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 seems almost to good to happen, that I shall really see you again! I want you and Sidney3 to come to my apartment4 for dinner while you are here2. We can arrange a date by telephone.
My telephone is Regent 4-8354 It is not in the telephone book, but you can always call me up between 1 p.m. and 1:30. I am sure to be here at that hour.
I look forward hopefully to this meeting. Here we can talk quietly and really feel together, as we used to in your parlor in Red Cloud5. That would seem wonderful to me!
Lovingly WillaInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1828.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1828
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Beatrix Mizer Florance1
- Date letter was written
- [December 11, 1945]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The conjectured date of this letter is derived from the Florances's visit to New York City in December 1945. It was likely written the Tuesday before Cather's letter of December 18, 1945 (#1831) and is the letter referenced in #1822.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (Caspersen 54), Drew University Library, Special Collections and Archives, Madison, NJ
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.
Person Annotations
Florance, Beatrix Elizabeth Mizer (1875-1963) (“Trixie,”
“Trix”). Cather’s childhood friend. Beatrix Mizer was born in
Ohio in a German-American family. They moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1884.
Cather later recalled that when she first enrolled in school in Red Cloud,
“Trix Mizer was the prettiest little girl I had ever seen.” They acted
together in an 1888 production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the Red Cloud
Opera House. Mizer graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1893 and studied
voice at the Chicago Conservatory of Music 1897-1898, qualifying as a music
teacher, and at the Chicago College of Music 1899-1900. She married Sidney
Florance in 1903. In 1909 the couple moved to Red Cloud, where they settled
and raised a family. Beatrix’s Chicago musical studies and return to Red
Cloud may have inspired elements of Cather’s novel Lucy
Gayheart (1935). Cather’s correspondence with both Florances began
as early as 1914 and extended through the 1940s.
Florance, Sidney Riddell (1877-1957). Canadian-American banker and amateur poet. Born in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, a younger son of Edwin Charles Florance and Margaret Riddell Florance, Sidney Florance emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1881. He was working in Chicago where he met Cather’s friend, musician Beatrix Mizer. They married in 1903, settled in Red Cloud, NE, and had five children. He succeeded his father-in-law, Benjamin Mizer, as head of the Webster County Bank, and handled local business matters for Cather when she no longer had family living in Red Cloud.
Place Annotations
