Bloom, Sarah J. (1889-1961). Cather's personal secretary. Born in New York in 1889 to Russian immigrants Solomon and Bertha Bloom, Sarah J. Bloom worked for Cather from some time in the 1920s until Cather's death and continued to work for Edith Lewis on matters pertaining to Cather's literary estate thereafter. Bloom typed Cather's literary manuscripts and managed Cather's correspondence, typing dictated letters and sometimes responding for Cather when she was traveling. Bloom’s work for Cather supplemented full-time office employment in New York City (for many years she worked for the New York State Public Service Commission). She thus came to Cather and Lewis's apartment on weekends to take dictation, pick up and deliver typescripts, and deliver typed letters for signature. She died in New York city in 1961.

Menuhin, Hephzibah (1920-1981). Pianist. Born in San Francisco, CA, to Moshe and Marutha Sher Menuhin, immigrant Russian Jews by way of Palestine, Hephzibah began studying piano at the age of four and gave her first recital at age eight. The studies and career of her older brother, violinist Yehudi, dominated the family (the youngest child, Yaltah, was also a pianist). In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg and became a family friend; the children called her “Aunt Willa.” In the 1930s the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City. Cather took the Menuhin children on walks around Central Park, read Shakespeare with them, and gave them books as gifts. Hephzibah served as Yehudi’s accompanist; they made their first recording together in 1933 and often performed together. The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935. In 1938, after a concert in London, England, Hephzibah met Australian Lindsay Nicholas, whom she soon married (Yehudi married Lindsay’s sister Nola). She abandoned her plans for a solo debut at Carnegie Hall, moved with Nicholas to Australia, and had two sons, Kronrod and Marston. She continued to perform occasionally in Australia, including with Yehudi when he toured the country. Although Cather mentions carrying on a correspondence with Hephzibah after her move to Australia, these letters have not been located. Cather enjoyed a late life visit from Hephzibah and Yehudi and their families in 1947. In 1955, Hephzibah divorced Nicholas and married Richard Hauser. Together, they were active in human rights advocacy, and Hephzibah continued to perform. She died in London, England.

Menuhin, Marutha Sher (c. 1892-1996). Mother of Yehudi, Hepzibah and Yaltah Menuhin. Born in Russia, Marutha Sher married Moshe Mnuchin, a Hebrew teacher, in 1914. After brief stays in Palestine and New York City, where son Yehudi was born, they moved to San Francisco, CA, in 1917 and changed their surname to Menuhin. Their daughters Hepzibah and Yaltah were born in San Francisco. They educated all three children at home and sought out musical instruction for them when each was a small child. However Yehudi’s career as a violinist was given top priority. With the support of Yehudi’s patron Sidney Ehrman the family moved to New York City and Paris to advance Yehudi’s musical studies. In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg. Cather evidently approved of Marutha’s parenting of her gifted children, and they became friends. In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City, and Marutha encouraged Cather’s growing relationship with her children. The family purchased a ranch in in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, which became Marutha’s primary residence when she was not on tour with her children. Her relationships with Yehudi and Hepzibah remained strong as they emerged into adulthood, but Yaltah rebelled against her mother’s authority and the two became alienated from one another. Although only one brief letter from Cather to Marutha Menuhin is known, they evidently carried out a regular correspondence. Marutha Menuhin died in Los Gatos.

Menuhin, Yaltah (1921-2001). Pianist. Born in San Francisco, CA, to Moshe and Marutha Sher Menuhin, immigrant Russian Jews by way of Palestine, Yaltah began studying piano at the age of three. The studies and career of her older brother, violinist Yehudi, dominated the family (their second child, Hepzibah, was also a pianist). In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg and became a family friend; the children called her “Aunt Willa.” In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City. Cather took the Menuhin children on walks around Central Park, read Shakespeare with them, and gave them books as gifts. The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935. As Yaltah grew older and wanted to pursue her own musical career, her relationship with her mother grew difficult—Marutha supported Hepzibah’s role as Yehudi’s accompanist but believed a solo career inappropriate for a woman (even though many recognized that Yaltah was the most gifted musician of the three children). In June 1938, just shy of her seventeenth birthday and apparently under duress from her mother, Yaltah married William Stix, a lawyer from St. Louis, MO, who worked in Washington, DC; Cather attended the wedding. In 1939 Yaltah first separated from and then divorced Stix. In 1941, she eloped with U.S. Army officer Benjamin Rolfe. Her parents publicly disavowed the marriage and she and her mother stopped speaking to one another. The Rolfes had two children, Robert and Lionel. None of Cather’s extant letters to Yaltah mention the turmoil surrounding her marriage, divorce, and remarriage, however. Yaltah’s final marriage to American pianist Joel Ryce was long and happy, and during it she pursued a performing career. According to her son Lionel Rolfe, she treasured her letters from Cather and often reread them. She eventually gave them to him so he could sell them and use the funds to support his aspiration to become a writer.

