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 |
SEP 14 1934 AM September 10th Dear Alfred1;
I think3 you will have to use the title, LUCY GAYHEART4, for the running head5 of both right and left hand pages. If the printers leave a blank page between each of the three divisions of the story it will help toward filling out.
I am leaving here2 on September 18th. I will stop a day in Boston6 and then go straight to the Shattuck Inn7, Jaffrey8, New Hampshire. I want to do some work on a new story there, so I think you had better keep the page proofs9 until I get back to New York10. There will be very little to do on them.
I hope Mr. Ruzicka11 will be willing to do the jacket.
I have had an absolutely happy summer here, feeling a kind of physical pleasure in living that one almost never has in town.
With love to you both12 Willa CatherP.S. Since I am not getting back to town before the end of October, I wonder whether Miss Rubin13 could get me two seats for the Philharmonic Brahms Cycle14? I would like two seats downstairs, six or seven rows from the back of the house, aisle seats in the left hand block if possible; if they are gone, two seats in the centre, same distance back. I will be awfully obliged if she can get them for me.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2675.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2675
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- September 10 [1934]
- 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 1934 Knopf acknowledged receipt of the corrected galley proofs for Lucy Gayheart and asked Cather to state her preference for running heads as they were configuring the book into pages.
The heading printed at the top of each page of a book or chapter.
Shattuck Inn (Jaffrey, NH): Hotel built in 1910 in Jaffrey, N,H owned and operated by E. C. Shattuck until his death in February 1933, when operation was taken over by his daughter, Eleanor Shattuck Austermann, and her husband George Austermann. Cather stayed at the Shattuck Inn many times, often with Edith Lewis, finding it a useful place to work. In 1947, Cather wrote of the Shattuck Inn: “I have never found any place where I could work in such peace and happiness as in the little rooms up in the top of the Shattuck Inn” (#1748).
After printers incorporated corrections made on the galley proofs, the typeset text was configured into pages for additional proofreading and correction.
Between 14 February and 31 March 1935, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed a five concert survey of the music of Johannes Brahms, colloquially known as the “Brahms Cycle,” at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The orchestra was conducted by its music director, Arturo Toscanini; soloists included Jascha Heifetz and Vladimir Horowitz.
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.
Ruzicka, Rudolph (1883-1978) (“Rudolf”). Czech-American wood
engraver, illustrator, painter, and type designer. Born in
Kourim, Bohemia, Rudolf (later also spelled Rudolph) Ruzicka moved with his
family to Chicago, IL, in 1894, where he took drawing lessons at the Hull
House School, apprenticed as a wood engraver, and studied at the Art
Institute of Chicago. In 1903 he moved to New York City and worked engraving
bank notes while taking classes at the Art Students’ League and the New York
School of Art. Cather likely first met Ruzicka around 1910, when his
classmate painter Earl Brewster married Edith Lewis’s college classmate
Achsah Barlow. Ruzicka married Filomena Sprova in Prague, Czhecoslovakia, in
1914, and they had two daughters, Tatiana and Veronica. He is best known for
his collaborations on fine press editions and for his type design,
including, beginning in 1935, linotype fonts. He produced designs for the
dust jackets of Obscure Destinies (1932), Lucy Gayheart (1935), and Sapphira
and the Slave Girl (1940), and Cather and Lewis sent out Christmas
cards featuring his designs in 1915, 1916, and 1935. Ruzicka attended
Cather’s funeral and helped Edith Lewis design Cather’s tombstone. Ruzicka
lived in various locations in Westchester County, NY, until his wife died c.
1961 and he moved to Norwich, VT, to live with his daughter, Veronica Laing.
He died in Hanover, 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.
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.
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
