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 |
Alexander Woollcott4 will serenade5 Miss Cather from Chicago6 over Station WABC, on Sunday evening, March 17th, at 7 o'clock Eastern time. I am notifying three or four of her old friends who, I think, might be interested to listen in. Miss Cather, herself, is just recovering from an illness7 and is not writing any letters just now.
Sarah J. Bloom8 Secretary to Willa Cather Mr. R. C. Cather1, 1225 S. Center Street, Casper,3 Wyoming. NEW YORK N. Y. HUDSON TERM. ANNEX2 MAR 14 1935 7 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2114.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2114
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten by Sarah J. Bloom on recto only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Roscoe Cather1
- Date letter was written
- [March 14, 1935]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316), University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
No records documenting this particular episode of Woollcott's "Town Crier" broadcast has been found, but the usual format for these serenades featured a studio chorus performing selected songs in honor of Wollcott's chosen person.
Cather had appendicitis (see #1253).
Person Annotations
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Woollcott, Alexander (1887-1943). American critic and radio
personality. Born in Phalanx, NJ, Alexander Woollcott graduated
from Hamilton College in 1909. Joining the New York
Times as a cub reporter after graduation, he became drama critic in
1914. After serving in the U.S. Army as a reporter for the Stars and Stripes (1917-1918), he returned to the Times and subsequently worked for the New York Herald, the New York
World, and the New Yorker and was associated
with the Algonquin Round Table group in the 1920s and 30s. Throughout his
career Woollcott was known for his flamboyance and acerbic wit. He became
host of “The Town Crier” radio program in 1929. He retired to an estate in
Vermont in the 1930s, but he returned to New York City in 1940 to play
Sheridan Whiteside, the title character of George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s
play The Man Who Came to Dinner, an annoying New York
critic and radio celebrity modeled on himself. It is not clear when Cather
met Woollcott, but she called him “one of my best friends” (#1633) and was
pleased when he “serenaded” her on his radio program and responded
positively to his request that her Death Comes for the
Archbishop (1927) be put into an Armed Services Edition. However,
she declined to allow him to anthologize her work or have it read over the
air.
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.
Place Annotations
