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 was so glad to hear from you, and to know where all your boys3 were.
I had often wondered where they were. It does seem as if you and Sidney4 were doing more than your share in
giving so many hostages to fortune. It's a queer world, isn't it, when
families are so broken up and scattered, and none of the young people are
really doing what they wanted to do and set out to do and were prepared to
do? I get so many letters from soldiers off in distant places. And they say
that they live from day to day and do the best they can, but underneath they
have just one desire: to get
back
come home and follow up the
profession they had chosen.
They, poor fellows, want to be doing something on their own, instead of tramping in the mud all day. Even the airmen, who get the most excitement out of the Service, get awfully impatient and want to get back to the life they meant to live. As one young soldier wrote me: "It seems hard luck for a bunch of boys who had very definite ambitions, to suddenly find that they have to make a world (out of mud and rain and bugs) before they have any world at all to live in."
Well, my dear, it seems foolish to be writing a letter about the war to an old friend. But isn't our personal life just submerged for the time being? So many of our friends and so many of our family are in the war, and all our old associates are so scattered that living has become largely a matter of suspense - - - and correspondence. I pray that you and Mr. Florance keep well, and I know you are good company for each other. It must seem strange, though, to be just the two of you in the pleasant house where so many boys used to be running in and out. In the last letter I had from you, you said that Beatrix5 was with her husband6 who is stationed somewhere on Staten Island7. Is she still there, I wonder? ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ I would love to see her some time.
My love to you, dear Trix, and may the New Year be kinder to us all than the last has been.
With happy memories Willa FROM CATHER 570 PARK AVE., NEW YORK CITY2 Mrs. S. R. Florance1, Red Cloud8, Nebraska. NEW YORK, N.Y.2 JAN 25 1944 3-PMInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2958.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2958
- Contents
- Document is two leaves, typewritten on recto of each leaf only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Beatrix Mizer Florance 1
- Date letter was written
- January 24, 1944
- 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
Person Annotations
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.
Florance, Sidney Mizer (1910-1991) (“Pat”). Son of Cather's friend Beatrix Mizer Florance. Born in Red Cloud, NE, Pat Florance married Mary Agnes Grace of nearby Franklin County, NE, in 1939; they had three children, Patrick M. (b. 1941), Robert A. (b. 1943), and Patricia D. (b. 1949). They moved to Kansas, where they lived the rest of their lives. Cather probably knew the children of her friend, Beatrix Mizer Florance, from visits to Red Cloud in the 1920s.
1706Florance, Edwin Charles (1912-2006) (“Ted”). American aeronautical engineer; son of Cather's friend Beatrix Mizer Florance. Born in Red Cloud, NE, Ted Florance was named for his paternal grandfather. He attended the University of Nebraska, then married Carol Pierce, also of Red Cloud. The couple moved to San Diego, CA, where Ted worked for the Boeing Aircraft Company. Cather probably knew the children of her friend, Beatrix Mizer Florance, from visits to Red Cloud in the 1920s.
1707Florance, Ronald K. (1914-c. 2003). Son of Cather's friend Beatrix Mizer Florance. Born in Red Cloud, NE, Ronald Florance attended the University of Nebraska. In 1941 he married Virginia Newkirk in Grand Island, NE. They had three children, Janet M. (b. 1944), James R. (1948-1970), and Jeffrey S. (b. 1956). Ronald Florance died in Huntington Beach, CA. Cather probably knew the children of her friend, Beatrix Mizer Florance, from visits to Red Cloud in the 1920s.
1708Florance, Kirk Riddell (1916-1984) (“Bud”). Son of Cather's friend Beatrix Mizer Florance. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest of the Florance family, Kirk Florance attended the University of Nebraska, where he was active in the cadet corps and student engineering societies. Kirk and his wife Shirley moved to southern California. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. Cather probably knew the children of her friend, Beatrix Mizer Florance, from visits to Red Cloud in the 1920s.
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.
Mousel, Beatrix Josephine Florance (1905-1994) (“Bicky”). Daughter of Cather's friend Beatrix Mizer Florance. Born in Illinois, only daughter of Sidney and Beatrix Mizer Florance, Beatrix grew up in Red Cloud, NE. She married Dr. Lloyd Mousel of Cambridge, NE, and they had three sons, Donald K. (1932-1994), David L. (b. 1942), and James (b. 1944). The family lived in Minnesota and later in the Seattle, WA, area. In the early 1950s Beatrix’s parents came to live near them in Washington. Cather probably knew the children of her friend Beatrix Mizer Florance from visits to Red Cloud in the 1920s.
Mousel, Lloyd Harvey (1903-1970). American anesthesiologist. Born in Cambridge, NE, second son of Robert D. and Pluma Babbitt Mousel, Lloyd Mousel graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1927. He married Beatrix Josephine Florance, daughter of Beatrix Mizer Florance, in 1930, and they had three sons. Mousel became a physician, specializing in anesthesiology during work at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. After the war the family moved to the Seattle, WA, area, where he became chief anesthesiologist at the Swedish Hospital there.
Place Annotations
