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NEWSLETTER & REVIEW VOLUME 54, NO. 3 SPRING 2O11 Yours Sincerely Finding Cather's Correspondence with Alfred A. Knopf Plenty of ''O''s The Cather-Knopf Letters and One of Ours Cather's ''ordinary'' readers Fan letters and hearty sympathies plus Ghosts in the Opera House, oh my! Willa Cather NEWSLETTER & REVIEW VOLUME 54, NO. 3 SPRING 2011 96 98 101 108 Contents Letter from the President The Newly Discovered 95 101 Cather-Alfred A. Knopf SUSAN MAHER Correspondence and One of Ours 96 The Ghosts Among US RICHARD C. HARRIS STEPHANY THOMPSON 108 Focusing on Cather’s Readers, Finding Cather’s Correspondence Past and Present 98 with Alfred A. Knopf CHARLES JOHANNINGSMEIER ROBERT THACKER 94 WILLA CATHER NEWSLETTER & REVIEW / SPRING 2011 Willa Cather Letter from the President NEWSLETTER & REVIEW SUSAN MAHER mong the most memorable scenes in the “Friends Cloud: a state-of-the-art archive, of Childhood” section of The Song of the Lark is teaching and research space, and Thea Kronborg’s acquisition of her own room. The much needed green room for the A“constant turmoil” of family life recedes, and Thea is able Opera House stage. More space to strengthen the core of who she is, who she must become. would allow for other improve- “She thought things out more clearly,” we are told. “Pleasant ments to offices, galleries, and the plans and ideas occurred to her which had never come gift shop. This group, led by the before.” A room of her own, a space for imagination, allows indefatigable Betty, also envisioned Thea to enhance and grow her artistic being. collaborative space that could also In the same way, the Cather Foundation, in imagining keep Red Cloud’s downtown vital— new space for itself and renovating the Red Cloud Opera bays for businesses and second story House between 2001-2003 (built 1885), has found new apartments for residents. When this vision for its enterprise. Now a center for educational events, business block is renovated, it will like the annual Spring Conference and cultural events that preserve the history of an American span the arts, the Opera House graces Webster Street and small town and promote the legacy of Red Cloud’s greatest draws visitors to Catherland from all over the world. Since talent, Willa Cather. its reopening, the Opera House stands as a realized idea, a In this Cather Foundation narrative, Mildred Bennett is dream manifest. The Opera House’s success, though, has our formative Thea. She was the first dreamer of the Cather stirred the Foundation’s communal imagination further. With Foundation. Around her kitchen table, she grew a vision, and invaluable archives and material artifacts that help chronicle her vision grew other visions, including Betty’s. Past Board Cather’s life and career and the evolution of Red Cloud, the President and current Executive Director Jay Yost has helped Foundation has looked at itself, and like Thea, now feels position the Foundation to complete this next renovation, that there is more to be had. These archives need a home. and when the Moon Block project is completed something At the same time, the efforts of the Cather Foundation are akin to a National Cather Center will exist. As Thea’s now truly national and international, approaching the vision story shows, it does not take much—just a small bedroom that Mildred Bennett space—to ignite large, once had for this unique compelling dreams. organization. The Opera Thea achieves success House cannot hold the and brilliance, while whole of our imagina- keeping grounded tion any more. in her experience as Former Executive a girl growing up in Director Betty Kort Moonstone. In a few understood that years’ time, when “pleasant plans and construction is well ideas” required commit- underway and new ment, time, and energy. facilities emerge from She looked at the Moon the Moon Block, the Block next to the Opera Cather Foundation will House with others, and be able to showcase they saw the next stage of a gem from the past the Cather Foundation’s that promises a vital, development in Red brilliant future. The Opera House and the Moon Block, 1910 WWW.WILLACATHER.ORG 95 The Ghosts Among Us STEPHANY THOMPSON Presently, as I looked with satisfaction about our comfortable sitting-room, it flashed upon me that if Mr. Shimerda’s soul were lingering about in this world at all, it would be here, in our house, which had been more to his liking than any other in the neighbourhood. I was not frightened, but I made no noise. I did not wish to disturb him. It was as if I had let the old