[Rarebooks] FS: Fine Letter by Willa Cather regarding DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP

[Charles Agvent]

 From our inventory.  We will also be posting a new catalogue on our 
website containing TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS, LETTERS, & 
PHOTOGRAPHS.   Most will be American authors, and there will be some 
exceptional individual pieces and archives.  Among the authors 
represented will be Norman Mailer, W. H. Auden, Sherwood Anderson, John 
O'Hara, John Dos Passos, Margaret Mitchell, Robert Lowell, Maxwell 
Perkins, William Carlos Williams, Zane Grey, Iris Murdoch, and many 
others.  We will be posting Nineteenth Century items at a much later date.

CATHER, Willa AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) REGARDING DEATH COMES FOR 
THE ARCHBISHOP
Fine one-page letter on Cather's monogrammed printed stationery dated 20 
August [n.y.] and SIGNED by Cather at the conclusion. Addressed to Dr. 
[Henry Goddard] Leach, editor of THE FORUM, regarding an article that 
appeared on Cather's work in his publication. In full: "Thank you for 
replying to my telegram, which I am afraid was premature. I have just 
received from the Knopf office a copy of the estimate of my books 
published in the September Forum. I wish I might know your personal 
opinion of the article before I write you. Sincerely yours, Willa 
Cather." A Cather scholar informed us that this letter is almost 
certainly from 1931. Granville Hicks had an article in the FORUM in 
September of that year, ostensibly a review of SHADOWS ON THE ROCK, but 
mentioning other works in explaining "why she is and always has been a 
minor artist." Cather's displeasure with the article is clear in the 
tone of this letter. Her best known book, DEATH COMES FOR THE 
ARCHBISHOP, was serialized in the very same magazine from January 
through June in 1927. Folding crease. Near Fine      $3500.00
-- 

All books subject to prior sale.  Cash with order; institutions may be 
billed.  Postage additional:  $9.00 for the first book, $5.00 each 
thereafter.  Overseas postage billed at approximate cost. Pennsylvania 
residents must add 6% sales tax.  Mastercard, Visa, American Express and 
Discover accepted.  Books may be returned within 10 days of receipt for 
any reason provided they are in the same condition as sent and prior 
notice is given. Please insure returns for their full value.  We carry a 
diverse stock with major specialties including Modern and 19th Century 
Literary First Editions, Autographed Books, and Limited Editions Club 
books.  We are celebrating our 20th year of business and are proud to be 
members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) and 
the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) as well as 
the Manuscript Society and the Universal Autograph Collectors Club 
(UACC).  Please feel free to contact us with any wants or offerings. 
Thank you.

CHARLES AGVENT
291 Linden Road
Mertztown, PA  19539-8750
610-682-4750
agvent at erols.com
Visit our home page:  http://www.erols.com/agvent