1919-?). Australian socialite Born in Australia, daughter of George and Ruby Nicholas, Nola Nicholas met Yehudi Menuhin in London, England, in 1938; they were married two months later. Nola’s brother George Lindsay Nicholas married Yehudi’s sister, Hephzibah Menuhin. Yehudi and Nola had two children before divorcing in 1947. She subsequently married Wing-Commander Anthony Williams.
Place Annotations
