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 |
Ever since your tribute4 to Fred Maurer5 appeared in the home paper6 I have wanted to write you and thank you for it. But troubles came thick and fast at that time, and after them a heavy correspondence. May I take this opportunity to thank you? I still have the article and shall continue to keep it in my scrapbook.
In my first year in the Red Cloud High School I sat very near the Maurer boys7,- two brothers, I think. They sat next the north wall, where there were no windows - almost no light at all - and I used to see one boy always struggling to read his textbook8. Their parents9 must have been terribly poor, for the two boys came all through the winter wretchedly clad. They had no overcoats and seemed to have little underneath their jackets and long pants. Those boys never had a fair chance.
I tried to keep up some correspondence with Fred as long as the lovely
Gurney girl10 was taking care of
him. But after she, so young and happy, died, I felt there was no one with him whonm I knew or could reach. This note is just to tell
you that one old friend of yours deeply appreciated your appreciation of
him.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1830.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1830
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Sidney Florance1
- Date letter was written
- November 21, 1945
- 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
In Florance's tribute, he mentions Fred Maurer's life-long poor eyesight and his sympathy for poor people needing legal advice, whom he charged for legal services according to their means.
Person Annotations
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.
Maurer, Frederick E. (1874-1945) (“Fred”). Red Cloud lawyer.
Fred Maurer was the eldest of the three children of Red Cloud-area
farmer Henry J. Maurer and his wife Viola. He and his brother Clarence
attended high school with Willa Cather, although he did not graduate until
1893; he earned his LL. B. from the University of Nebraska in 1895, the same
year Cather graduated from the university. He practiced law in Red Cloud for
many years; although illness in the 1930s made him an invalid, his wife,
Minnie Reiher Maurer, whom he married in 1909, kept his office open until
her own death in 1939. After that he was cared for by a housekeeper and by
his former stenographer, Lucille Gurney, until her own death.
Maurer, Clarence Verne (1876-1943). Fred Maurer's brother. Born in Nebraska, younger son of Henry J. and Viola Emery Maurer, Clarence Maurer grew up near Red Cloud, NE, where he attended school with Cather. In the 1890s, he left home, moving eventually to Iowa. His first marriage was to Birdie Mae McCoy at her home in Whiting, IA, in 1911; she died a few months later. He later married May Walters, and they had one daughter, Opal Maurer, born in 1914. For the rest of his life they lived in Sioux City, IA, where he was a laborer, then foreman, in a brick and tile company.
Maurer, Henry J. (1841-1925). Webster County farmer. Born in Indiana, of German parentage, Henry Maurer married Viola Emery in Illinois. They came to Nebraska, where their three children were born, in the early 1870s. He farmed near Red Cloud, NE, where his sons went to school with Cather.
1714Maurer, Viola Emery (1844-1908). Wife of Henry J. Maurer. Born in Illinois, Viola Emery’s parents were from New England. She married Henry J. Maurer in 1871; soon after they came to Webster County, NE. They had three children, Frederick, Clarence, and Nellie, all born in Nebraska.
Guy, Lucille M. Gurney (1917-1940). Red Cloud secretary. Born in Red Cloud, NE, Lucille Gurney was the younger daughter of farmer Charles Gurney and Etta Reiher Gurney. She became a stenographer in the law office of her uncle, Fred Maurer; after Maurer’s paralyzing illness and his wife’s death, she moved to his house to help take care of him. Lucille married Claire M. Guy in 1940, dying in August shortly thereafter. Cather sometimes had Lucille take care of sending flowers to her friends in Webster County.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"A Friend Pays Tribute to Attorney Fred E. Maurer," Red Cloud Commercial Advertiser (August 8, 1945), by S. R. Florance
Red Cloud Commercial Advertiser
