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 |
The Grosvenor3
35 FIFTH AVENUE
New York2 June 14, 1928. My dear Miss Folda1:
I was awfully glad to get your young and enthusiastic letter and to know that you are so happy in the country4 of your ancestors. If you have a desire to write about Nebraska5 Bohemians, it seems to me that you are following an ideally perfect program. You ought to understand the West better by knowing the old country, and to see the old country more clearly by the light of the West. Anyhow, I wish you success with all my heart.
Very cordially yours, Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2806.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2806
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Olga Folda Stepanek1
- Date letter was written
- June 14, 1928
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Olga Stepanek, English Papers, 1910-1960 (RG/12-10-23), University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Archives & Special Collections, Lincoln, NE
Individual Annotations
Grosvenor Hotel (New York City): When Cather and Edith Lewis lost their 5 Bank Street apartment in 1927, they moved into the Grosvenor Hotel, where they continued to live until 1932. The hotel was located at 35 Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Person Annotations
Stepanek, Olga Folda (1906-1998). American writer and visual artist. Born in Linwood, NE, Olga Folda graduated from Downer College in 1927 and then traveled in Czechoslovakia with her parents. After earning an MA in English from the University of Chicago in 1930, she married Orin Stepanek, and the couple had four daughters: Olenka, Natasha, Teresa, and Antonia. Stepanek wrote journals, poems, short stories, and an unpublished novel. Following her husband’s death in 1955, she joined the English Department faculty at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, establishing the English as a Second Language program. Willa Cather briefly corresponded with Stepanek in 1925 about My Ántonia (#2804) and in 1928 about Stepanek's travels to Czechoslovakia (#2806).
Place Annotations
