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 |
I am awfully glad to hear from you, because of my long friendship with your
father3 and because your wife4 gave my father5 and mother6 so
much pleasure by her friendly calls when she was in Red Cloud7. I have long wanted to thank
her. I was at home for all of the last winter of father's life, and he and he and mother used often
to say, "Oh, I wish you could meet Edward's wife!" Her presence in Red Cloud
certainly gave them great satisfaction, and they both felt a warm affection
for her.
I am asking my publisher8 to send you a pamphlet9 about me which he has prepared for the use of students and clubs. I think it will give your nephew the information he wants. In the back of it there is a list of books on the same subject which he might consult. The book called "Spokesmen"10 by Professor T. K. Whipple11, of the University of California, is probably the best.
I hope things are going well with you in these hard times, and I send all the good wishes in the world to you and your wife.
Always faithfully yours Willa Cather Mr. Edward Cook1 P.O. Box 313 Prairie Grove12 Arkansas NEW YORK, N.Y.2 NOV 27 1932 530 PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2831.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2831
- Contents
- Document is a photocopy of a letter that is one leaf, typewritten and on recto only. Includes photocopy of one enclosure and one handwritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Edward Cook 1
- Date letter was written
- November 27 [1932]
- Accompanying this letter
-
Includes enclosed copy of "Willa Cather: A Biographical Sketch, An English Opinion, Reviews and Articles Concerning her Latest Books, and An Abridged Bibliography" published by Alfred A. Knopf.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- , Unknown Current Location
Person Annotations
Cook, Edward Henry (1876-1940). American druggist. Born in Sandy Creek, NY, eldest child of Henry Cook and Arabella Meacham Cook, Edward Cook moved with his family to Red Cloud, NE, in 1881, where his father ran a drug store where the young Willa Cather worked briefly. He left Red Cloud as a young man, living in Washington, Oklahoma, Iowa, and finally Arkansas, working as a druggist. He married Mary Emma Magruder; they had one son and four daughters. Cather would have known him, growing up in Red Cloud, and remembered Mary Emma Cook’s visits to her parents in later years.
Cook, Henry (1849-1928). Red Cloud pharmacist and physician. Born in New York, Henry Cook married Arabella Meacham in 1874; three of their four children were born in New York. The family came to Red Cloud, NE, in 1880, where Henry set up his drug store on the east side of Webster Street. He later was licensed as a physician, although he continued to run the drug store. Cather worked for him while she was in her early teens, earning money for books and for wallpaper for her attic bedroom. In 1889 she represented the Cook drug store in a merchants’ carnival by dressing as an alchemist in knee pants, and she remembered Dr. Cook as one of the friendly figures at her graduation. A generous man, Dr. Cook helped several young people get a start in life, as Cather says he helped her while she was at the University of Nebraska.
Cook, Mary Emma Magruder (1881-1971) (“Emma”). Acquaintance of Cather’s parents. Born in Woodstock, VA, to Henry and Roberta Magruder, Mary Emma Magruder was one of nine children, only six of whom survived to adulthood. Magruder lived with her mother in Prairie Grove, AR, before moving to Nowata, OK. Magruder was sent to France and Belgium during World War I by the Federation of Womans’ Clubs of Oklahoma. There, she engaged in reconstruction work for which the King and Queen of Belgium awarded her the Queen’s medal. Magruder returned to Nowato and worked as a school teacher, principal, and the Superintendent of Schools before marrying Edward Cook in 1920; they had one son and four daughters. Cather and Cook reportedly never met, but Cook allegedly paid visits to Cather’s parents when visiting Red Cloud, NE.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or
“Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in Virginia to William Lee Boak
and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and was a
schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872. Her
husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War while
her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the
Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage
she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa,
Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while
three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska
after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather
remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud,
NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928
Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their
families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in
Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times
but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for
her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia
Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932),
which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.
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.
Whipple, Thomas King (1890-1939) (“T.K.”). American academic and critic. Born in Kansas City, MO, son of Attis A. Whipple and Mary Harma Whipple, T.K. Whipple graduated from Princeton in 1913 and earned his Ph.D. there in 1917. After serving in the U.S. Marines 1918-1919, he taught at Union College in New York and at Princeton, and then at the University of California at Berkeley from 1921 until his death. He became one of the first academic critics to focus on modern American literature. His book Spokesmen (1928) contained chapters on Cather and other contemporary writers.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
Willa Cather: A Biographical Sketch, an English Opinion, and an Abridged Bibliography (1926) by Anonymous [Willa Cather]
Spokesmen: Modern Writers and American Life (1928) by T. K. Whipple
