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 |
35 FIFTH AVENUE
New York2 March 7th Dear Miss Clark1;
I deeply appreciate the honor the Trustees do me in inviting me to be present at the Commencement exercises in June to receive a degree.
I greatly regret that I shall be unable to be in Northampton4 at that date. I long ago promised to be at Princeton
University to receive a degree5 on June
16th, and to be
present at President Hibben's6
dinner on the evening of the fifteenth. I heartily regret this conflict of
dates, and beg you to express my regret to your President7 and Trustees, and to regard my explanation as c entirely confidential.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2007.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2007
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Annetta I. Clark1
- Date letter was written
- Marhc 7 [1931]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Cather's receipt of an honorary Doctor of Letters from Princeton University on June 16, 1931.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Annetta Isabel Clark Papers, 1891-1961 (CA.MS.00048), Smith College, Smith College Archives, Northampton, MA
Individual Annotations
Grosvenor Hotel (New York City): When Cather and Edith Lewis lost their 5 Bank Street apartment in 1927, they moved into the Grosvenor Hotel, where they continued to live until 1932. The hotel was located at 35 Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Cather received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Princeton University at a ceremony on 16 June 1931. The New York Times noted that she received the most attention among the honorees, as she was the first woman to receive a degree from Princeton.
Person Annotations
Clark, Annetta I. (c. 1883-1961). Secretary to the Smith College
president. Clark graduated from Smith College in Northampton,
MA, in 1904 and worked as assistant registrar of her alma mater from 1907
until she was appointed private secretary to Laurenus Clarke Seelye,
president of the college, in 1909. She continued to serve as secretary to
each successive president and to the board of trustees until her retirement
in 1952. As secretary to William Allen Nielson, she corresponded with Cather
in 1931, offering Cather an honorary degree from the college, which she
declined, and again in 1933 when Cather accepted an honorary degree.
Hibben, John Grier (1861-1933). President of Princeton University.
John Grier Hibben was born in Peoria, IL, and graduated from
Princeton University in 1882. After a brief career in the ministry, he
returned to Princeton as an instructor, earning his PhD there in 1893. He
was a highly successful academic, wrote and edited many books of philosophy,
and became Princeton's president in 1912. During his two decades as
president, Princeton grew tremendously and earned a reputation as a top
research university. Cather met him in 1931 when she received an honorary
degree from Princeton.
Neilson, William Allan (1869-1946). Scottish-American academic and college president. Born in Doune, Perthshire, Scotland, Neilson graduated with an MA from the University of Edinburgh in 1891 and followed his brother to Canada, where he taught until 1895. He received a PhD in English from Harvard University in 1898 and served as an English professor and administrator at several institutions before his 1917 appointment to presidency of Smith College in Northampton, MA. Nielson married Elisabeth Muser in Offenburg, Germany, in 1906, and they had three children, Margaret, Caroline, and Allan. Willa Cather apparently first met the Neilsons in 1907 or 1908 in Boston, MA, where William Neilson was a professor of English at Harvard from 1906 to 1917. She encountered them again in 1933, when Smith College awarded her an honorary doctorate and her niece Virginia Cather an A.B. Long a proponent of internationalism and progressive causes, with the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s Neilson was noted for making Smith College a haven for intellectuals in exile. He retired in 1939 and died in Northampton.
Place Annotations
