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 |
37 Rue du Bac
7 Rue Montalembert
PARIS3
à Vichy
HOTEL ASTORIA
R. SOALHAT September 14 Dear Blanche1;
I've changed my sailing date4 to September 27th, on the Empress of France.
I had a glorious six weeks in Savoie5 and Dauphiné6, and in my wanderings down there found Martin Shand7 invaluable—he saved me many a dreary disappointment in places where all the local wines were mere names to me, and all the imported wines of poor quality. Shand did not betray me once as to quality, and he's perfectly sound on years and vintages. It's really a public service to publish8 such a book9!
You'll next hear from me after I've reached Jaffrey10, and there I'm really going to work.
With love Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2618.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2618
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Blanche Wolf Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- September 14 [1930]
- Place letter was written
- Aix-les-Bains, Rhône-Alpes, France2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
Cather departed Southampton on the RMS Empress of France on 27 September 1930.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., published Shand's book.
Person Annotations
Knopf, Blanche Wolf (1894-1966). Vice President of New York
publisher Alfred Knopf, Inc. Blanche Wolf founded Alfred Knopf,
Inc., in 1915 with her future husband Alfred Knopf. They married in 1916 and
their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Active in the business
throughout her life, Blanche Knopf recruited a number of prominent European
and Latin American writers to the Knopf list (in translation) by traveling
to meet them. In recognition of her work with writers such as Jean-Paul
Sartre and Albert Camus, she was inducted into the French Legion of Honor in
1949. She became president of Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1957 when her husband
became chairman. Through her work in the publishing house she also promoted
writers of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes. Cather’s letters
to Knopf focus primarily on business but the two also became friends.
Shand, Philip Morton (1888-1960). British wine, food, and architecture critic. Born in London, England, and educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, Philip Shand was an early advocate of modernism in architecture. His A Book of French Wines (1925), A Book of Food (1927), and A Book of Other Wines—Than French were published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Cather found his French wines book valuable during her 1930 trip to France.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
A Book of French Wines (1925) by Morton Shand
