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 |
Your kind letter to me is like a friendly hand stretched out to guide one
through a cold fog. If I can once get the farms,3
(and the income tax problems which
arise from the farms,), off my mind, then I can give my
undivided attention to the work which is my real source of income.
and happiness. There everything is
clear sailing; I write only what it gives me pleasure to write, and both my publishers,4 here and in
England5, twice a year hand in
statements of royalties paid to me. These statements I simply hand over to
the lawyers6 who make out my income
tax, and there is no query or comeback. After what you say about Mr. Frame7, I will now feel perfectly
confident to depend on him as a salesman, and I have always wanted to put
all the legal questions of such transactions into the hands of Howard Foe8.
My brother Roscoe9, who has long urged
me to cut out the real estate worriment, has written to Mr. Crowell10 to explain to him my position.
One reason I have hesitated so long to make this final decision was that I
really hated to lose touch with Mr. Crowell himself. He has been so kind to
my sister Jessica11 and myself. In many
ways Mr. Crowell is a good deal like my
father12.,
Aand I always felt that in having his advice in
these things to do with farms, I would have my father's approval. Father
always believed that land was the "safest" thing in the world. He had an
almost religious veneration for it.
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2960.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2960
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only. Includes one typewritten envelope.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Sidney Florance 1
- Date letter was written
- May 31, 1945
- 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
Cather's father had invested some of her money in farm loans and mortgages in Nebraska and Kansas.
Cather is probably referring here to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Cassell Co., but she also received royalties from her previous publishers, Houghton Mifflin and William Heinemann.
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.
Lesser, Joseph (1901-1989). Treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in Poland, Joseph Lesser immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1906, and he became a naturalized American citizen. He and his wife, Eva, and their children lived in Brooklyn, NY. He served for many years as treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. His office prepared Cather’s tax returns for her, and in her will Cather named him as a potential successor to Edith Lewis as her literary executor. Lesser died in Hallandale, FL.
Frame, William Bruce (1886-1963) (“Bruce”). Red Cloud hotel-keeper and real estate dealer. Born in Nebraska, son of Albert A. and Mary Frame, Bruce grew up in Webster County, and, like his uncle James, became a hotel-keeper in Red Cloud, NE. He and his wife, Grace Frisbie Frame, had two daughters. The couple was buried in Blue Hill, NE, in northern Webster County.
Foe, Howard S. (1892-1960). Webster Count attorney. Born in Webster County, NE, Howard Foe was one of the five sons of Elizabeth and Samuel Foe; the elder Foe ran a billiard room in Red Cloud, NE. Howard Foe taught school to support his studies at the University of Nebraska law school, graduating in 1915. He became the Webster County attorney by 1920, later returning to private practice. In 1919 he married Vernon M. Storey, with whom he had two sons. In the 1930s and 1940s he did legal work for Willa Cather related to Webster County farm mortgages she held.
Cather, Roscoe (1877-1945) (“Ross”). Cather’s brother.
Roscoe was born in Virginia, the second child and oldest son of
Charles and Virginia Cather. After graduating from Red Cloud (NE) High
School in 1895, he taught country school for two years, attended the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln for one year (1897-1898), taught high
school in Carlton, NE, and Oxford, NE, and finally became superintendent of
schools in Fullerton, NE. There he met fellow teacher Meta Schaper, whom he
married in 1907. They relocated to Lander, WY, in 1909, where he opened an
abstract office and where their three children, Virginia and twins Margaret
and Elizabeth, were born. In 1921, they moved to Casper, WY, where Roscoe
became president of the Wyoming Trust Company, and in 1937 to Colusa, CA,
where Roscoe and his brother Douglass had acquired a controlling interest in
the First Savings Bank of Colusa. Roscoe served as president of the bank
until his death. Willa visited Roscoe and his family in Wyoming several
times and shared important travel experiences with them, including a 1926
trip to New Mexico with Roscoe, Meta, and their children and a 1941 San
Francisco vacation with Roscoe and Meta. She also relied on him to handle
family-related business as well as personal financial matters, and he was
one of her chief correspondents throughout her life. Roscoe served as a
prototype for one of the twin brothers in the Templeton family in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
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.
Auld, Jessica Virginia Cather (1881-1964) (“Jessie”). Cather’s
sister. Born in Virginia and raised in Red Cloud, NE, Jessica
was the fourth child and second daughter of Charles and Virginia Cather.
After graduating from Red Cloud High School in 1899, she taught at a country
school and the South Side Grade School until her marriage to James William
Auld, a Red Cloud banker, in 1904. They had three children (Charles, William
Thomas, and Mary Virginia). After their divorce in 1933, she moved to Palo
Alto, CA, where she died thirty-one years later. Few letters from Willa
Cather to her sister Jessica survive, and particularly after Jessica’s
divorce their relationship was strained.
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).
Place Annotations
