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 |
This is birch-bark, like in "Hiewatha"3 (do you know that delightful poem? When Mary Virginia4 was here visiting me, she wrote a letter to Tom5 on this. We had a lovely time and climbed a high mountain. Thank you, dear, for the nice letter you wrote me at Grand Manan6.
Your very loving Aunt Willie STEAM HEATELECTRIC LIGHTS
GARAGE LIVERY ELEVATION 1200 FEET
PRIVATE BATHS
OPEN FIRES The Shattuck Inn7
AT THE FOOT OF MONADNICK MOUNTAIN
OPEN ALL THE YEAR
JAFFREY, N.H.
Please send me your street address, dear,—I've lost it.
W. S. C.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2405.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2405
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Virginia Cather Brockway1
- Date letter was written
- October 7 [1936]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
Given Cather's confusion about Virginia Cather's address, this was written after her 1933 graduation from Smith College and during a year when Cather went to Jaffrey, NH, after being on Grand Manan. This narrows the year to 1934 or 1936, and we've speculated Cather is writing in 1936 as Edith Lewis's typical room would have been available to Mary Virginia Auld Mellen, as Lewis was not in Jaffrey that October (see #1328). Additionally, Lewis received a telegram on Grand Manan from J. Walter Thompson in early October 1934, suggesting that the pair were not in Jaffrey in early October of that year.
- Place letter was written
- Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Roscoe and Meta Cather Collection (MS316), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Shattuck Inn (Jaffrey, NH): Hotel built in 1910 in Jaffrey, N,H owned and operated by E. C. Shattuck until his death in February 1933, when operation was taken over by his daughter, Eleanor Shattuck Austermann, and her husband George Austermann. Cather stayed at the Shattuck Inn many times, often with Edith Lewis, finding it a useful place to work. In 1947, Cather wrote of the Shattuck Inn: “I have never found any place where I could work in such peace and happiness as in the little rooms up in the top of the Shattuck Inn” (#1748).
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.
Mellen, Mary Virginia Auld (1906-1982) (“Virginia,” “M.V.”).
Cather's niece. Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld
and James William Auld, Mary Virginia graduated from Red Cloud High School
in 1924 and then spent a year at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA, to qualify for
admission to Smith College in Northampton, MA. In 1929 she received an A.B.
in psychology from Smith and then moved to New York City, where she found
work at Lord & Taylor before telling her aunt of her arrival. In 1930,
probably with Willa Cather's help, she secured a position in the Circulation
Department of the New York Public Library. In 1931, she entered the
library's internal training school and in 1932 was assigned to the Tremont
branch library in the Bronx. After Mary Virginia’s parents divorced in 1933
Cather took a quasi-parental role. She paid for vacations and when, in 1935,
Mary Virginia married Richard (Dick) Mellen, a graduate of Harvard Medical
School and roommate of her brother William Thomas Auld at Amherst College,
she supervised wedding arrangements. After Dick was commissioned as a doctor
in the Air Force, Mary Virginia—much to Cather’s
regret—accompanied him to Chattanooga, TN, where he was assigned. In
Cather's will, Mary Virginia was designated a beneficiary of the literary
estate.
Auld, William Thomas (1908-2000) (“Tom,” “Will”). Cather's nephew.
Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld and James William
Auld, William Thomas Auld graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1927 and
Amherst College in Amherst, MA, in 1931. His roommate at Amherst, Richard
Hager Mellen, would later marry his sister, Mary Virginia Auld. He graduated
from Stanford University Medical School in 1936, the same year he married
Helen Jane Wall. From 1938 until his retirement, Auld practiced pediatrics
in Stockton, CA, except for the four years (1942-1946) he served in the Army
Air Force Medical Corps. He and his wife had no children. Willa Cather seems
to have had minimal contact with her nephew as an adult, and there are no
known letters from her to him.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
The Song of Hiawatha (1855) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
