Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 tried many times to get you by telephone, but always I was either told that you were in the country or I got no answer at all over the telephone, so I judged that nowadays you must be spending a great many pleasant days at your country estate - though I doubt whether you have been using your swimming pool much this year.
You sent me a book about a French settlement in the United States3. My dear lady, if one started out to write the story
of every French settlement made along the Mississippi and Ohio, one would have a
busy life of it. Several of our big rivers arewere simply dotted with
French settlements. You know yourself, as you explain in your note, that nobody can
write a book from information, no mattter how tempting the information may be. It
isn't a question of how interesting the information is, but how deep it has got
under one's skin and how long and persistently it has irritated one after it got
there!
