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 the day when Peace has been declared3, and all the church bells are ringing and the bands playing and thousands and thousands of people of all nations are walking through the streets packing them so that no wagons or streetcars can run. All businesses have been closed. I walked a mile or two up the middle of Fifth avenue this morning, for it's a fine bright autumn day, and I passed so many old French and Italian and Irish women, carrying little service flags for the sons they had lost and smiling through their tears. Some of them were so old they had to be supported, but they would drag themselves in the procession of the Free Peoples. We sent Josephine4 and her little girl5 off this afternoon, carrying french flags, to walk in that great company.
Last night I went to dine with Mrs. Kirk6, the fat, jolly Pittsburgh7 woman who was always so kind to Jack8. MrsKiefer9 of Bradford, Pa.10 was there, and she told me so many nice things about Jack's wife11. She says she really is the prize girl of all that community. Mrs. Kirk, who is always so funny and frank, said, "It's true, my dear, I made especial inquiries in Bradford, for you know Jack was just the boy that some cheap skirt could impose on if she got hold of him." They say she is very pretty, and aside from her good looks has a great deal of personal charm. Now do NOT send this letter to Jack, mother!
Elsie12 will be sorry to hear that Celia Harris'13 only brother14 died of influenza in a military camp, and she herself has been sick with it. Alfred McClung15 has been dangerously ill with double pneumonia for a long while now, and on Saturday very alarming symptoms began by blood–clots forming in his legs, as they do when a woman has what used to be called "milk–leg"16. His condition looks very doubtful. His wife17 is expecting a baby at any moment.
Ethel Litchfield18, whom we all love so much,
is spending the winter in New York2 while
Dr. Litchfield19 is away at the war, and
she is yab having such a hard time. She has a little
flat for her and her two daughters20,
and little money, as the Doctor has no patients now, of course, and nothing but a
Major's salary. First the oldest daughter had influenza21 and was ill three weeks, and now the younger one is very, very
ill with it, and Ethel does all her own work and has to nurse the girl besides. She
looked so thin and pale when I went to see her. On Saturday night I made her leave
her patient with the od older sister and come down
here and have a good dinner and a quiet evening. She had got so tired of her own
cooking that she had not eaten anything solid for several days. She relaxed and
smoked several cigarettes before our wood fire and got quite rested. Today her
daughter is very much worse again, so everything looks discouraging.
I hope the weather is fine there22, and that you get out every day and see people. Give Molly23 and Marguerite24 my love when you see them. I have seen both my doctors and they say it will be just as well if I wait to go into a hospital until the influenza has quieted down a little. If I get started on a new book I may be able to think about it in the hospital, for of course I wont feel ill, I'll simply have to lie still for five or six days.
Tell father25 I have had the most wonderful
letter from a Mr. Wih Winter26, one of the best known of Civil
Engineers, who in his youth helped to
put the Union Pacific across Nebraska27. He
said he picked "Antonia"28 up at his club
and that it brought all his youth back to him and moved him so powerfully that he
had to write and thank me. An old Bohemian monk29 has written to thank me for the book,
and several professors of Literature in universities have written me letters th that I am very grateful for. Ivv I've certainly never written anything that people
seemed to take into their hearts and love as they do th this. I am very glad to give people so much pleasure, but it is hard
to get round to answering all the letters that come about the book.
Now, Mother, I must say goodbye for this time, and I send you a great deal of love.
WilliePlease send this to Elsie, mother, to give her the news.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2414.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2414
- Contents
- Document is three leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Mary Virginia Boak Cather1
- Date letter was written
- November 11 [1918]
- 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
On 11 November 1918, the Armistice of Compiègne was signed, ending the fighting of World War I.
A painful swelling of the leg caused by inflammation of the femoral vein due to a blood clot, most typical in women before or after childbirth. The affected leg looks very pale.
New York City experienced an influenza epidemic in the fall of 1918, which was part of a broader epidemic that swept the United States during that year. Approximately 147,000 cases of influenza and pneumonia were reported in New York, which resulted in approximately 20,000 deaths.
