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 |
I appreciate the honor you do me in inviting me to lecture before the Institute of Arts and Sciences3 and to be
one among a company of such distinguished speakers. Only the fact that I am going
to
be Aabroad all of next year prevents me from accepting your very kind
invitation. Perhaps at some time in the future we might arrange it.
I was delighted to meet you again at the Princeton dinner4 some weeks ago and to hear you speak. I have such very pleasant memories of the evening I spent at your house several years ago and of my meeting with you and Mrs. Butler5 in California6.
Faithfully yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2506.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2506
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Nicholas Murray Butler 1
- Date letter was written
- May 22, 1933
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Janey Zastrow Cook Willa Cather and Rare Book Collections, Allegany College of Maryland, Donald L. Alexander Library, Cumberland, MD
Individual Annotations
An arm of Columbia University Extension, the Institute of Arts and Sciences sponsored a speaker series every year.
On May 4, 1933, Willa Cather attended the Friends of Princeton Library Dinner for Pulitzer Prize winners.
Person Annotations
Butler, Nicholas Murray (1862-1947). American educator and diplomat.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Butler studied at Columbia
University, earning his PhD in 1884 at age twenty-two and joining the
philosophy department in 1885. In 1887 he co-founded what would become
Teachers College, Columbia University, and in 1902 became president of the
university, serving until his retirement in 1945. Active in Republican
politics and in international affairs, he worked with the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, sharing with Jane Addams the 1931 Nobel Peace
Prize. Columbia conferred an honorary degree on Cather in 1928, and she and
Butler kept in occasional touch thereafter; she wrote that she was in accord
with his public statements on world affairs. Butler was also president of
the American Academy of Arts and Letters when Cather was elected to it in
1938.
Butler, Kate La Montagne (1866-1948). American socialite. Kate La Montagne was born in New York City to Anna Davis and Auguste La Montagne. She was educated in Paris, and in 1904 she married Nicholas Murray Butler, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and President of Columbia University from 1901 to 1945. In a 1943 letter, Cather mentioned that she greatly enjoyed meeting Kate Butler and her husband in California.
Place Annotations
