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 |
Won't you please drop Mr. Keppel3 a line and tell him4 gently that I am already late in my promises to you, and that I really can't go to Philadelphia5 to talk or listen about American culture on April 19th? As you well know he would not believe me if I wrote him to that effect. I'll be very grateful.
Yours W. S. C.Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3098.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3098
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Alfred A. Knopf 1
- Date letter was written
- [April 12, 1940]
- Explanation of conjectured date
-
The conjectured date is derived from Alfred Knopf's response of Tuesday April 16, 1940, in which he reported responding to Frederick Keppel on Sunday April 14, 1940. April 12, 1940, was the preceding Friday.
- 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 Tuesday 16 April 1940 Knopf wrote Cather returning Keppel's letter and explaining he had written him as requested on Sunday.
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.
Keppel, Frederick Paul (1875-1943) (“Fred”). American philanthropist
and educator. Born on Staten Island, NY, Frederick Keppel
graduated from Columbia University in 1898. After working in publishing, he
returned to Columbia, occupying a string of administrative positions from
1910 to 1918. After serving as Newton D. Baker’s Third Assistant Secretary
of War, commissioner from the United States to the International Chamber of
Commerce, and secretary to the Greater New York Planning Board, he was
elected president of the Carnegie Corporation. At the Carnegie, he
instituted a travel grants program and supported Gunnar Myrdal’s famous race
study, American Dilemma (1944). Cather called Keppel
a “very charming person” (#1979), but she declined invitations from him to
speak.
Place Annotations