On 22 October 1918 Ferris Greenslet refers to the writer of the letter as "Dom Cyprian."
Person Annotations
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in the 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.
Bourda, Joséphine Marie Bernardine Brun (1892-1959). Cather’s maid. Raised in Lourdes in the Pyrénées region of France, Joséphine’s father Jean-Marie Brun ran a restaurant. In 1909 she married Alphonse Bourda, and they had two children, Marie, born 1910, and Clémentine, born 1912. In 1913 Joséphine, Alphonse, and Joséphine’s father immigrated to the U.S., leaving Marie and Clémentine behind with relatives. Alphonse and Joséphine’s third child, Jeanette, was born in New York City in late 1913. Soon after, Joséphine found work cooking and keeping house for Willa Cather and Edith Lewis in their Five Bank Street apartment. In 1919 the Bourda family was reunited in New York and Joséphine stopped working, but by late 1921, she was back working half days until sometime after 1925. She resumed working for Cather and Lewis in 1932 when they moved to a new apartment at 570 Park Avenue, but in 1935, she and her husband decided to return to France because of his failing health. Cather considered Joséphine a personal friend and praised her as “an artist in her way” (#0563). Cather and Bourda evidently corresponded after her return to France but their letters have not surfaced. She died in the village of Saint Pé de Bigorre.
Bourda, Jeanette (1913-?). Daughter of Joséphine and Alphonse Bourda.Born in New York City the same year her parents arrived in the city, shortly before her mother began working for Cather and Lewis, Jeanette Bourda returned to France with her parents in 1935. She married, had three children, and died in Saint Pé de Bigorre. Though Jeannette's mother Joséphine Bourda worked for Cather and Edith Lewis for many years, it is unclear if Cather ever met Jeanette Bourda.
Kirk, Jean M. Burns (before 1869-1949). American socialite. Jean M. Burns married David M. Kirk, businessman and heir to a successful explosives company, in 1893 in Sharpsburg, PA. The family bought the late W. W. Willock mansion in Sewickley Heights, near Pittsburgh, in 1917. After the family’s finances dwindled, they sold it in 1937. The couple had two daughters, Jean Kirk Kennedy and Robina Kirk Quinby Jenne. In 1906, Willa Cather attended a meeting of the Pittsburgh branch of the Woman’s New England society at Kirk’s home on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh.
Cather, John (1892-1959) (“Jack”). Cather’s brother.
Born and raised in Red Cloud, NE, Jack was the seventh child and
fourth son of Charles and Virginia Cather. He was nearly two decades younger
than Willa Cather, and she was a doting older sister when he was a small
boy. Because she missed him after her 1896 move to Pittsburgh, PA, she wrote
several poems about him and the story “Jack-a-Boy” (1901). After graduating
from Red Cloud High School in 1912, Jack studied for two years at University
of Nebraska in Lincoln. With Willa Cather’s encouragement, in 1914 he
enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh to study
engineering. Willa Cather was then living in New York City but traveled to
Pittsburgh to help him settle in and enjoyed visiting him and supported his
decision to change his major to theater. It is not clear whether he
graduated from Carnegie Tech but the British government trained him as a
chemist so he could inspect munitions factories. While working in Smethport,
PA, he met Irma Wells, and they married in 1918. They had two children,
Catherine and Ella Faye. After World War I, he worked as a chemical engineer
in the oil industry in Cincinnati, OH, Casper, WY, and Bradford, PA. In 1936
he moved to Whittier, CA, and became a business partner with his brothers
Douglass and James in an oil production company. He died in Long Beach, CA.
Willa Cather mentions him frequently in letters, but she seems to have had
little contact with him and his family in later years, and no letters from
her to him have surfaced.
Kiefer, Mrs. In 1918, Willa Cather met Mrs. Kiefer from Bradford, PA, a woman who knew Cather’s sister-in-law, Irma Wells Cather. No further information is available about this person.
Cather, Irma Wells (1891-1973). Cather’s sister-in-law. Irma
Wells met John Cather in her hometown of Smethport, PA, where he was working
at the time. After their marriage, his employment took them to Ohio,
Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Whittier, CA, where they settled in 1936. They
had two children, Catherine and Ella Faye. Willa Cather had little contact
with Irma and there is no known correspondence between the two
women.
