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 |
NORTHEAST HARBOR2
MAINE June 30th Dear Alfred1;
Certainly, I would not mind being
quoted5 on Kessel6's book7, f if you
could use a word from me along with comment from two or three other persons.
I have been purposely out of things so completely for the last two years
that I wouldn't want to appear alone—as if I thought myself an authority and
greatly valued my own opinion.
By the way—within the last ten days the Herald
Tribune8 printed on the front page a statement ar
from from Eisenhauer9
on
about the actual assistance rendered to the
invasion by the sabotage of the Maquis10. Now in so many ASTICOU INN
NORTHEAST HARBOR
MAINE
2of the
Western cities where Kessel's book ought to be read, those two words mean
nothing. All middle Westerners hate foreign words—especially french.
Whyfore? Uncertain as to how to pronounce them.
Don't betray me to the advertising writer, but couldn't you quote Eisenhauer's statement, and yourself make a statement about Kessel's book? It is the only book I know (in English) which will tell my friends in Kansas City11 what the Resistance actually is; how it was formed and how it operates. Why, it told me all this! The very word "underground" has an ugly connotation for us; Al Capone12—dirty politics—graft.
Of course the finest things in
3the book
will miss the general public. Saint Luc. for example, who is all that the lovers of France13 have loved in French history and french
in french life. But even my friends in Red Cloud14 would get Gerbier and Mathilde15. A little horror won't hurt
them any.
Please give my grateful congratulations16 to Blanche17 on these two books18 (Brown19's and Kessel's). To me they seem more important than most worthy books because they are more alive.
Faithfully yours W. S. C.Even here, in law-abiding Maine20,
the French rResistance is suspect—to farmer and fisherman it means
"underground"—simply a form of lawlessness; dangerous, not to be
trusted.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2729.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2729
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, handwritten on recto only of first leaf and recto and verso of second leaf. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- June 30 [1944]
- Place letter was written
- Northeast Harbor, Maine, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Cather-Knopf Correspondence, The Dobkin Family Collection of Feminism, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
Asticou Inn (Northeast Harbor, ME): Originally built in 1883 by A. C. Savage, the Asticou Inn was destroyed by a fire in 1899, but rebuilt by 1901. When the war and health considerations made travel to Grand Manan impossible, Willa Cather and Edith Lewis stayed at the Asticou in the 1940s, occupying a small cottage on the grounds of the inn.
While acknowledging her general resistance to providing blurbs for books, Knopf's 27 June 1944 letter to Cather asked her permission to quote her "in advertising and publicity" for Kessel's book.
French geurrilla fighters opposing Nazi occupation during World War II.
Saint Luc, Gerbier, and Mathilde are all characters in Kessel's Army of Shadows.
Alfred Knopf's 27 June 1944 letter informed Cather that Blanche Knopf was "particularly" pleased about Cather's enthusiasm for the books since she acquired them.
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.
Kessel, Joseph (1898-1979). French aviator, author, and journalist.
Born in Argentina, at age ten Joseph Kessel emigrated with his
family to Paris, France. He served as a pilot in both World Wars I and II;
his first book, The Crew (1923), is about his World
War I experiences. He wrote over fifty novels, which were popular in France,
and also worked as a journalist for Le Figaro, France-Soir, and other periodicals. From 1939 to 1940
he served as a war correspondent and then as an aide to General Charles de
Gaulle during WWII. Willa Cather so greatly admired Kessel’s novel about the
French Resistance, Army of Shadows (1944), published
in French in Algiers in 1943 as L’arme e des ombres
and published in translation in the U.S. by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., that she
granted rare permission to use her name in promoting the book.
Eisenhower, Dwight David (1890-1969). United States president and
military officer. Born in Denison, TX, to David Jacob Eisenhower
and Ida Elizabeth Stover, Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, beginning a long career in the U.S. military. In 1942
he was promoted to major general and in to four-star general and supreme
commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force for the American invasion of
France in World War II. Credited with the success of the Battle of the Bulge
in 1944, his memoir, Crusade in Europe (1948), was
immensely popular. In 1951 Eisenhower helped to create NATO. In 1952 he was
elected President and was reelected in 1956.
Capone, Alphonse Gabriel (1899-1947) (“Al”). American bootlegger and
crime boss. Born in Brooklyn, NY, to Gabriel Capone and Teresa
Raiola, Al Capone joined a gang at fourteen. He later moved to Chicago, IL
to manage redlight activities and bootlegging for John Torrio, completely
taking over Torrio’s operations by 1925. Infamous for his brutality during
Chicago’s bootlegging wars and for rigging local elections in his favor, he
was imprisoned for tax fraud in 1930.
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.
Brown, Harry (1917-1986). American author, poet, and screenwriter. Born in Portland, ME, Harry Brown attended Harvard University and then worked for Time magazine and the New Yorker. During WWII, the Army assigned him to work for the Army magazine Yank. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., published his best-selling WWII novel, A Walk in the Sun (1944), and Cather praised Brown to Alfred Knopf as “certainly some writer” (#2347). Brown also won an Oscar for his screenplay for A Place in the Sun (1951).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Army of Shadows (1944) by Joseph Kessel
New York Herald Tribune
A Walk in the Sun (1944) by Harry Brown
