Guide to Reading Letter Transcriptions
Some of these features are only visible when "plain text" is off.
| 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 |
Designers and Illustrators Card No. 25581
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and best wishes for the
NEW YEAR
Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let2987.xml
- Letter identifier
- 2987
- Contents
- Document is one leaf with image of stained glass Nativity scene on recto. Handwritten message on verso of greeting card.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Gertrude Coon1
- Date letter was written
- [December 1941]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The handwritten note at the top of the greeting card, likely by Carrie Miner Sherwood but possibly by an archivist, is the only extant evidence for the date of this letter.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- WCPM Collection, National Willa Cather Center, Red Cloud, NE
Person Annotations
Coon, Gertrude (1881-1978). Educator; Superintendent of Webster County Schools. Born and educated in Red Cloud, NE, Coon received a degree from Peru State Normal School in Peru, NE, in 1907. As Webster County Superintendent of Schools (an elected position), she conducted the Webster County Teacher's Institute every August.
Beecher, George Allen (1868-1951). Western Nebraska Episcopal Bishop.
Born in Illinois, Beecher moved with his family to Kearney, NE, at
age 14. He studied for the Episcopal priesthood at the Philadelphia (PA)
Divinity School, graduating in 1892, and then spent fifty-one years in
Nebraska as a deacon, priest, and finally Bishop of the Missionary District
of Western Nebraska. Willa Cather met him in Red Cloud, NE, in December 1922
when he presided at her and her parents’ confirmation as members of Grace
Episcopal Church. She and Bishop Beecher corresponded frequently
thereafter.
Place Annotations
