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 think Mr. Crowell3 is very kind. indeed, in offering to take so much trouble. I
don't think merely sending an erratum slip to the institutions who
that have bought the book would be
very effective, unless Mr. Crowell were willing to accompany it by a
mimeograph letter, something like the form I enclose. I beg you to change or
modify this letter in any way you see fit, before sending it to Mr.
Crowell.
I agree with you that it is a painful necessity to be compelled to declare one's religion, but I think in this case it is necessary to have an alibi. Otherwise the librarians will merely say: "If she isn't a Catholic already, she very soon will be."
Yours as always, W. S. C.P.S. I wish Professor Loggins4 would tell us just where he found this "false announcement". It would certainly help me in finding the source of this legend.
Request to Librarian:The publisher writes you
wishes to call your attention to a
misstatement on page 2155 of
Vernon Loggins' book, I HEAR AMERICA6. The
publisher will be greatly obliged to you if you will paste the enclosed erratum notice below, opposite page 215 of
Mr. Loggins' book.
Erratum
Willa Cather is not, and never has been, a convert to the Roman Catholic faith. She is a communicant, and an active member, of the Episcopal Church7.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2708.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2708
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one enclosed typewritten form letter with an Erratum statement for Vernon Loggins's book I Hear America.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- January 31, 1940
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes one enclosed typewritten form with Cather's correction to Vernon Loggins' book entitled I Hear America.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
At the end of a paragraph that mentions Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock, Loggins writes, "the literary world was not surprised when Miss Cather's conversion to the Roman Catholic faith was made known."
Bishop Beecher confirmed Willa Cather and her parents in the Episcopal Church on 22 December 1922.
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.
Crowell, Robert L. (1909-2001). American publisher. Born in Montclair, NJ, Crowell joined Thomas Y. Crowell Company (started by his grandfather) after graduation from Yale University in 1931, becoming president and treasurer of the publishing company in 1937. Under his leadership, which lasted until 1978, the Crowell Company specialized in reference books. One of the books published by the Crowell Company contained inaccurate information about Cather, and he impressed her with his efforts to address the situation.
Loggins, Vernon (1893-1968). American academic and author. Born in Hempstead, TX, Loggins was educated in Texas and Chicago and taught at multiple insitutions before arriving at Columbia University in 1925, where he worked until his retirement in 1960. He earned a PhD from Columbia in 1931 and that same year published his first book, The Negro Author: His Development in American to 1900. He was the author three other books and many shorter works about a variety of topics. He discussed Cather in his 1938 book I Hear America ...: Literature in the United States Since 1900 and annoyed her by incorrectly asserting that she had converted to Catholicism.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
I Hear America: Literature in the United States Since 1900 (1937) by Vernon Loggins
