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 |
These two chapters complete the manuscript3, except
for
the
insert4
to
follow
page
82, which Miss
Bloom5 still has, and which runs about four thousand words in length.
I trust Miss Bloom will copy it this week-end, and will
mail it to me at or but because of the boat schedule she will hold it
until I reach New York6, September 17th or 18th. If you prefer to see the insert
yourself, ask Miss Rubin7Leger8 (who has her office
telephone number) to call Miss Bloom and tell her to send it to you. Her
office telephone number is Cortland 7,8032.
Forty galleys of proof have arrived, and I shall begin reading them tomorrow. Today I have just finished a fourth re-writing of the first part of the Epilogue—only a few paragraphs but, since it attempts to bridge the gap and soften the shock between third person narration and first person narration, it was very difficult to write, and I am by no means satisfied with it yet.
The candy came promptly, and I was awfully glad to get it.
I hope these last chapters of the story won’t disappoint you and Blanche9 too much.
Love to you both from W. S. C.Of course I will make corrections in the insert which Miss Bloom has just as soon as I return to New York.
RECEIVEDSEP-61940 AM
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2714.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2714
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto and verso.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- September 3 [1940]
- 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
This is likely the first chapter of Book Four, "Sapphira's Daughter," which is around 3,500 words. That chapter, which features the "native idiom" of Mrs. Ringer, was intended to be inserted after page 82 of a surviving professionally-typed manuscript of the novel at Drew University.
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.
Leger, Antoinette Kluf (c. 1904-after 1948). Alfred A. Knopf’s secretary. A New-York-born daughter of German immigrants, by 1930 Antoinette Kluf Leger was a young widow working as a stenographer at a publishing firm. By 1940 she was Alfred Knopf’s personal secretary and continued to work in that capacity until at least 1948.
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
Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940) by Willa Cather
