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 |
NORTHEAST HARBOR2
MAINE September 7
There is nothing I can say5, dear
Meta1. Several times in my life I
bitter losses, but never before have I felt heart-broken—felt that
things were done for me. Roscoe6 was
the only one of my family who felt about things as I did, and he was the
only one who saw, from the beginning, what I was trying to do. He was my
best critic, because he knew both ends of the process; knew the material,
and what I had been able to do with it, or had failed to do with in the handling. He knew me better
than I knew myself. He knew all his family better than I did, but he was
more wise and charitable about ASTCICOU INN
NORTHEAST
HARBOR
MAINE them. The fact is that now I have no one to judge
me, no one to tell me if I am off the true pitch—no other judgment
that I care a bang about.
I got your telegram on the same afternoon that the typist brought me back the letter7 I had dictated to Roscoe in the morning. I am sending it to you.
At the same time the typist brought the typed copy of the new story8
he she had just finished. It was to go to
him by the next mail. It is about our childhood. I can't bear to look at it
now.
When you can, please write me what you are going to do.
ASTICOU
INN
NORTHEAST HARBOR
MAINE
Don't act too quickly. Since he was ill9 you have lived so entirely for him - - - you won't know what you do want for awhile. Call on me for anything that I can do—for me it will be just as if I were doing it for Roscoe. If ever a man was one with his wife, he was.
I just can't bear it, dear, this using the past tense to write about him. I would have been with you this summer, or on the way to you, if Roscoe hadn't written me again and again not to try west-bound trains.
I shall never forget all you did for him.
Lovingly Willie Willa Cather ASTICOU INN NORTHEAST HARBOR2 MAINEInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2273.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2273
- Contents
- Document is three leaves, handwritten on recto of each leaf only. Includes one envelope, typewritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Meta Schaper Cather1
- Date letter was written
- September 7 [1945]
- Place letter was written
- Northeast Harbor, Maine, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Asticou Inn (Northeast Harbor, ME): Originally built in 1883 by A. C. Savage, the Asticou Inn was destroyed by a fire in 1899, but rebuilt by 1901. When the war and health considerations made travel to Grand Manan impossible, Willa Cather and Edith Lewis stayed at the Asticou in the 1940s, occupying a small cottage on the grounds of the inn.
Roscoe Cather died on September 5, 1945.
See #2238.
In the spring of 1941, doctors warned Roscoe Cather that his heart was frail and that he needed to reduce his activity to protect his heath.
Person Annotations
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.
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).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
"The Best Years," The Old Beauty and Others (1948) by Willa Cather
