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 |
Walter Sherwood3 used to send me once a year (usually in the month of February) a statement of what funds I had to my credit in the Peoples-Webster County Bank and what my indebtedness was for service, box rent, etc. I wonder if you could send me such a statement some time during the next four weeks?
Now that Mr. Crowell4 has been able to sell for
a little real money one of the farms on which I had a mortgage, I am enclosing a
check for $300 for which I hope the bank will send me a draft. It has been 'pay out'
and no 'pay in' for so long on those Western farms, that I would particularly enjoy
using that money to have some closed bookcases built after my own design. Since
New York2 has gone over so largely to
soft coal, the open bookcases which a carpenter made years ago are causing the ruin
of many valuable, and now irreplaceable, books. Nearly all of the oldest publishing
houses and printing establishments in England5 have been completely annihilated. My own publisher, Cassell,6 wrote me last spring asking me
whether I had any account of the royalties they have sent me during the last eight
years. All their ledgers and records of payments to their authors were destroyed by
fire when the London7 offices were
bombed., and they are trying to make a new
set from such information as they can get from their writers.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2956.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2956
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Sidney Florance 1
- Date letter was written
- April 22, 1942
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Sidney and Beatrice "Trix" Mizer Florance Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Individual Annotations
Cassell Co., a London publishing firm, began issuing the British editions of Cather's novels in 1932, beginning with Shadows on the Rock (1931). Their offices were bombed in 1941.
Person Annotations
Florance, Sidney Riddell (1877-1957). Canadian-American banker and amateur poet. Born in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, a younger son of Edwin Charles Florance and Margaret Riddell Florance, Sidney Florance emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1881. He was working in Chicago where he met Cather’s friend, musician Beatrix Mizer. They married in 1903, settled in Red Cloud, NE, and had five children. He succeeded his father-in-law, Benjamin Mizer, as head of the Webster County Bank, and handled local business matters for Cather when she no longer had family living in Red Cloud.
Sherwood, Walter Allen (1867-1941). Red Cloud banker; Carrie Miner Sherwood's husband. Walter Sherwood, born in Wisconsin, came with his family to Webster County in 1879. He worked in Silas Garber’s Farmers and Merchants bank in Red Cloud after his marriage to Carrie Miner in 1889; they had two sons, Clement Miner and Philip. After the failure of the Garber bank, Sherwood became cashier of the new People’s Bank, organized by his father-in-law, J.L. Miner, and eventually president of the bank.
Crowell, Willard (1885-1963). Webster County farmer. Born in Indiana, Willard Crowell came to Webster County after 1900, probably to join his elder brothers Henry and Omer; he lived and farmed in the Batin area from 1910 into the 1930s. He and his wife, Adelma (known as Lulu), had four children, Clarence, Robert, Howard, and Geraldine. Crowell was elected sheriff in the 1930s. He also helped Cather manage Webster County properties she owned or had mortgages on; they sometimes had differences of opinion on these business matters, but she was concerned when he had suffered a disabling fall in August 1943.
Florance, Beatrix Elizabeth Mizer (1875-1963) (“Trixie,”
“Trix”). Cather’s childhood friend. Beatrix Mizer was born in
Ohio in a German-American family. They moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1884.
Cather later recalled that when she first enrolled in school in Red Cloud,
“Trix Mizer was the prettiest little girl I had ever seen.” They acted
together in an 1888 production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the Red Cloud
Opera House. Mizer graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1893 and studied
voice at the Chicago Conservatory of Music 1897-1898, qualifying as a music
teacher, and at the Chicago College of Music 1899-1900. She married Sidney
Florance in 1903. In 1909 the couple moved to Red Cloud, where they settled
and raised a family. Beatrix’s Chicago musical studies and return to Red
Cloud may have inspired elements of Cather’s novel Lucy
Gayheart (1935). Cather’s correspondence with both Florances began
as early as 1914 and extended through the 1940s.
Place Annotations
