A BOOK LIKE THIS ONE is the result of cooperative work on the part of many people and institutions, and we have many to thank and acknowledge.
We first must thank the Willa Cather Trust, the entity that controls the intellectual property rights to Cather’s work, for allowing this selection from her letters to be published at last. The Willa Cather Trust is a partnership between the Willa Cather Foundation, the University of Nebraska Foundation, and a member of the Cather family. The Willa Cather Foundation and the University of Nebraska have long been committed to the study and appreciation of the work and life of Willa Cather; for those of us within the Cather scholarly community, there is an incredibly deep appreciation for the breakthrough made possible by their giving permission for publication of letters. For more information about the Willa Cather Trust, please see http://www.willacather.org/permissions.
We would also like to thank the Willa Cather Foundation, its staff, and its board of governors, for the support given to this project and to Cather scholarship generally. The foundation’s work during its nearly sixty years of existence has resulted in a greater understanding and appreciation for Cather through educational outreach such as international seminars, conferences, and other events, and publications such as the Willa Cather Newsletter and Review. Through its stewardship, the foundation has also preserved many historical properties in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Thus, the foundation is responsible for the persistence of something of the world Cather knew in the crucial years of her youth. For readers moved by Cather’s work, a trip to Red Cloud is a profound and delightful experience.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln has supported this project in very explicit and meaningful ways. As the steward of the world’s largest and richest collection of original Cather materials and the home of the Cather Project, Cather Studies, The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition, and the online Willa Cather Archive, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a primary presence behind virtually all Cather scholarship. More specifically, UNL, as Andrew Jewell’s employer, has supported his Cather scholarship in numerous ways, particularly by granting him a faculty development leave in order to complete the manuscript for this book. Jewell would especially like to thank the administration of the University Libraries and the staff of Archives and Special Collections for its support. Thank you to Mary Ellen Ducey, Peterson Brink, Josh Caster, Traci Robison, Maggie Van Diest, Joanie Barnes, Nancy Busch, and Joan Giesecke. Special thanks goes to Katherine Walter, a simply wonderful department chair, who has been a steadfast supporter of Cather scholarship and who has done more than anyone else to make Jewell’s career at UNL a pleasure and an honor.
The Cather scholarly community is known for its collegiality, and we would like to thank several scholars who have brought information to our attention, provided us with materials, or otherwise demonstrated support. Though so many have helped in small ways (the applause and encouragement we received when we announced the project at the 2011 International Cather Seminar in Northampton, Massachusetts, should not be underestimated), we would like to single out several colleagues in this community who have assisted in larger and more specific ways, especially Melissa Homestead, Robert Thacker, and Richard Harris for providing key materials; Timothy Bintrim and Matthew Rubery for bringing individual letters to our attention; Mark Madigan for assisting with a tricky transcription; and Kari Ronning, Ann Romines, and Guy Reynolds for their continual intellectual and personal support. Jewell also thanks Tom Gallagher, a Cather Foundation board member, for his great help and camaraderie while poring over the Cather-Knopf correspondence in New York.
Janis Stout adds her voice to all of these expressions of gratitude and wishes to mention, in addition, Nancy Chinn (a Cather colleague now deceased who always cheered on Stout’s Cather studies) and John McDermott (not a Cather colleague, but a colleague nevertheless, who first urged the preparation of a calendar of letters).
The Cather family, with their continued generosity and enthusiasm, has been crucial both in making letters available to readers and in allowing them to be published. We would especially like to thank Jim and Angela Southwick, Trish and Jim Schreiber, Katie Shannon, Ann W. Shannon, Elizabeth A. Shannon, Margaret Lundock, John Cather Ickis, Margaret Ickis Fernbacher, Dr. Mary Weddle, and George Brockway.
Several students and former students have given important assistance in various stages of preparation of this book. Thanks to Paul Callahan (who is responsible for the translations of Cather’s French), Rosanna Dell, Molly McBride Lasco, Amanda Kuhnel Madigan, Carmen McCue, and Jeremy Wurst (who is responsible for the translation of Cather’s Latin joke). Special thanks goes to Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant, who served as editorial assistant on A Calendar of the Letters of Willa Cather: An Expanded, Digital Edition and who has given much diligent, intelligent energy to working with us on Cather’s letters in various ways.
The archivists and staff at the many institutions that hold letters deserve repeated thanks, and we would again like to acknowledge their work. Throughout our long work with multiple and varied organizations, we were impressed again and again with the professionalism and generosity of those who make research materials both safe and available. Please see our note on archives for a complete listing of institutions whose materials are represented in this volume.
At Knopf, we have been very fortunate to work with Ann Close, a terrific editor and a supporter of this project from the moment she heard about it, and we thank her and other staff members at Knopf for their fine work. Cather’s admiration for the skill and quality of Knopf publishers is something we now understand on a personal level.
Personally, Jewell would like to thank and acknowledge his parents, Steve and Cheryl Jewell, for their steady love and encouragement throughout his whole life, an anchor that has made everything he has done possible. And, most profoundly, Jewell wishes to thank his wife and daughters, Becca, Emma, and Jane Jewell. All three celebrated the opportunity to make this book, even if it meant constant dinner chatter about Willa Cather, endless anecdotes from the letters shared on the ride to school, and giving up a great art area so Dad could have somewhere to work every day. Becca, thank you for saying, many times, and in many ways, that this book was worth it. As Willa Cather would say, a heartful of love to you all.
As ever, Stout thanks her husband, Loren Lutes, for being a sustainer of and an active contributor to everything she does. She also thanks, without naming them, her eight adult children, sixteen grandchildren, and numerous friends for having refrained from saying they wished she wouldn’t be always talking about this Willa Cather person.