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 am leaving for New York3 in a few days, and when I get back to my typewriter I shall try to answer your long letter. But no one can help you make your choice in the matter of your future residence, because it is entirely a matter of personal feeling and not of material advantage. No one can tell what you really want to do—except yourself! Meanwhile, there is no need for you to act hastily. You are confronted by two alternatives, and neither is very dreadful or very final. Indeed, both have their advantages, you say. You have been wise enough to take a year's vacation, and in that time you will probably see more clearly what you really wish to do.
People are always a little frightened when they drop
step out of the routine and contemplate change. I was very n nervous when I left the Allegheny High School4 for New York, and again when I left5
McClures magazine6 to
write "Alexander's Bridge."7 If one wants to try a new
a way of life, one can try it without burning
all the bridges behind.
Meanwhile, get all you can out of your vacation and live life from day to day. Plans seldom work out as well as one expects—at least I have found that the case. I hope the Nebraska8 autumn has begun, and that you are getting rest and pleasure from it.
Lovingly W.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let1864.xml
- Letter identifier
- 1864
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Elsie Cather1
- Date letter was written
- September 4 [1941]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
This letter was likely written in 1941 because Cather was planning to return to New York from Canada in early September of that year (#2269), and Elsie Cather was making decisions about her residence in 1941 (#1981).
- Place letter was written
- Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Susan J. and James Rosowski Cather Collection (MS228), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Cather was head of the English department at Allegheny High School in Allegheny, PA (which became part of Pittsburgh, PA, in 1907) from 1903 to 1906. Prior to that, she taught for two and a half years at Central High School in Pittsburgh.
Cather left full-time work at McClure's Magazine in September 1911.
Person Annotations
Cather, Elsie Margaret (1890-1964) (“Bobbie”). Cather’s
sister. Born in Red Cloud, NE, shortly before Willa Cather
graduated from high school, Elsie attended the University of Nebraska in
Lincoln from 1908 to 1910, before transferring to Smith College, in
Northampton, MA, from which she graduated with an A.B. in English and Latin
in 1912. She undertook graduate study at the University of Nebraska in 1914
and in 1916 received her A.M. with a major in philosophy and a minor in
English. At both the undergraduate and the graduate level at Nebraska, she
studied under Louise Pound. She began a career in high school teaching in
1912, when she took a position in Lander, WY, where her brother Roscoe then
lived with his family. She also taught in Albuquerque, NM; Corning, IA;
Cleveland, OH; and briefly Red Cloud, when illness in the family brought her
home. Her longest tenure as a teacher was at Lincoln (NE) High School, where
she began teaching in 1920, with Olivia Pound and Mariel Gere as colleagues.
Willa Cather's expectation that Elsie be responsible for aging family and
friends and for legal affairs after their parents' deaths sometimes brought
the sisters into conflict. Elsie Cather retired from Lincoln High School in
1942. She died in Lincoln.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
McClure's Magazine
Alexander's Bridge (1912) by Willa Cather