Cather, Elsie Margaret (1890-1964) (“Bobbie”). Cather’s
sister. Born in Red Cloud, NE, shortly before Willa Cather
graduated from high school, Elsie attended the University of Nebraska in
Lincoln from 1908 to 1910, before transferring to Smith College, in
Northampton, MA, from which she graduated with an A.B. in English and Latin
in 1912. She undertook graduate study at the University of Nebraska in 1914
and in 1916 received her A.M. with a major in philosophy and a minor in
English. At both the undergraduate and the graduate level at Nebraska, she
studied under Louise Pound. She began a career in high school teaching in
1912, when she took a position in Lander, WY, where her brother Roscoe then
lived with his family. She also taught in Albuquerque, NM; Corning, IA;
Cleveland, OH; and briefly Red Cloud, when illness in the family brought her
home. Her longest tenure as a teacher was at Lincoln (NE) High School, where
she began teaching in 1920, with Olivia Pound and Mariel Gere as colleagues.
Willa Cather's expectation that Elsie be responsible for aging family and
friends and for legal affairs after their parents' deaths sometimes brought
the sisters into conflict. Elsie Cather retired from Lincoln High School in
1942. She died in Lincoln.
Harris, Celia E. (1885-1976). American social worker, niece of Cather’s friend Sarah Harris. Born in Lincoln, NE, to Charles and Mary Harris, Celia Harris and her brother Clark Harris were raised in Lincoln and in St. Louis, MO. Her father’s sister was Sarah Fisk Harris (later Dorris), one of Cather’s friends in Lincoln. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1909 and subsequently studied playwriting at Harvard University. By 1920, she was living in New York City and working as a social worker. By 1930 she had moved to California. She died in Monterey, CA.
Harris, Clark W. (1889-1918). American soldier, nephew of Cather’s friend Sarah Harris. Born in Lincoln, NE, to Charles and Mary Harris, Clark Harris was raised in Lincoln and in St. Louis, MO. His father’s sister was Sarah Fisk Harris (later Dorris), and his sister was Celia Harris. He enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army and died of influenza at a training camp.
McClung, Samuel Alfred, Jr. (1880-1945) (“Alfred”). Pittsburgh lawyer; Isabelle McClung’s brother. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to Samuel A. McClung and Fannie Merritt McClung, Samuel Alfred McClung, Jr., graduated from Shadyside Academy in 1900 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1901, when his sister Isabelle invited Cather to move into the family’s home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, he was likely still at MIT, but by 1904 was a clerk at the First National Bank of Pittsburgh. He was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh in 1911 and practiced law there. In 1917, he married Mary Caldwell Mellon Kampmann, a divorcee with two children and a member of the wealthy and influential Mellon family of Pittsburgh. They had three children together, Samuel III, Cynthia, and Isabelle. In the 1930s he retired from the practice of law, and he and his family lived on their farm in Cherry Valley, NY.
McClung, Mary Mellon (1884-1974). Isabelle McClung’s sister-in-law. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to Mary Caldwell Mellon and Thomas Alexander Mellon, Mary Mellon married Herman Kampmann in 1905. The couple had two children and lived in San Antonio, TX, before their divorce. In 1917, Mary Mellon married Samuel A. McClung, Jr., in New York City. The couple had three children, Samuel III, Cynthia, and Isabelle. McClung published one novel, Sheepshead Point (1946).
Litchfield, Ethel Herr Jones (1876-after 1967). Pianist; Cather’s Pittsburgh friend. Born in New Brighton, PA, near Pittsburgh, to the Reverend David and Sarah Jones, Ethel traveled to Vienna, Austria, at age twenty to study with Theodor Leschetizky with the aim of becoming a concert pianist. However, Dr. Lawrence Litchfield followed her there to court her. They married in Vienna in 1898 and returned to Pittsburgh. They had three children, Ethel Carver (1899), Lawrence, Jr. (1900), and Margaret (1903). While her children were young, she largely gave up performing but entertained visiting musicians in their home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where Cather met them in 1902. Cather, May Willard, Ethel Litchfield, and Isabelle McClung formed, as Cather would later recall, a “little group” that “melted together” (#1540). It has been suggested that Litchfield’s decision to give up her musical career for marriage informed Cather’s story “The Garden Lodge” (1905). As Litchfield’s children grew older, however, she returned to the concert stage. After the 1930 death of her husband, she moved to New York City, where she dined frequently with Cather and Edith Lewis and enjoyed listening with them to recordings of Yehudi and Hepzibah Menuhin.
