Hugh King ([May 6, 1941]) | Willa Cather Archive

#2719: Transcription of Letter from Willa Cather to Hugh King, [May 6, 1941]

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passage deleted with a strikethrough mark	~~deleted passage~~
passage deleted by overwritten added letters	~~overwritten passage~~
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

COPY Dear Mr. King¹:

I thank you for your cordial and friendly letter. I am sorry that I cannot turn an assenting ear to your very pleasantly stated request.

I have nothing against cinema productions - often go to them myself. But to me the theater is one thing, the printed page another. I have repeatedly refused to have my books dramatized for the same reason I must refuse to have them filmed.

Very cordially yours, (Signed) WILLA CATHER Mr. Hugh King Playmarket, Inc. 8516 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, Cal.³

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let2719.xml
Letter identifier: 2719
Contents: Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
Person to whom letter was written: Hugh King¹
Date letter was written: [May 6, 1941]
Explanation of conjectured date: Undated letter, the transcript of which was enclosed in a May 6, 1941 letter from Sarah Bloom to Miss Ledger at Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., reading, "I am enclosing copy of letter from Miss Cather to Mr. King, which Mr. Knopf wished to see." Another transcription of this letter in the Rosowski Cather Collection at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, apparently made at the direction of Edith Lewis to help management of Cather's estate, also includes the note "Date - 1941." As no other evidence is available and the original has yet to be discovered, the transcribed letter has been identified as being written on the same date as the letter within which it was enclosed.
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

Person Annotations

0938

King, Hugh. American agent, screenwriter, and producer. In 1941 on behalf of Playmarket, Inc., Hugh King contacted Cather proposing a screen adaptation of one of her novels, and she declined his request.

Place Annotations

New York, New York, United States

Hollywood, California, United States