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 |
Yes, it was an occullation. Whatever it was, I saw it sitting on a board sidewalk in my own little Nebraska3 town4. The neighbors said it was a 'transit.' I was stupid not to look it up when I wrote the story5 last summer. The mistake6 was corrected in the second printing. Thanking you most heartily for your friendly letter, I am
Cordially yours Willa Cather New Brunswick7 August 21st Mr. James Monihan1 8th floor Bulletin Building Juniper & Filbert St Philadelphia, Pa8 U. S. A. NORTH HEAD N.B.2 AU 24 32 AMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1836.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1836
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on the recto only. Includes enclosed typewritten note. Includes one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- James Monihan 1
- Date letter was written
- August 21 [1932]
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes one typewritten card reading "Willa Cather. 'Obscure Destinies.'"
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Willa Cather Collection (Caspersen 51), Drew University Library, Special Collections and Archives, Madison, NJ
Individual Annotations
Cather's error was first brought to her attention by William Lyon Phelps (see #1119).
Person Annotations
Monihan, James. American reader. In 1932, Cather responded to a query from a James Monihan of Philadelphia who asked about an error in “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies (#1836). No further information is known about this person.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
"Two Friends," Obscure Destinies (1932), by Willa Cather
