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 hate to bother you now when you have many cares3, but what shall I do about the enclosed letter? You can see how Miss Bloom4 held her at bay, but I’ll have to reply to her in the end.
I don’t want, in these hard times, to offend a large and chesty organization like the Chicago Women’s Club5. On the other hand, I certainly don’t want to go out there and be be-medalled by a lot of illiterate dames like the writer of this letter. Can you suggest any escape? Or do you think I should go and take my medicine?
You are kind enough to ask if I need anything. I would like one small book, if
Miss Rubin6 can get it for me. It is
called, I think, “American Wild Flowers”7,
and is by a Mr. Matthews8 who also wrote an
excellent book9 on American trees. I do
not remember his first name, nor am I sure
about the title of the book.! My own copy is in storage10. I think it was published by Scribners11, but I’m vague even about
that. Perhaps from these several uncertainties a clever detective can find the
book.
Your telegram to me I shall keep. We neither of are inclined to overstate our feelings, but when you do speak I know you mean it, and it means a great deal to me.
Give my love to Blanche12, please, and tell her
I am going to write
to write her soon.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2649.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2649
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- June 30 [1932]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The year of this letter is established by Alfred Knopf's response of July 6, 1932.
- 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
Alfred Knopf's father, Samuel Knopf, had recently died (see #1672).
The Chicago Woman's Club was started in 1896 for the purpose of "self and social improvement." Among its favored causes were educational and social reform in Chicago. The group sponsored lectures by artists, writers, and other prominent women and presented Cather with a medallion bearing her likeness at a luncheon on 20 October 1932.
Because Cather and Edith Lewis had no New York apartment from 1927 until late 1932.
Mathews's book was published by G.P. Putnam.
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.
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.
Rubin, J. Florence. Staff member, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Cather corresponded with Rubin about permissions issues. Rubin also handled some of the miscellaneous personal tasks that the Knopf office undertook for Cather, such as securing tickets to musical performances.
Mathews, Ferdinand Schuyler (1854-1938). American naturalist, artist, and composer. Born on Staten Island, NY, F. Schuyler Mathews lived in Cambridge, MA. He frequently contributed on flowers, birds, and other subjects to magazines, illustrating the articles himself. His groundbreaking Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music (1904) translated the songs of eighty-two species of birds into musical notes. Willa Cather owned his Field Book of American Wild Flowers (1902) and praised it and Mathews’ Field Book of American Trees and Shrubs (1915) to Alfred Knopf (#2649). Mathews died at his summer home in Plymouth, NH.
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.
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
Field Book of American Wild Flowers: Being a Short Description of Their Character and Habits, a Concise Definition of Their Colors, and Incidental References to the Insects Which Assist in Their Fertilization (1902) by F. Schuyler Mathews
Field Book of American Trees and Shrubs (1915) by F. Schuyler Mathews