Litchfield, Lawrence (1861-1930). Pittsburgh physician. Born in Grand Rapids, MI, to General Allyne Cushing Litchfield and Susan Cordelia Carver, Lawrence Litchfield received a BA from Harvard University in 1885 and an MD from Bellevue Medical College in New York City in 1888. He began his career as a general practitioner in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1889. In 1898 he followed Ethel Herr Jones to Vienna and married her there, returning with her to Pittsburgh. They had three children, Ethel Carver (1899), Lawrence, Jr. (1900) and Margaret (1903). Cather met the Litchfields in their home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh in 1902. He served as Chief of the Medical Service in the base hospital at Camp Lee, Virginia, and at Camp Grant, Illinois, during World War I. Cather trusted Dr. Litchfield’s medical judgment, seeking referrals from him for specialists and taking his advice to “take the baths” at Aix-les-Bains (#1987).
Denton, Margaret Litchfield (1903-1990). American ballet dancer. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to Ethel Jones Litchfield and Lawrence Litchfield, Margaret Litchfield attended schools in Pittsburgh, New York City, and in Europe. As a professional ballet dancer, she performed in the U.S. and Europe. She married Thomas Chadbourne Denton in 1930; they had three children, Alice, Ethel, and Thomas. Willa Cather knew Margaret through her long friendship with Ethel Litchfield.
1140Van Boetzelaer, Ethel Carver Litchfield (1899-after 1967). Daughter of Ethel Herr Jones and Lawrence Litchfield. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Ethel Carver Litchfield married Willem Baron Van Boetzelaer in Paris, France, in 1923. Willa Cather, who met the Litchfields in their home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh in 1902, attended the wedding. After marrying, the couple lived in Copenhagen, where Willem Van Boetzelaer was employed in the diplomatic service. Ethel Van Boetzelaer was appointed Queen Wilhelmina’s lady in waiting in 1942.
Ferris, Mollie (c. 1864-1941). Cather family friend in Red Cloud.
Ferris was a close friend of Cather’s mother. Willa Cather and
Ferris served jointly as godmothers when Cather’s niece Helen Louise Cather
was christened in Red Cloud, NE, in 1918. When Ferris died, Cather
contributed money for a stained glass window in her honor in Grace Episcopal
Church in Red Cloud.
Atherton, Marguerite Richardson (1889-after 1940). Cather's Red Cloud friend.Born in Red Cloud, NE, the younger daughter of William N. and Elizabeth Richardson, Marguerite graduated from the Red Cloud high school in 1908 with Willa Cather’s sister, Elsie. She attended a school in St. Joseph, MO, and then Valparaiso University in Indiana. After her father’s death, she and her mother went to California, where her elder sister lived. Marguerite married Wallace Atherton, a railroad agent, in 1926; they lived in San Francisco and had one son, Wallace junior. Willa Cather heard news of Marguerite through Elsie, and visited her in San Francisco in 1929.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Winter, Edwin W. (1845-1930). American railroad executive. After serving in an Illinois regiment during the Civil War, Winter joined the Union Pacific Railway Company in 1867 and worked for the railroads in varying capacities for the rest of his professional life. He was president of the Northern Pacific Railway Company from 1896 to 1897 and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company from 1903 to 1911. Winter wrote a complimentary letter to Cather after reading My Ántonia (1918) and visited her in 1919 to tell her how much he enjoyed the book. Willa Cather wrote to her brother Roscoe that she would “rather have the admiration of one man like” Winter “than sell a thousand books” (#2085).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
