Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
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 |
I am very happy today because last night I was with two of your daughters,
and it was almost as if you were there yourself. Margaret4, your Virginia5 and Richard
Shannon6 dined with me at Schraffts7—it was Sunday night, our maid8's free day. It was the first time I
had met Richard, and I am so happy to tell you that I liked him very much
from the start. You know I "click" or do not click with people at a first
meeting. That is I know at once whether they are the kind I can be easy and
frank with. Well, I clicked with Richard. He is the kind of young man I
like; easy and natural, without any affectation or attitude. Just being able
to li look at him with kind and affectionate
(that is not too strong) interest made me feel closer to Margaret, and even
to you and Meta9. A right marriage does that you know. It draws old
friends closer together instead of estranging them. You may be tempted to
send this letter to Margaret, but I forbid you. I shall tell her in my own
way that I liked him, and I don't want the young man to feel that he has
suddenly inherited a sentimental aunt.
Your Virginia has great charm for me—she must have for many people. The kind
touch of withdrawn-ness she had as a school girl has quite vanished, has
become a gentle dignty dignity without
stiffness. She has met many people and learned
to take people more casually and to trust people in general more, I think.
And I love to look at her—such a charming face, with many shades in it, and
much more open than it used to be—without losing an attractive reserve. I
think she has unusual charm.
The truth is that I lay awake a long while after I went to bed because I had enjoyed so much being with my family, with your dear daughters and Margaret's young man.
Lovingly Willie Mr. R. C. Cather1 COLUSA3 California NEW YORK. N. Y2 JUNE 9 1942 1030 AMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2196.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2196
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Roscoe Cather1
- Date letter was written
- [June 8, 1942]
- 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
Restaurant chain that evolved out of Schrafft's candy company during the early 20th century.
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).
Shannon, Margaret Cather (1915-1996) (half of the “twinnies”).
Cather’s niece. Margaret and her twin sister Elizabeth were born
in Lander, WY, to Roscoe and Meta Cather, and moved with the family to
Casper, WY, in 1921. Elizabeth and Margaret both attended the University of
Colorado, graduating in 1937, and visited Willa Cather and Edith Lewis on
Grand Manan during the summers of 1936 and 1937. In Cather’s later letters
to them, she often refers back to their summer visits as a magical time.
Margaret moved to Colusa, CA, with her parents in 1937. After she married
Richard Shannon in September 1938, she moved with him to Boston, MA, where
he earned an MBA from Harvard University in Cambridge. In 1940 they moved to
the New York City area, where their first child, Richard, was born in 1943.
The Shannons moved to Washington, DC, in 1944, where their daughter Kathryne
was born. Cather did not see Margaret again after she left New York, and
Margaret’s other three children, Patricia, Margaret, and Elizabeth, were
born after Cather’s death. Kathryne and Patricia became caretakers for a
large family archive of letters preserved by their mother, which they
donated to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as the Roscoe and Meta Cather
Collection.
Brockway, Virginia Cather (1912-1984) (“West Virginia”). Cather's
niece. Born in Lander, WY, to Roscoe Cather and Meta Schaper
Cather, Virginia graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, WY, in
1929. She received an A.B. in English from Smith College in Northampton, MA,
in 1933, the same year Willa Cather received an honorary doctorate there. In
1934, she enrolled in the University of Chicago School of Social Services
and was, for a time, a social worker. She married John Hadley Brockway, a
Navy officer, in 1936. They moved frequently until his retirement from the
Navy. She had one child, son George. In letters, Willa Cather sometimes
calls her "West Virginia" to distinguish her from her cousin Mary Virginia
Auld because Virginia Cather's birthplace in Wyoming was farther west than
Mary Virginia's in Nebraska.
Shannon, Richard S., Jr. (c. 1918-?) (“Dick”). Husband of Cather’s niece. Richard Shannon, born and raised in Denver, CO, and a 1938 engineering graduate of Stanford University, married Margaret Cather, daughter of Roscoe and Meta Cather, in September 1938. Shortly after their marriage the couple moved to Boston, MA, so that Richard could earn his MBA from Harvard. In 1940 his work took them to the New York City area, where their first child, Richard, was born in 1943. The Shannons moved to Washington, DC, in 1944, where daughter Kathryne was born. Their last child, Patricia, was born after Willa Cather’s death. The family settled in Denver, CO.
Rabouin, Edith Dunbar Talbot (1884-after 1942). Domestic worker for Cather and Lewis. Born in Springfield, MA, one of a pair of twin girls, to Zebedee Talbot and Nellie Plummer Talbot, Edith Dunbar Talbot married Leonce Rabouin in 1906 in Cambridge, MA. The couple had five children and were living in New York by 1920. Rabouin was working for Willa Cather and Edith Lewis as a housekeeper and cook as early as 1941; they particularly appreciated her skill as a cook. After her husband’s death in the fall of 1942, Rabouin fell ill, and it is not clear whether she subsequently returned to work for Cather and Lewis.
Cather, Meta Schaper (1884-1973). Cather’s sister-in-law.
Meta Schaper was born in Plattsmouth, NE, the second daughter of
Robert and Julia Ramke Schaper. After graduating from the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln 1903, Meta Schaper taught at Havelock High School in her
hometown of Havelock, NE (now part of Lincoln). She met Roscoe Cather when
teaching in Fullerton, NE, and they married in 1907. They moved to Lander,
WY, in 1909, where she gave birth to three daughters, Virginia and twins
Margaret and Elizabeth. The family moved to Casper, WY, in 1921 and Colusa,
CA, in 1937. Willa visited Meta and Roscoe’s family in Wyoming several times
and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926 trip to
New Mexico with Meta, Roscoe, and their children and a 1941 San Francisco
vacation with Roscoe and Meta. Meta and Willa remained friends until Willa’s
death.
Place Annotations
