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#2352: Willa Cather to Elizabeth Cather and Margaret Cather, January 24, 1938

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My darling Twinnies:1

I must tell you how splendidly the moving pictures that Edith4 took at Grand Manan5 came out. We have no projector, but we took Hepzibah6 and Yaltah Menuhin7 into a kodak shop and had them run off. They were perfectly splendid of you, and even of me,! aAnd the woods and water were grand. Yehudi8 was away on tour, but he wants to see them before he sails, because the girls gave him such a good account of them. If there is such a thing as a good projector in Colusa3, we will mail the films to you sometime and then you can show your father9 and mother10 just what Grand Manan is like.

The champagne that I like best is Louis Roederer and 1929 is a grand year, also 1926 is very fine. I am having a busy life these days, for when Yehudi is in town the girls and I usually walk with him, and when he is away on tour we walk without him, and also go to the art galleries. Last Thursday night we had a Ggrand Opera party; Yehudi took his two sisters, Edith and me to hear Lohengrin11. On January 29th we have another opera party to hear Tristan and Isolde12. If you listen in on Saturday you can here it too! Afternoon performance will be evening with you, will it not?

Anything about my doings with the Menuhins is confidential, my dears, I know you understand that. People are always trying to make themselves important by using their name. I think you know that it is because they are such beautiful and good human beings that I love them, and not because they are "celebrities." Yehudi happens to be the kindest and noblest human being I have ever happened to know at close range, and to me his nature is more interesting and beautiful than his talent. Of course, I am forced to believe that in his case a great talent and a lofty nature are one; neither could exist without the other. We had a wonderful walk round the reservoir13 one day last week when the thermometer was only eight above zero and the wind very keen. After an hour and a half out there we were so warm and jolly that we none of us wanted to go in, and were late for lunch.

Your tactful Aunt Jessie14 tried to crowd herself in on the Menuhins when they were in Los Angeles15. She wrote the father16 a letter that she must see him in order to send a message to meME!, since he was going to New York!!! Little did the lady know that I had many times warned both the mother17 and father that they must never receive any relatives of mine whom I had not asked them to receive. I am not going to have this family tormented simply because they have been nice to me. It is a measure of Aunt Jessie's intelligence that she could think she might put such a dodge through.

Now my dears, forgive me for getting in a temper about Aunt Jessie. Good-by and heaps of love to you all.

Your devoted Aunt Willie

I've never met Lewis18 but twice, yet he's always doing these "big brother" acts19 for me. Nice and friendly of him20.

The Misses Cather1 754 Oak Street Colusa3 California NEW YORK, N.Y. STA. Y2 JAN 24 1938 9 PM