Samuel Knopf ([July 24, 1927]) | Willa Cather Archive

#2574: Willa Cather to Samuel Knopf, [July 24, 1927]

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passage added above the line	passage with added text above
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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
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passage written by Cather on separate enclosure.	written text

I will autograph the limited edition³ of the Archbishop⁴ in your office about August 15^th.

⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Red Cloud² Nebraska Sunday Dear Mr. Knopf¹;

I was out of the world for two weeks on a long horseback trip⁵ through the Big Horn mountains in northern Wyoming⁶. Your telegram⁷ was buried in an accumulation of mail. I shall be in New York⁸ about the 15^th of August and will then talk over the matter of an interview with you. There will be plenty of time to attend to it then. Meanwhile, I wish you would drop me a line here and tell me how the advance sale⁹ is going. My address will be Red Cloud until I start for New York. I have had a very interesting summer, and have got over a lot of new country.

Faithfully yours Willa Cather

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let2574.xml
Letter identifier: 2574
Contents: Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
Person to whom letter was written: Samuel Knopf¹
Date letter was written: [July 24, 1927]
Explanation of conjectured date: Samuel Knopf responded to Cather's letter on July 28, 1927, confirming that she wrote it the previous Sunday.
Place letter was written: Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States²
Location of original letter: Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY

Individual Annotations

Knopf printed 225 copies of the novel in a limited edition (50 on Japan Vellum and 175 on Borzoi rag paper), all of which were signed by Cather.

Cather visited Roscoe Cather and his family in Casper, WY, and Margaret Cather Shannon remembered that the six of them traveled northwest of Casper, driving in a Dodge first to Buffalo and then across the Bighorn Mountains to spend a night or two in Thermopolis, WY.

Samuel Knopf sent Cather a telegram on 14 July 1927, noting that Alfred and Blanche Knopf were abroad and sharing an idea for a "publicity stunt"--Cather writing something about herself "that would make a story"--to promote Death Comes for the Archbishop.

In his reply, Samuel Knopf indicated that the advance sale was "close to fifteen thousand."

Person Annotations

0128

Knopf, Samuel (1862-1932). Treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in Poland, Samuel Knopf’s family brought him to the U.S. as a child. He headed his own advertising agency until 1921, when his son Alfred’s publishing firm incorporated as Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and he invested in the company and became its treasurer. Active in the company’s affairs, especially management of its London office, he occasionally assumed responsibility for Cather’s affairs in the absence of Alfred and Blanche Knopf, and Cather came to know him personally during her frequent visits to the Knopf offices. When he died, she wrote to his son about the “absolute confidence” he inspired in her (#1672).

Place Annotations

Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States

Wyoming, United States

New York, New York, United States

Work Annotations

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather