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 |
It has been a long while since I have written you, but that doesn't mean I
haven't often thought of you, and
of the house where I used to work so happily in better years. The last six
years have been very hard ones for me. I lost the two dear brothers3 with whom I used
to travel about so much in the Northwest and Southwest.
and
dDuring the
those years that
my mother4 was so ill in California5,
(paralytic stroke) and I lived chiefly at the beautiful sanitarium6 where she finally
died. The last two summers I have spent at Northest Harbor, Maine7, where I had many old friends. But I
have never found any place where I could work in such peace and happiness as
in the little rooms up in the top of the Shattuck Inn8, and I have often wished I were
there. But after a certain time one has very little control of one's own
life. The
things
that
happen
to
one's
family
dictate
one's
whereabouts.
I am so glad that you sent me this card at Christmas time. It not only tells me that you remember me, but it gives me the best photograph I have ever seen of the Inn and its surroundings. For the first time, I see in it the beautiful line of the mountain against the sky. The profile of Monadnock, as one sees it from the Inn, is the lovliest thing about the place,- now that the beautiful woods of which you were so fond (and which all guests at the Inn enjoyed so much) were destroyed by the hurricane. I look forward to a time, dear Eleanor, when I can drift back to the Shattuck Inn again - when the strenuous duties toward nephews and nieces are less absorbing. Thank you for telling me about your own boys9 and if your mother10 is still with you, please remember me to her warmly and gratefully.
Your friend always, Willa Cather FROM CATHER 570 PARK AVE11.,NEW YORK CITY2 Mrs. George Austermann1 The Shattuck Inn Jaffrey, New Hampshire12 New York, N.Y.2 JAN 15 1947 6 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1748.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1748
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, typewritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Eleanor C. Shattuck Austermann1
- Date letter was written
- January 16, 1947
- 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
Las Encinas Sanitarium (Pasadena, CA): Established in 1904 by Dr. James H. McBride, the Southern California Sanitarium for Nervous Disorders was renamed Las Encinas Hospital for Nervous Disorders in 1917, and finally to Las Encinas Sanitarium in 1928. Willa Cather’s mother, Mary Virginia Boak Cather, spent the last three years of her life here, where Cather visited her in 1929, 1930, and 1931.
Shattuck Inn (Jaffrey, NH): Hotel built in 1910 in Jaffrey, N,H owned and operated by E. C. Shattuck until his death in February 1933, when operation was taken over by his daughter, Eleanor Shattuck Austermann, and her husband George Austermann. Cather stayed at the Shattuck Inn many times, often with Edith Lewis, finding it a useful place to work. In 1947, Cather wrote of the Shattuck Inn: “I have never found any place where I could work in such peace and happiness as in the little rooms up in the top of the Shattuck Inn” (#1748).
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.
Person Annotations
Austermann, Eleanor C. Shattuck (1903-1994). Hotelkeeper, the Shattuck Inn. Eleanor Shattuck was born in New Hampshire, the eldest of Edmund and Helen E. Shattuck’s three children. She married George Austermann in 1927; they had four sons, one of whom died in 1933. That same year, her father died and she and her husband took over management of the Shattuck Inn, her family’s hotel in Jaffrey, NH, where Cather had been a regular summer or fall guest since 1917.
Cather, Charles Douglas (1880-1938) (“Douglass”). Cather’s
brother. Born in Virginia and raised in Red Cloud, NE, Charles
was third child and second son of Charles and Virginia Cather. As an
adolescent, Douglass Cather helped his father supervise rented farm
properties and worked as a messenger for the local Burlington & Missouri
Railroad office. In 1897 he left Red Cloud for a position in Sterling, CO,
and then took a position with at the Cheyenne, WY, office of the Burlington
Railroad. In 1908 he traveled to Mexico, an experience that his sister gave
to Emil Bergson in O Pioneers! (1913). By 1910 he was
working for the Santa Fe railroad and living in Winslow, AZ, where Willa
Cather visited him in 1912. He later achieved success in the oil business in
California. Although he never married, Cather notes that during the last six
or seven years of his life he had a relationship with Dorothy Rogers.
Douglass visited Cather in New York City in December of 1937. His death in
June 1938 left her devastated. Douglass served as a prototype for one of the
twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932) and Hector
the messenger boy brother in “The Best Years” (1948). His years working for
the Burlington also inspired Cather’s many railroad worker characters in her
novels, including Song of the Lark (1915) and The Professor’s House (1925). Few letters from this
important sibling relationship have survived.
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family 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.
Austermann, George S. (1929- ). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in Peterborough, NH, George Austermann and his twin brother Edmund Austermann were the first-born children of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and as an adult, he moved to Massachusetts and worked for the Polaroid Corporation.
1812Austermann, Donald Jeremy (1933-2009). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in New Hampshire, Donald Austermann was the third-born child of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and later moved to New York and worked in publishing.
1813Austermann, Kurt (1937- ). George and Eleanor Austermann's son. Born in New Hampshire, Kurt Austermann was the fourth-born and youngest child of George and Eleanor Austermann. He grew up in Jaffrey, NH, and later moved to Oregon and served as a spokesperson for both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Shattuck, Helen E. Spofford (1882-1954). Hotelkeeper, the Shattuck Inn. Helen Spofford was born in Dublin, NH, and in 1903, she married Edmund Cutter Shattuck, the proprietor of the Shattuck Inn in Jaffrey, NH. The couple had three children, Eleanor, Daniel, and Richard. Eleanor and her husband George Austermann operated the inn after Edmund Shattuck’s death in 1933, and Helen Shattuck continued to live at the inn until her death. Cather was a regular guest at the inn beginning in 1917 where she became acquainted with Helen Shattuck.
Place Annotations
