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 |
This is a full-rate
Telegram or Cable-
gram unless its de-
ferred character is in-
dicated by a suitable
sign above or preced-
ing the address. WESTERN
UNION NEWCOMB CARLTON, PRESIDENT J. C. WILLEVER, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT SIGNS
DL = Day Letter
NM = Night Message
NL = Night Letter
LCO = Deferred Cable
NLT = Cable Night Letter
WLT = Week-End Letter The filing time as shown in the date line on full-rate telegrams and day letters, and the time of receipt at destination as shown on all messages, is STANDARD TIME. Received at MINUTES IN TRANSIT
FULL-RATE DAY LETTER 1932 JUN 18 PM 9 45 RZA170 59 NL=HARRIS=GRANDMANAN NB2 18 ALFRED A KNOPF1= 730 FIFTH AVE NY3K= DEAR ALFRED
I HAVE JUST HEARD4 OF THE DEATH OF YOUR FATHER5 AND MY KIND FRIEND STOP I FEEL SHOCKED AND DAZED I WELL KNOW WHAT SUCH A LOSS WILL MEAN TO YOU STOP HE WAS ALWAYS SUCH A MAN TO PUT COURAGE AND HOPE INTO ONE THAT I FEEL AS IF SOME STRONG AND PROTECTING POWER WERE GONE=
WILLA CATHER. COPY SENT TO RES/ WESTERN UNION GIFT ORDERS SOLVE THE PERPLEXING QUESTION OF WHAT TO GIVEInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3080.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3080
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only of telegram.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf 1
- Date letter was written
- June 18, 1932
- Place letter was written
- Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada2
- Location of original letter
- Irving Kolodin Papers, 1844-1986 (JPB 06-40), New York Public Library, Library for the Performing Arts, Music Division, New York, NY
Individual Annotations
Cather's full condolence letter is #1672.
Person Annotations
Knopf, Alfred A. (1892-1984). President of New York
publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Knopf received his BA from
Columbia University in New York City in 1912 and founded Alfred Knopf, Inc.,
in 1915 with his future wife Blanche Wolf. They married in 1916, and their
son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Cather chose him as her publisher
beginning with Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) and
One of Ours (1922), partly because she was
dissatisfied with the promotion of her books by Houghton Mifflin but also
because she recognized the high quality of Knopf's books, as well as what
she regarded as his intelligent advertising. Knopf was noted for publishing
the work of leading European and South American writers in translation, as
well as original works. Knopf and Cather’s extensive correspondence
testifies to their mutual professional respect and to what also became an
important personal friendship.
Knopf, Samuel (1862-1932). Treasurer of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Born in Poland, Samuel Knopf’s family brought him to the U.S. as a child. He headed his own advertising agency until 1921, when his son Alfred’s publishing firm incorporated as Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and he invested in the company and became its treasurer. Active in the company’s affairs, especially management of its London office, he occasionally assumed responsibility for Cather’s affairs in the absence of Alfred and Blanche Knopf, and Cather came to know him personally during her frequent visits to the Knopf offices. When he died, she wrote to his son about the “absolute confidence” he inspired in her (#1672).
Place Annotations
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CanadaCather and Edith
Lewis frequently vacationed on Grand Manan Island during the summer and
early fall for about twenty years, beginning in 1922. For the first few
years, they stayed at the Inn at Whale Cove, a collection of cottages with a
main house operated by Sarah Jacobus. Cather and Lewis rented Orchardside
Cottage from Jacobus until they had their own cottage built. In 1926, Lewis
acquired land on Grand Manan, and construction was completed in 1928. Cather
and Lewis returned to this cottage almost every summer until
1940.
