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 |
79406 MESA ENCANTADA, THE ENCHANTED MESA, NEW MEXICO.
FRED HARVEY.
POSTCARD
MESA ENCANTADA, NEW MEXICO.(The Enchanted Mesa.) The legend
or tradition is that many centuries ago
the people of what is now Acoma dwelt
upon the summit of this Mesa, to which
a single trail led. A large portion of
the face of the cliff which gave this soli-
tary footing was undermined by inunda-
tion and erosion, and fell, when everyone
except a few old and sick women were at
work in the fields below. After that
catastrophe the present site was built
upon and the mesa in time came to be
regarded as "encantada," or as we would
say, haunted. MADE ONLY BY DETROIT PUBLISHING CO. "PHOSTINT" CARD. TRADE MARK - REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. THIS SPACE MAY BE USED FOR MESSAGE THIS SPACE MAY BE USED FOR THE ADDRESS Miss Edith Lewis1 60 Washington Square4 New York5. ALBUQUER[illegible] FORK R. P. O.2 APR 19 1912
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2936.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2936
- Contents
- Document is one leaf with an image of Mesa Encantada, New Mexico, on recto. Handwritten message on verso of postcard.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Edith Lewis1
- Date letter was written
- [April 19, 1912]
- Place letter was written
- Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Literary and Historical Manscripts (MA 5663), Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
60 Washington Square (New York City): The address of Cather's first rented room in New York from 1906 to 1908. Located on the south side of Washington Square Park, Edith Lewis lived in the same building and was there when Cather visited her in 1904 and 1905. The building was in a cluster later called "Genius Row" due to the large number of writers and artists that lived there. Cather briefly returned to the address in the spring of 1912 before moving to 5 Bank Street later that fall.
Person Annotations
Lewis, Edith Labaree (1881-1972). Magazine editor,
advertising copywriter, and Cather's domestic partner. Born in
Lincoln, NE, to Henry Euclid Lewis and Lillie Gould Lewis, Edith Lewis
attended the preparatory school associated with the University of Nebraska,
earning college credits from the University before transferring to Smith
College in Northampton, MA, in 1899. She received an A.B. in English from
Smith in 1902 and returned home to teach elementary school. She met Willa
Cather in the summer of 1903 at the home of Sarah Harris, publisher of the
Lincoln Courier. Moving to New York City soon
afterward, Lewis settled into a studio on Washington Square and found work
at the Century Publishing Company. Cather was her guest when she visited the
city from Pittsburgh. In 1906, at Cather's suggestion, Lewis applied for a
position as an editorial proofreader at McClure's
Magazine, and the two women worked together on the McClure's staff for six years. In 1908, they moved
into a shared apartment at 82 Washington Place, and then, in 1912, to Five
Bank Street. Lewis left McClure's in 1915 to become
managing editor of Every Week Magazine, where she
stayed until the magazine folded in 1918. In 1919 she began a long career as
an advertising copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson Co. In 1926 Edith Lewis
acquired the land on which she and Cather built their cottage on Grand Manan
Island. When they lost their apartment on Bank Street to subway construction
in 1927, they shared quarters at the Grosvenor Hotel when they were both in
New York City. In 1932 they took an apartment at 570 Park Avenue. Throughout
their relationship, Lewis was closely involved in Cather's creative process,
reading and editing her work in pre-publication forms. Cather's will
appointed Lewis as executor of her literary estate and a beneficiary of her
literary trust. Lewis authorized E.K. Brown as Cather's first biographer and
published her own memoir of Cather, Willa Cather
Living (1953). She remained in their Park Avenue apartment after
Cather's death and died there after a long period of illness and invalidism.
She is buried at Cather's side in Jaffrey, NH.
Place Annotations
