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 |
AUG 3 - 1931
Filed by _____ July 31st My Dear Alfred1;
Because of the varying schedule of the one boat which is our only mail carrier, I got your letters of the 24th and 27th on the same day!
First, regarding the Heinemann situation3. I don't think their attitude very cordial or very promising, since they refuse to bind themselves to anything at all. I have made up my mind to let you go ahead with Cassell. I will have to write a letter to Evans4, of course, and I will send you a copy of it. Meanwhile you may cable Salzberg5 to go ahead with Cassell, so far as I am concerned.
The news you write me about the initial distribution6 of the new book7 is delightful, and is a great surprise to me. I still see in that book only a story to please the quiet and meditative few. As it has got beyond that circle, I can only conclude that you and Blanche8, and your office, and the "Archbishop9" of four years ago, all had a good deal to do with bringing this bashful volume out before the curtain. I think the review10 in the Atlantic11 will make up the minds12 of a great many people who think they are intelligent, but unguided would probably have passed this book over as a dull one.
I have just finished the longest13 of the three stories14 I mean for the next volume15, and have sent it down to my secretary16 to be typed. It will run about 23,000 words. We had spoken of "Obscure Destinies" as a title17 for that volume of three stories. Would you like "Out West" better? They are all western stories18; one in Colorado, one in Kansas, one in Nebraska.
Tell Blanche8 the things from Charles19 came when much needed—especially the garlic and tomato paste, which you can't get in Protestant Canada20; and yesterday a made a risotto that would make your mouth water. I can still get excellent champagne in St. John21, Pol Roger 1919, that excellent year, which I couldn't get in Paris22 at all, nor anywhere but at Aix-les-Bains23. This island2 is always beautiful and the weather has been so wild and dramatic that I cannot stay at a desk very long. The climate is everything else in God's world,—but is never hot or sticky.
My love to you both, and my very deep gratitude to you and all your staff for the splendid way they have stood behind this book. It gives me a lighter heart for the books to come.
Faithfully yours Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2628.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2628
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto only of each leaf.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- July 31 [1931]
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
On 24 July 1931, Knopf wrote that he was waiting for more information on the "English situation." On 27 July 1931, he expressed doubt about Heinemann's commitment to a collected edition of Cather's work and advised her to change English publishers to Cassell Co.
On 24 July 1931, Knopf reported an initial distribution of 55,000 copies of Shadows on the Rock "exclusive of book club sales." On 27 July 1931, he reported that orders were continuing to come in.
Ethel Wallace Hawkins describes Cather's "quiet chronicle" as "full of the pathos of humanity--the eagerness, the effort, and above all the transitoriness, emphasized by the mighty background against which the shadow-shapes come and go." She particularly praises the novel's construction and Cather's delineation of character, as well as describing Cather's "pictures of the city on the rock" as "above praise."
"Old Mrs. Harris" is the longest of the three stories in Obscure Destinies.
The collection appeared as Obscure Desitinies, but "Three New Stories of the West" appeared on the dust jacket under the title.
Although all of the stories are set in fictionalized versions of Red Cloud, NE, "Old Mrs. Harris" is set in Colorado, "Two Friends" in Kansas, and "Neighbour Rosicky" in Nebraska.
Charles was evidently a grocery store in Manhattan. On 15 July 1931, Blanche Knopf wrote that they had purchased everything Cather wanted from Charles, but the grocer did not want to handle the paperowrk required for shipping to Canada. J. Florence Rubin thus suggested that Longmans Green, a British publisher with an American branch, handle the shipping.
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.
Evans, Charles Seddon (1883-1944) (“C. S.”). British editor and author. Charles Evans began his career in publishing in 1909 with Edward Arnold. He joined William Heinemann in 1914, eventually becoming chairman and managing director. He also wrote adaptations of The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella in collaboration with illustrator, Arthur Rackham. Cather communicated with Evans about the British publication of her books.
Salzberg, Saul. Employee of Alfred Knopf, Inc. Saul Salzberg worked as a representative for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., at its London office.
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.
Bloom, Sarah J. (1889-1961). Cather's personal secretary. Born in New York in 1889 to Russian immigrants Solomon and Bertha Bloom, Sarah J. Bloom worked for Cather from some time in the 1920s until Cather's death and continued to work for Edith Lewis on matters pertaining to Cather's literary estate thereafter. Bloom typed Cather's literary manuscripts and managed Cather's correspondence, typing dictated letters and sometimes responding for Cather when she was traveling. Bloom’s work for Cather supplemented full-time office employment in New York City (for many years she worked for the New York State Public Service Commission). She thus came to Cather and Lewis's apartment on weekends to take dictation, pick up and deliver typescripts, and deliver typed letters for signature. She died in New York city in 1961.
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
Work Annotations
Shadows on the Rock (1931) by Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather
"The Atlantic Bookshelf," Atlantic Monthly (August 1931) by Ethel Wallace Hawkins
Atlantic Monthly
"Neighbour Rosicky," Woman's Home Companion (April 1930) by Willa Cather
"Old Mrs. Harris," Obscure Destinies (1932) by Willa Cather
"Two Friends," Woman's Home Companion (July 1932) by Willa Cather
Obscure Destinies (1932) by Willa Cather
