Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 |
HOTEL SEYMOUR
FIFTY WEST FORTY-FIFTH STREET
NEW YORK2
REFERR[missing]
JAN 10 1922
ANSWER[missing]
FILED BY _____ Monday Dear Mr. Knopf1:
I've been trying all afternoon to get you by telephone, but your line has been constantly busy.
I'm greatly pleased with the specimen page3, leaded4 out, that Mr. Spier5 brought me. I will be more than grateful if you can have the part already set leaded like this, and will instruct the printers6 to set the last part double-leaded7 in the first place.
Please ask Mr. Spier to instruct the printers to put a space between dashes and the words they follow and preceed. Most of the corrections on the galley proofs8 are merely marks demanding space before dashes.
I'm eagerly awaiting the copy of "Cytheria"9 you were kind enough to promise me.
With the heartiest New Year's wishes.
Yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2525.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2525
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- [January 9, 1922]
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
In typography, this refers to the spacing of lines of type using lead separators.
Plimpton Press in Norwood, MA, printed the first edition of One of Ours (1922). Vail-Ballou set the text and created the electrotype plates.
In typography, this term refers to a double space (usually four points) between lines of type.
Printers produce galleys for proofreading and correction before the typeset text has been configured into pages.
Person Annotations
Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York
publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from
Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc.,
in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their
son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher
beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and
One of Ours (1922), partly because she was
dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also
because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what
she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing
the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as
well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence
testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an
important personal friendship.
Spier, Franklin (1896-1973). American publishing and advertising executive. Born and raised in New York City, Franklin Spier received a BA from Columbia University in 1917. In the 1920s, he worked at Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., coordinating book reviewing and other promotion activities. In the 1930s he founded Franklin Spier, Inc. an advertising agency specializing in book promotion.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
One of Ours (1922) by Willa Cather
Cytherea (1922) by Joseph Hergesheimer
