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 |
Thank you3 for putting me in touch with Beveridge4! I got him on the telephone this morning and he is coming to see me Monday evening. "The House in Paris"5 arrived yesterday. It begins interestingly, and the jacket is grand! Thanks ever so much.
Yours always W. S. C.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3097.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3097
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Blanche Wolf Knopf 1
- Date letter was written
- [January 17, 1936]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
January 17,1936, was the Friday after Blanche Knopf's January 13, 1936, letter to which Cather is responding.
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, 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
On 13 January 1936 Knopf reported that she had seen Beveridge Webster and told Cather where he was staying and that he was giving a recital on the 21st at Carnegie Hall.
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.
Webster, Beveridge (1908-1999). American pianist and teacher. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Beveridge Webster was a son of Beveridge Webster, founder of the Pittsburgh Conservatory, who was his first teacher. The younger Webster studied music in France, and became known for his performances of modern French music. He made his New York debut in 1934. From 1940 to 1946 he taught at the New England Conservatory of Music, and then at the Juilliard School beginning in 1946. He married Frances Brown and they had two children, clarinetist Michael Webster and pianist Wendy Webster Ardizzone. Cather met Beveridge Webster through the Knopfs and invited him to dinner.
Place Annotations
Work Annotations
The House in Paris (1936) by Elizabeth Bowen
