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 |
January 28 Dear Virginia1;
Excuse this awful paper—local style; I am sending you a jade and turquoise necklace, Chinese work, that your Grandmother4 meant for your graduation present. It was a costly one that I sent her only a few months before her stroke. When we went over her little trinkets after her illness, she pointed to this necklace and said quite clearly, "West Virginia".
"Now?" she shook her head. "When she graduates?" she nodded eagerly.
But I jump about so much that I am afraid it might get lost. There will be some occasions in your junior year when I know Grandmother would wish you to wear it, and I want to send it to you from this dear old home5 that is still so full of her.
I start for New York6 tomorrow.
With love to you, my dear, and your grandmother's blessing, Willa Cather 35 Fifth Ave7 New YorkP.S. Don't trust Miss Chase8 very far, my dear. She is tricky, and terribly terribly vain.
Virginia Cather1 Baldwin House Northampton3 Mass. RED CLOUD NEBR.2 JAN 28 1932 730 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2324.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2324
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto and verso of first leaf and recto only of second leaf. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Virginia Cather1
- Date letter was written
- January 28 [1932]
- Place letter was written
- Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
541 N. Seward Street (Red Cloud, NE): Built circa 1899, Cather’s parents, Charles F. and Mary Virginia Boak Cather, purchased this home in 1903. Cather stayed here when she returned to Red Cloud to visit her parents, returning for the last time in 1931 following her mother’s death. At that time, Cather's sister Elsie inherited the house, returning to Red Cloud for summer vacations for most of the 1930s. Willa Cather contributed to the maintenance of the property until Elsie sold the house in 1945 to W. H. Maynard. By 1946, it was being used as a local hospital. Willa Cather used the house as the prototype for the second Ferguesson house in her short story “The Best Years.”
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.
Person Annotations
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.
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in Virginia to William Lee Boak
and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and was a
schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872. Her
husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War while
her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the
Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage
she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa,
Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while
three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska
after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather
remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud,
NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928
Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their
families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in
Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times
but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for
her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia
Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932),
which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.
Chase, Mary Ellen (1887-1973). American educator, critic, novelist,
and memoirist. Born and raised in Blue Hill, ME, Chase received
her BA from the University of Maine in 1909 and her MA in 1918 and PhD in
1922 from the University of Minnesota. After serving four years as assistant
professor of English at Minnesota, she became an associate professor at
Smith College. At Chase’s urging, Smith also offered her companion, Margaret
Eliot Macgregor, an assistant professorship. By the time Chase and MacGregor
met Cather on Grand Manan Island in 1929, Chase was a well-established
novelist of regional fiction set in her home state. After they met, Chase
sent Cather her autobiographical reminiscences The Golden
Asse, and Other Essays (1929), but Cather resisted her invitation
to speak publicly at Smith. Willa Cather’s nieces Virginia Cather and Mary
Virginia Auld came in contact with Chase during their years studying at
Smith, but Cather soured on Chase, warning Virginia Cather that Chase was
“tricky, and terribly, terribly vain” (#2324). After Macgregor’s early
death, Chase shared a home with Smith College classics professor Eleanor
Duckett. Although Chase and MacGregor had contemplated building a cottage on
Grand Manan, Chase and Duckett built a vacation home at Petit Man Point, ME.
Chase retired from Smith in 1955 and died in Northampton, MA.
Place Annotations
