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 |
October
Twelfth
1922 My dear Mr. Morris1:
I am not very strong in the matter of family history - nor very much interested, I am afraid.
I was born near Winchester, Virginia4, and I know that my father5's family had lived there for five generations. Andrew Cather6 I never heard of. Andrew is not a family name. Nor did I ever hear of Miss Ann Christ7, so I have no claim upon her. You are perfectly free to put the lady into a story.
Sincerely yours, Willa Sibert Cather Mr. Harrison S. Morris, Horsehead, Jamestown, R. I.8Information about this letter:
- Source File:
- cat.let3292.xml
- Letter identifier
- 3292
- Contents
- Document is one leaf, typewritten on recto only.
- Person to whom letter was written
- Harrison S. Morris 1
- Date letter was written
- October 12, 1922
- Place letter was written
- New York, New York, United States2
- Location of original letter
- Harrison S. Morris Papers (C0003), Princeton University, Firestone Library, Princeton, NJ
Individual Annotations
5 Bank Street (New York City): The apartment Cather shared with Edith Lewis beginning in 1912, located in Greenwich Village in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Subway construction forced Cather and Lewis to relocate in 1927.
Person Annotations
Morris, Harrison S. (1856-1948). American administrator, writer, and editor. Harrison Smith Morris was born in Philadelphia, PA, the first of three children born to George and Catharine Morris. Morris frequently contributed to periodicals throughout his career, publishing a great deal of poetry, fiction, and articles for magazines and newspapers, and served as an editor at Lippincott’s Magazine from 1899 to 1905. He also served as the Managing Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1892 to 1905 and as a member of the Philadelphia Board of Education from 1902 to 1905. Morris corresponded briefly with Cather in 1922 about using the names Andrew Cather and Ann Christ in a story.
Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father.
Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back
Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers
who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War.
He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters,
in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and
Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where
various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the
county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an
insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe,
Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and
John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very
warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially
enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week
after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of
heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs.
Harris” (1932).
Cather, Andrew (1829-1905). American reverend. Andrew Cather was born in Ireland to John and Susan Cather. He immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1836, eventually settling in East Norwegian, Schuylkill, PA. Cather worked as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, PA, and in 1861 he married Emma Love Hall, with whom he had eight children. He died in Manassas, VA, and was later interred at Mt. Moriah cemetery in Philadelphia, PA. Though there is insufficient evidence to make a confident identification, Harrison S. Morris, a fellow resident of Philadelphia, may have been referring to him when he wrote to Willa Cather about using his name in a story in 1922.
Christ, Ann. No further information is available about this person.
Place Annotations