man in out of the tormenting winter, and were sitting there with him. Such vivid pictures came to me that they might have been Mr. Shimerda’s memories, not yet faded out from the air in which they had haunted him. —Jim Burden in My Ántonia illa Cather’s Red Cloud seems to be filled with Overall, performers feel a sense of warmth and “good souls to this very day. The town known for its rich karma” about the facility, different from any other venue Wculture and history, which has intrigued scholars, they have visited but they too have experienced a sense of historians, and tourists for generations, is also becoming something from beyond this world. In 2009, during a tribute known for its less obvious residents, ghosts. Red Cloud show to his father, “Remembering Ricky Nelson,” Gunnar ghost stories have been told since the founding of the town, Nelson experienced shortness of breath and had to leave the but within the past few years there appears to have been an stage for a few seconds during the show. Gunnar explains increase in paranormal activity, especially within the walls his experience: of the very structures that Cather wrote about, visited, and “My family has always been ‘sensitive’ to things many lived in. others can’t see or feel. I seem to have even more of No one knows this better than the Willa Cather that gift than most of them. The second I walked into the Foundation tour guides. Ask one of them about the spirits Opera House, I could feel much more than the ghosts of past lingering in town and they will tell you without a glimmer of performances that have graced the stage . my feelings were doubt that they do exist. The first story you are likely to hear specific. I could ‘see’ a woman in period costume (bustle and is about the Matinée Ghost of the Opera House. Almost every such) who carried herself like a diva waiting for her cue. day, in the middle of the afternoon, tour guides positioned at I also got an asthma episode . a rare occurrence to me the front desk on the first floor of the building hear the sound that usually signals I’m somewhere that’s burned in the past, of footsteps and chairs sliding, seemingly coming from the and people have struggled to breathe and perished from it. I Opera House auditorium above. A romantic would explain don’t know how far off I am or not . but these ‘hits’ were this occurrence in this way: a soul from the past has returned instant and powerful the second I walked in. I can’t WAIT to to the place that they enjoyed so much during their lifetime; play there again!” they are taking their seat for the matinée. A strange image in front of the Opera House chairs. Matthew and Gunnar Nelson performing at the Opera House. Photo by T.R.I.P. Ghosthouse Investigations Photo by Barb Kudrna 96 WILLA CATHER NEWSLETTER & REVIEW / SPRING 2011 In the same year, playwright A.P. Andrews, director of the Paper Plane Theatre residency, had the following experience: “After shutting the doors to the theater and shutting off the lights, I heard chairs being scooted (a very loud sound on those particular floors) and heard laughing inside. I turned and began to walk down the staircase to the front lobby, and as I did I heard footsteps on the stairs behind me. I ran down the rest of the stairs, where another member of my company was who had also heard the noises. We left as fast as we could. I had just done a complete sweep of the building to make sure all the other company members had gone home. I can say with confidence that no one was in the theater at the time. I returned to the building a half hour later with a few more people and we walked through the building together. No one was there. Throughout our month at the Opera House, there were multiple times when members felt they Orbs in the Baptist Church. Photo by T.R.I.P. Ghosthouse weren’t alone in empty rooms; never something dangerous Investigations or scary, but a presence nonetheless. It’s something we grew accustomed to throughout our time there.” sounded like men playing poker. When T.R.I.P. investigators Twice during the summer of 2010, local paranormal asked the question, “What are you doing here?” out loud, the investigators, T.R.I.P., accompanied by two staff members, recorded muffled response said “playing games.” On a tour set up their equipment overnight in the Opera House. Their of the Grace Episcopal Church a couple from out of state experiences were dramatic: positioned cameras were moved; and their guide heard a woman’s sigh coming from the angel a recorded voice from the basement may have said “help window above the doors.