Rose Standish Nichols (September 9, 1908)

#2854: Willa Cather to Rose Standish Nichols, September 9, 1908

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M^cCLURE'S MAGAZINE
44-60 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
NEW YORK² EDITORIAL ROOMS Sept. 9, 1908 My dear Miss Nichols¹:

I have been somewhat puzzled as to what to do about reproducing your photograph of "The Puritan"³. In so far as I can find out, publishing it would in no wise infringe upon Mrs. Saint-Gaudens⁴' copyright upon a reproduction of the statue, since no one could possibly tell whether this photograph was made from the original or from the reduction. However, in order to be sure, the best thing to do seems to be to send a proof of the photograph to Mrs. Saint-Gaudens and ask her whether she 2is willing for us⁵ to use it, stating in the letter that you refused to give us permission to use your photograph unless we had also Mrs. Saint-Gaudens' permission to use it. This would, I think, clear you, and would settle the question as to whether we could use it, once and for all. Of course, we can use the same photograph⁶ which Royal Cortissoz⁷ used, though that is not nearly so impressive. This letter ought to reach you on Thursday; I shall not send Mrs. Saint-Gaudens the proof⁸ of your photograph of "The Puritan" until Saturday morning, so that if, for any reason, you should wish to prevent my sending it, you will have plenty of time to telegraph me in the mean- 3time.

I wish you would tell me which one of the photographs you lent me for the first article⁹ was defaced by pencil marks. We took the most extraordinary pains about the pictures here, and gave very explicit orders to the engravers. If we know which photograph it was we can trace the matter down and bring somebody to account for it.

The little picture¹⁰ of the young Saint-Gaudens¹¹ reached me several days , and I can promise you that it will be returned to you without a scratch upon it.

Thank you most heartily, I am,

Yours sincerely, Willa Sibert Cather Miss Rose Standish Nichols Windsor, Vermont¹² Miss Rose Standish Nichols¹, Windsor¹², Vermont MADISON SQ. STA. N.Y.¹³ SEP 9 1908 4-PM

Information about this letter:

Source File:: cat.let2854.xml
Letter identifier: 2854
Contents: Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto and verso of the first leaf and on recto only of the second leaf. Includes one typewritten envelope.
Person to whom letter was written: Rose Standish Nichols ¹
Date letter was written: September 9, 1908
Place letter was written: New York, New York, United States²
Location of original letter: Nichols Family Papers, Nichols House Museum, Boston, MA

Individual Annotations

The photograph reproduced in the second article was labeled "Copley print, Copyrighted by Curtis Cameron" and is not the same as the photograph in Cortissoz's book.

Cather requested the photograph (which was ultimately not used) in #2853.

Person Annotations

1920

Nichols, Rose Standish (1872-1960). American garden designer, writer, and activist. Born in Boston, MA, daughter of Arthur Howard Nichols and Elizabeth Homer Nichols, Rose Nichols became interested in garden design; her first project was at her family’s country house at the artists’ colony of Cornish, NH. She was encouraged by her uncle, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. She travelled extensively in Europe, writing books on English, Italian, and Spanish pleasure gardens, as well as writing many articles for magazines. Nichols was also active in the women’s suffrage and peace movements. Cather met Nichols in Boston, and corresponded with her about a two-part article on the letters of Saint-Gaudens, which appeared in McClure’s in 1908; later Cather had to decline an article on gardens from Nichols.

1923

Saint-Gaudens, Augusta Fisher Homer (1848-1926). American painter; wife of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Born in Roxbury, MA, a younger daughter of Thomas J. Homer and Mary Elizabeth Fisher Homer, Augusta Homer (a distant cousin of painter Winslow Homer) went to Rome to study painting in the early 1870s. There she met sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens; her parents gave her permission to marry him after he won his first important commission. They had one son, Homer Saint-Gaudens. After discovering her husband’s affair, Augusta Saint-Gaudens separated from him and began travelling widely, including to the Arctic and in the Middle East. After Saint-Gaudens was diagnosed with cancer in 1900, and though herself coping with increasing deafness, she returned to him and managed his correspondence and business affairs. After his death in 1907 she worked to secure his legacy, establishing their home in Cornish, NH, as a memorial to him. Cather may not have met Augusta Saint-Gaudens, but they were both involved with the publication of some of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ letters in McClure’s.

1985

Cortissoz, Royal (1869-1948). American art critic and historian. Born in Brooklyn, NY, son of Englishman Francisco E. Cortissoz and Julia Mauri Cortissoz of Martinique, Royal Cortissoz trained first as an architect. In 1891 he joined the New York Tribune, becoming its art critic, a position he held until his death. In 1897 he married Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, literary editor of the Tribune. Cortissoz became a well-known and influential critic, championing traditional and representational art over abstract art. He is remembered now for writing the inscription over the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. His biography of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1907) was known to Cather when she arranged for articles on Saint-Gaudens for McClure’s in 1908.

1922

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus (1848-1907). American sculptor. Born in Ireland, but brought to New York as an infant, Augustus Saint-Gaudens was apprenticed to a cameo-cutter. In 1867 he went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1870 he went to study in Rome, where he met American art student Augusta Fisher Homer; they married in 1877, after he received his first important commission; they had one son, Homer Saint-Gaudens. Augustus Saint-Gaudens won many commissions for monuments and memorials, especially for heroes of the American Civil War. He also made the statue of Diana atop Stanford White’s Madison Square Garden, a statue which features in Cather’s My Mortal Enemy (1926). His summer home at Cornish, NH, was central to the artists’ colony which developed there; however, his studio burned in 1904, destroying correspondence and works in progress. Cather probably never met him, but she supervised publication of some of his letters in McClure’s.

Place Annotations

New York, New York, United States

Windsor, Vermont, United States

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Work Annotations

The Puritan (1887) by Augustus St. Gaudens

McClure's Magazine

"Familiar Letters of Augustus Saint-Gaudens Part 2," McClure's Magazine (November 1908) by Rose Standish Nichols

"Familiar Letters of Augustus Saint-Gaudens Part 1," McClure's Magazine (October 1908) by Rose Standish Nichols