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#3016: Willa Cather to George Allen Beecher, February 17, 1936

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X2-23-36 ⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ My dear Bishop Beecher1:

This is to thank you for the dear letter you wrote me in December - I kept it long among my Christmas presents, and shall now transfer it to the file of letters which I shall keep forever.

And this letter is also to make a request; to ask you to let me know if you come East about this time of the year or a little later Warn me a couple of weeks beforehand if you come, and promise to dine with me here in my apartment3 if you come to New York2 at all. I have only one engagement which I absolutely could not break (March 22nd), but almost any other engagement I would would break at the last minute, if I were sure you were coming. I sometimes think that the warm affection and admiration my mother4 and father5 both felt for you and Mrs. Beecher6 has come to me like a legacy from them, and has added itself to the feeling I have had for many years. Had it been at all possible, I would have felt it a great pleasure to go out to Hastings7 for your anniversary celebration in the autumn. It consoled me that my sister8 and my old friend, Molly Ferris9, could be there.

Always devotedly to Mrs. Beecher and yourself, Willa Cather

P. S. Mrs. Beecher thoughtfully sent me a card from Phoenix, Arizona10, announcing the safe arrival of the new granddaughter11.