Van Noppen, Leonard Charles (1868-1935). Dutch-American translator and poet. Born in Holland, Leonard Charles Van Noppen immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child, where they lived first in Michigan and then North Carolina. He earned degrees from Guilford College, the University of North Carolina, and Haverford College. Although he trained as a lawyer, he turned to literary pursuits and spent two years studying Dutch language and literature in Utrecht and Leiden. He also spent brief periods working as a journalist, including in Pittsburgh, PA, where he evidently became friends with Cather in the late 1890s. She was enthusiastic about his translation of Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel, which established Van Noppen’s status as an authority on Dutch literature and made a sensation by revealing John Milton’s reliance on Vondel’s text in his Paradise Lost. In addition to his literary endeavors, Van Noppen served as private secretary to several politicians and served in the U.S. Navy in World War I. He married Adah Maude Stanton Becher in 1902. Van Noppen died in Glen Cove, Long Island, NY, and his widow spent years preparing his epic poem Cosmorama for publication.

Gore, James Howard (1856-1939). American mathematics professor; Cather’s cousin. Born in Back Creek, VA, youngest son of Mahlon and Sidney Cather Gore (Willa Cather’s great-aunt), James showed early interest in the sciences. He graduated from Columbian University (now George Washington University) in 1877 and did post-graduate work abroad, returning to teach mathematics and geodesy at Columbian and at the Corcoran Scientific School; he received a PhD in 1888. In 1889 he married Swedish-born Lillian Sparrendahl, whom Cather admired. They had one daughter, Sidney, who died at age fifteen. Gore was a founder of the National Geographic Society and was associated with various scientific expeditions, but he was not part of actual polar expeditions, as Cather’s letters seem to imply. He was a member of several foreign orders from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Cather stayed with the Gores for part of her 1901 visit to Washington, DC. In The Professor’s House (1925), Tom Outland finds that the people he has to deal with in Washington, D.C., are obsessed with receiving orders and decorations.

Russell, Robert H., Jr. American publisher. In 1888, Robert H. Russell, Jr., and his father founded the New York publishing firm R. H. Russell and Son. After his father’s 1896 death, the firm operated as R. H. Russell & Co. In late 1899 to early 1900, Cather’s never-published book of theatrical criticism, The Player Letters, was under consideration by Russell. He sold the firm to Harper & Brothers in 1903.

Couse, Edwin Philips (1868-1909). Pittsburgh journalist. Born in Mercer County, PA, Edwin Couse graduated from Allegheny College (1889) and worked in the lumber business and taught before moving to Pittsburgh to pursue journalism. He and Cather both worked the telegraph desk at the Pittsburgh Leader in the late 1890s. In 1902, he moved back to Mercer County, to Brownsville, and purchased the Monitor. He died in Brownsville.