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 |
What a wild winter you have had. Mine has been wild, too, but weather has had
little to do with it. Mr. McClure4 has
been abroad all winter and I have been in a seething whirlpool of work.
Before Christmas I had a dismal bronchitis and was in bed for two weeks and
Isabelle5 came on and took
care of me. I was pretty sick for two months, but I had to dictate dozens of
letters and read manuscripts and see people in bed. You see a magazine is
like a sick baby—you've always got to be stuffing something into its blessed
insides or it dies. The stuff I got in England6 last sumer
summer—the Russian stuff7 and
the Paoli articles8
helped me out. I am about again now and much better, but I still have to lie
down every day and drink lots of milk and
behave like a baby generally. However, its been a very successful winter.
From Sept. 1908 to Sept 1909, the first year that I have had charge9 of the magazine10, we made sixty thousand dollars more than the year
before. I say "we"; I don't get any of the money, but I get a good deal of
credit.
Watch for the March number, I've taken such pains with it, and read "A Joint in the Harness"11. I got
that in England. You know, my boy, if you
would
tell me what stories you like (and don't
like) it would be help me a lot. I am so
thankful when people do tell me. You see when they know you are responsible
they are shy about telling you. Of course I don't like everything that goes
into the magazine, by a long shot.
I have just been writing to Mrs. Goudy12, who is very ill in a sanatorium, and to poor old Mrs. Fulton13. She is quite blind, you know, and now she has broken her hip.
You were a nice boy to send me silk stockings at Christmas time. I love silk
stockings and I was especially pleased with these, for I
McCLURE'S
MAGAZINE,
44-60 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET,
NEW YORK2. spent Christmas
in bed and my presents meant a lot to me.
Have you ever seen Mary Virginia14 since she could talk? She is the dearest baby. I sent her a lot of jolly things at Christmas time.
I got a nice long letter from Aunt Franc15 this week. I had such a good visit with her this summer, and with Bess16 and Auntie17, too. I surely love the "Far Country". I get there so seldom that it seems about the farest and most restful country in the world.
I shall have to go to England in May if I am well enough. I wish you could run away with me on one of these long trips. What wouldn't I give for a long talk with you! If I could, I'd start for Lander3 tomorrow. But to do a job one has to stay on it, I suppose, and this is a harder job to boss than Sandy Point18. Poor little Jim Yeiser19, where is he now, I wonder? I'm afraid he's fallen on hard lines. Goodnight, my boy. I could write to you better if I could see you once again. This long stretch of time and distance takes the starch out of one. I think you'd be interested in a lot of the people and things I have to do with, but its hard to write about them. Some day I shall get desperate and take a west-bound train and let the office do the best it can.
Lovingly Willie Mr. Roscoe Cather1 Lander3 Wyoming MADISON SQ. STA. N.Y.2 Feb 13 1910 10 AM MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE 44-60 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET NEW YORK2 LANDER REC'D3 Feb 18 1910 3 AM