ALS Letter SIGNED By WILLA CATHER in Youth and the Bright Medusa 1st Edition

Description

Here is a rare opportunity to
acquire
a personal letter from one of the most beloved writers of the 20th century written just before her breakout success.
From April through August, 1921 Willa Cather made a prolonged visit to her longtime intimate friend and lover Isabelle McClung Hambourg.  This letter is on stationary bearing Mrs. Hambourg's Toronto address and mentions the visit.  Also mentioned is
favorite
locale, writing retreat, and
eventual
Cather resting place Jaffrey, NH.
Cather also refers to the June issue of Atlantic Monthly suggesting an article.
The letter's recipient, Mary Woodbury
of Boston Massachusetts
, whom Cather seems to have known from shared time spent in Jaffrey,  has partially mounted the letter on the rear paste down of her first edition copy of
Youth and the Bright Medusa
which had appeared the previous year and which have owner's marks dated just 8 days before the date of this letter.  She has also saved many newspaper clippings about Willa Cather, which are now brittle and yellowed with age -as are the pages between which they were kept.  Some were pasted into the book.
Cather explicitly asked that her letters be destroyed.  It was not until 2013 that the legal issues were overcome to allow the publication of a selection of her letters.  An ongoing project to digitize the holdings of 4 major repositories of Cather letters is being undertaken by the University of Nebraska.
1 page ALS mounted in:
Youth and the Bright Medusa
by Willa Cather.  NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920.  303 pages.
Hardback, bound in green cloth.  Titled in blue on spine and front cover, with decoration of Medusa head.  Top edge blue, deckled edges.  No dust jacket.
Textblock is solid, but cover shows signs of wear and age; bumped corners, top and bottom of spine softened, and darkened spine.
In all a warm keepsake assemblage
maintained
by a fan and friend of this American literary icon.
Will ship free Priority Mail, with insurance included.