Menuhin, Yehudi (1916-1999). Violinist and conductor. Born in New York City to Moshe Mnuchin and Marutha Sher Mnuchin, immigrant Russian Jews by way of Palestine who changed the spelling of their surname and moved the family to San Francisco in 1918, Yehudi started violin lessons at age four and made his first public appearance in 1922. His two younger siblings, Hepzibah and Yaltah, studied piano, although his parents prioritized the musical career of their son over their daughters. With the support of patron Sidney Ehrman, the Menuhin family followed Yehudi’s teacher Louis Persinger to New York City. Ehrman also sponsored Yehudi for a year of study in Paris, France, with Georges Enesco. Yehudi began attracting national attention in 1927 and recorded and toured the U.S. in 1929. That year at Carnegie Hall, his performance of concertos by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms with Bruno Walter and the Berlin Philharmonic inspired Albert Einstein to proclaim “now I know there is a God in Heaven”; Cather was also in the audience for this concert. In 1930, the Menuhin family took up residence in Paris, where Cather first met them in the home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg and became a family friend; the children called her “Aunt Willa.” In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City. Cather took the Menuhin children on walks around Central Park, read Shakespeare with them, and gave them books as gifts. Yehudi’s sister Hepzibah accompanied her brother on piano; they made their first recording together in 1933 and often performed together. The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, and after a world tour that year, Yehudi withdrew from performing for 18 months and stayed at the ranch with his family. He returned to the concert stage in 1937 and met and married Nola Nicholas in 1938 (Hepzibah married Nola’s brother Lindsay). Yehudi and Nola had two children, Krov and Zamira. Cather enjoyed a late life visit from Hepzibah and Yehudi and their families in 1947. Cather corresponded regularly with the adult Yehudi, giving him personal advice, although only one original letter has surfaced. In 1947, Yehudi and Nola divorced and he married British ballerina Diana Gould, with whom he had two more children. Living in Europe, he continued his career as a performer and also became a conductor, established a school in England, and became a British citizen. He died in Berlin, Germany, while on tour.

Menuhin, Moshe (1893-1983). Russian-American teacher of Hebrew. Born in Russia into a distinguished religious Jewish family, Moshe Mnuchin moved to Palestine with his family as a child. In 1913 he moved to the U.S., where he married Marutha Sher in 1914. After the 1916 birth of their son Yehudi and Moshe’s 1917 graduation from New York University, they moved to San Francisco, CA, where their daughters Hepzibah and Yaltah were born. They changed their surname to Menuhin in 1919 when they became U.S. citizens. While Moshe taught Hebrew, Marutha supervised the musical education of their children, which later took them to New York City and Paris. Cather first met the Menuhin family in the Paris home of Jan Hambourg and Isabelle McClung Hambourg in 1930. In the 1930s, the Menuhin family made the Ansonia Hotel its home base during their frequent stays in New York City, and Cather developed strong bonds with the children and Marutha although apparently less so with Moshe. The family purchased a ranch in Los Gatos, CA, in 1935, which became their primary residence. Moshe Menuhin was a prominent voice for anti-Zionism within the U.S. Jewish community.

Fumagalli, Olympia (1916-after 1940). Italian nurse. Born in Italy to Trancredi and Maria Fumagalli, Olympia Fumagalli emigrated with her family to the United States in 1919. She worked as a nurse for the French Hospital in New York City, attending to Willa Cather in 1940.

Alessandri Palma, Arturo (1868-1950). Chilean politician. Born in Longavi, Chile, Arturo Alessandri graduated from the University of Chile law school in 1893. He married Rosa Ester Rodríguez Velasco, with whom he had 9 children. In 1897 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and in 1920 he ran for president of Chile. During his long political career, he served as minister of industry, minister of finance, congressman, and senator, as well as serving two terms as president (1920-1925, 1932-1938).

Undset, Sigrid (1882-1949). Norwegian novelist. Undset is best known for her historical novels set in medieval Norway, the Kristin Lavrandsdatter trilogy (1920-22), set in the fourteenth-century, The Master of Hestvikin tetralogy (1925-27), set in the thirteenth century. Early in her career she wrote realistic novels set in contemporary Norway, including Jenny (1911) about a woman painter. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928 and continued to publish novels, set both in contemporary and historical Norway, that reflected her conversion to Catholicism. Undset persuaded her Norwegian publisher to issue her sister Signe Undset Thomas’s translation of Lucy Gayheart (1935) (the only Norwegian translation of Cather’s work to appear before her death). A strong critic of the German Reich, Undset made a dramatic escape from Norway over the arduous land route when the Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940, events she later described in Return to the Future (1942). When Undset reached New York City in the fall of 1940, Alfred Knopf, Cather and Undset’s mutual publisher, arranged their first meeting. They had long been enthusiastic readers of each other’s novels and were evidently established correspondents, although their extant correspondence begins in 1940. During her exile Undset settled in a residential hotel in Brooklyn Heights, and she and Cather saw each other socially. Cather praised her as “just all a great woman should be - and on a giant scale” (#1541). Undset was an active public critic of the Nazis during her exile. She returned to Norway at the close of the war in 1945 and died there.