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 |
While this is not directly an affairs of yours, I want to ask your advice about it, since when I decide such things without asking your advice, I usually go wrong. At noon I received the following telegram from Ferris Greenslet3 (the exact text of Heinemann4’s cable):
CAN ARRANGE READERS UNION5 TO TAKE TWENTY THOUSAND SHEETS CATHER’S ANTONIA6 PAYING USUAL ROYALTY THREE HALFPENSE PER COPY
Perhaps you remember that some time ago I sent you a letter from Allan Nevins7 telling me that some enterprise was under way to popularize a number of American books in cheap editions among English readers. Recently I had a letter from Mr. Curtice Hitchcock8 stating that he had given a twenty-minute broadcast on MY ANTONIA in England9. He sent me a copy of his speech, and I thought it very friendly, and a short good synopsis of the book.
ANTONIA has always been a book that advertised my other books and made friends for me. My only question is whether this undertaking on Heinemann’s part might annoy Cassell10 and I would like to know what you think about that. I imagine that the Readers’ Union is some sort of Book-of-the-Month Club11 enterprise though, of course, I cannot be sure of that. I think it might be a good thing for Cassell to use ANTONIA in this way as the book has always made me friends in a good many languages; European translations have gone pretty well if I remember rightly.
MISS CATHER WILL PHONE YOU TOMORROW MORNING BETWEENInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2752.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2752
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf1
- Date letter was written
- February 23, 1943
- 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
William Heinemann, Ltd., of London published Cather's novels in England until she switched to Cassell and Company in 1931.
The Readers Union, an imprint of William Heinemann, Ltd., sold their small-format hardback books to members only. My Ántonia was published by the Readers Union in 1943.
London publisher Cassell and Company, Ltd. issued Cather's works in Britain beginning with Shadows on the Rock in 1932.
The Book-of-the-Month Club mailed subscribing customers a new book, chosen by a panel of literary figures, each month. Started in 1926, by the end of the 1930s the Club had over 360,000 subscribers. Both Shadows on the Rock (1931) and Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940) were main selections, and six other Cather titles were offered as alternative selections.
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.
Greenslet, Ferris (1875-1959). American editor and writer.
Born in Glens Falls, NY, Ferris Greenslet earned a BA (1897) from
Wesleyan University and a PhD (1900) from Columbia University. He served as
associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly from 1902 to
1907, and married Ella Stoothoff Hulst in 1903; they had two children,
Marguerite (born 1904) and George (born 1906). As an author he specialized
in biography. He became literary editor at Houghton Mifflin, the Boston
publisher of the Atlantic, c. 1908 and was socially
and professionally acquainted with Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett,
who may have introduced him to Cather. He evidently solicited Cather to
submit Alexander’s Bridge (1912), her first published
novel, to Houghton Mifflin. In 1910, when Greenslet became editor in chief
of the trade department, Roger Scaife divided his shares as a director of
the company with him, and the two presented themselves to authors as
partners, with Scaife handling book advertising and format and Greenslet
negotiating contracts and supervising editing; when Greenslet was absent
from the office, Scaife handled correspondence with Cather. Greenslet became
a director of Houghton Mifflin in 1919 and manager of the trade department
in 1933. Cather left Houghton Mifflin as a publisher for Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., because she became dissatisfied with the production and advertising of
her books. However, she remained on cordial terms with Greenslet and
undertook several projects for him after her departure. Her extant letters
to him constitute one of the largest groups to a single correspondent.
Nevins, Allan (1890-1971). American journalist and historian. Born in Camp Point, IL, Allan Nevins graduated from the University of Illinois and first worked as an editorial writer for the New York Evening Post. Between 1924 and 1926 he served as literary editor of the New York Sun and after a term teaching history at Cornell University became literary editor for the New York World. Nevins taught history at Columbia University for 30 years, while continuing to work for the World until 1931. He also wrote two Pulitzer Prize-winning historical biographies: Grover Cleveland (1932) and Hamilton Fish (1936). Cather recalled reading Nevins's Frémont, the West’s Greatest Adventurer (1928) with “especial pleasure” (#1226). In 1939 Nevins founded the Society of American Historians, which Cather declined an invitation to join (#1443). Nevins also first alerted Cather of an “enterprise” to “popularize a number of American books in cheap editions among English readers”; in 1943 Heinemann, in collaboration with the Readers Union, produced a wartime edition of My Ántonia (1918) (#2752).
Hitchcock, Curtice Nelson (1892-1946). American publisher. Born in Pittsford, VT, Curtice Hitchcock graduated from the University of Vermont in 1913. After serving in WWI, he taught at the University of Chicago from 1920 to 1923. In 1923 he joined MacMillan Publishing, where he became vice-president, before moving to the Century Company in 1930. Hitchcock cofounded the publishing firm Reynal & Hitchcock in 1934. During WWII, he aided the office of War Information by conducting a study of publishing in England in November and December of 1942, where he wrote and delivered a broadcast “What I’m Reading Now,” about Cather’s My Ántonia (1918).
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
