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 |
I arrived yesterday after a very stormy passage. It did not distress me, as there is nothing I enjoy more than storms and rough weather at sea.
Please have the Guild3 make me three centerpieces exactly like this one and send me the bill.
With loving greetings WillieInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1776.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1776
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Carrie Miner Sherwood1
- Date letter was written
- [November 12, 1935]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Cather's trip to Europe in 1935. Although Cather dated this letter October 12, she did not return from Europe until November 1935 according to several other letters (#1283, #1287, #2055), suggesting this letter was actually written in November.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Individual Annotations
Ladies Guild of Grace Episcopal Church in Red Cloud, NE.
Person Annotations
Sherwood, Carrie Belle Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader;
Cather's friend. Born in Waukon, IA, to James L. Miner and Julia
Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest of their children. The family
moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the Miner Brothers store became the
largest in town. Cather remembered meeting Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie,
her mother, and siblings were confirmed in the Catholic church. In 1888, she
studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at Notre Dame, IN. She married bank
clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they had two sons. The Sherwoods
travelled often in the West, and visited Europe in 1930. They built a new
house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in 1908; Cather sometimes sent
materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood
led local Red Cross work during the two World Wars, served on the Red Cloud
school board and park commission, and was active in the League of Women
Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace Episcopal Church. Cather
corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout her life and dedicated
My Ántonia to Carrie, model for Frances Harling
in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of Mildred Bennett’s
chief sources for The World of Willa Cather (1951),
and was instrumental in setting up what is now the Willa Cather Foundation
in Red Cloud.
Place Annotations
