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 |
SEP–1 1933 AM August 27 Dear Mr. Lesser1;
I am forgetful, and the mails here2 are slow;
so I am sending you my income tax check3
now. You can turn it in whenever you think proper. After I got up here I found it
so
good to have the sea at my front door and the woods at my back door that I was very
lazy for a month. I am hard at work now and the new book
book4 begins to take on some life.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2664.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2664
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Joseph Lesser1
- Date letter was written
- August 27 [1933]
- 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 6 September 1933, Lesser acknowledged receipt of Cather's check for the third quarter payment of her federal income tax.
Person Annotations
Lesser, Joseph (1901-1989). Treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in Poland, Joseph Lesser immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1906, and he became a naturalized American citizen. He and his wife, Eva, and their children lived in Brooklyn, NY. He served for many years as treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. His office prepared Cather’s tax returns for her, and in her will Cather named him as a potential successor to Edith Lewis as her literary executor. Lesser died in Hallandale, FL.
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
Lucy Gayheart (1935) by Willa Cather
