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 |
SEP 26 1932
Filed by _____ September 22 My Dear Blanche1;
You were evidently in a much wilder part of Canada3 than my humble island4. I've never had to sleep in my clothes anywhere except in the Wind River Mountains, in Wyoming5. I didn't like it either—not after the first night. I heartily wish I were going to England6 with you, instead of to that hen-party7 in Chicago8. I am getting such a lot of low-brows and square-heads in my drag-net that I sometimes wonder whether I am any good at all as a writer. I try to think that this wide-spreadness is due to the effective methods of my publisher and the enthusiasm of a few friends, and not to a perfectly common-place mind and sentimental persuasiveness in me!
A good journey to you, and I'll be awfully glad to see you home9 again.
With love and good wishes Willa CatherInformation about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3082.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3082
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Blanche Wolf Knopf 1
- Date letter was written
- September 22 [1932]
- Place letter was written
- Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States2
- 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
The Chicago Woman's Club presented Cather with a medallion bearing her likeness at a luncheon on 20 October 1932. See #2649 to Alfred Knopf.
Person Annotations
Knopf, Blanche Wolf (1894-1966). Vice President of New York
publisher Alfred Knopf, Inc. Blanche Wolf founded Alfred Knopf,
Inc., in 1915 with her future husband Alfred Knopf. They married in 1916 and
their son Alfred “Pat” Knopf was born in 1918. Active in the business
throughout her life, Blanche Knopf recruited a number of prominent European
and Latin American writers to the Knopf list (in translation) by traveling
to meet them. In recognition of her work with writers such as Jean-Paul
Sartre and Albert Camus, she was inducted into the French Legion of Honor in
1949. She became president of Alfred Knopf, Inc., in 1957 when her husband
became chairman. Through her work in the publishing house she also promoted
writers of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes. Cather’s letters
to Knopf focus primarily on business but the two also became friends.
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.
