#1897: Willa Cather to James D. Cather, July 12 [1934]
July 12 Dear Brother1;
I write this note in the Bank Vault where I am finishing up business affairs just before starting for Canada3.
One thing I want to tell you, dear boy. If you wrote me tomorrow that you had struck a big paying well, I would be glad on your account but I would not think one bit more of you.
To me, luck and 2success are very different things. To hold a job and bring up your family is to be successful in these times. Roscoe4 has not done more than that, and I feel that he is successful. Gold-and-ore-and stockmarket-success is Luck. It's picturesque and dramatic and sometimes it is fun. But 3to me the only real success is prosperity that comes from working very hard or skillfully—usually skill and persistence go together.
I'm not preaching, I write this only because you say if you had a success you'd be glad to tell me of it.
Dear boy, in these times to hold a job, keep your health, and bring up your children 4constitutes success. If your children are any good at all (and they seemed to me lovely lovely children when I saw them last) they would not think a bit more of you if you struck a gusher tomorrow—nor would I.
In California5 pure Luck is worshipped like a God god—don't be fooled by such a transparent sham, and tell Helen Louise6 and 5 and Charles Edwin7 that if they once begin to judge people by their clothes and cars and luck instead of by just themselves and how kind or useful or helpful they are in the world - - - - - - - why then I won't love them anymore! That threat is half in play; and yet, in a way, I mean it.
God bless you all8, and my dearest love to my brother Jim
from Willie
Document is five leaves, handwritten on recto of each leaf only.
James D. Cather1
July 12 [1934]
This letter was likely written in 1934, as Cather and Lewis left New York for Grand Manan, NB, on 16 July 1934 (#1857), consistent with the plans mentioned here.
Cather, James Donald (1886-1966) ("Jim"). Cather's brother. James was born in Red Cloud, NE, the fifth child and third son of Charles and Virginia Cather. James moved to Wyoming in 1907 to work with his brothers Douglass and Roscoe. In 1913 he married Ethel Garber, and owned and operated clothing stores first in Red Cloud and then Holyoke, CO, where the family settled for a time 1920 before returning to Red Cloud in 1922. The couple had two children, Helen Louise and Charles Edwin. In 1930 the family moved to California so James could work in the oil business with Douglass and his partners. Willa's relationship with James was more distant than that with her brothers Douglass and Roscoe, who were closer to her own age, although she was very fond of his children.
Southwick, Helen Louise Cather (1918-2004). Cather's niece. Helen was born in Red Cloud, NE, to Willa Cather's brother James and his wife Ethel. Willa was a doting aunt on her visits to Red Cloud. In 1931, Helen moved with her family to Long Beach, CA, where she graduated high school and attended Long Beach City College. In 1939, Helen returned to Red Cloud to help care for her maternal grandmother and then enrolled in the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she met her future husband, Philip Southwick. After graduating in 1941, she briefly returned to California to work in the personnel department of Douglas Aircraft company, but married Southwick in Lincoln in 1942, and then moved with him to Champaign, IL. When Philip's employment took them to Plainfield, NJ, she frequently spent time with her aunt in New York City. In 1946, the Southwicks moved to Pittsburgh, PA, where their son James was born. In later years Helen worked as a school librarian and was active in the Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, NE. She was a beneficiary of Cather's literary estate, and when Edith Lewis died in 1972 she bequeathed Cather books and manuscripts to Helen and her brother Charles Cather. Helen donated her share of these materials and Willa Cather's letters to her to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Cather, Charles Edwin (1923-2011). Cather's nephew. Charles's parents were James D. and Ethel Garber Cather, and he was likely born in Red Cloud, NE, where he spent the early years of his childhood. He was, as Willa Cather wrote to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, "the little nephew I love the best" who inspired her portrayal of the little boy Jacques in Shadows on the Rock (1931) (#1054). He moved with his family to California in the 1930s. Cather continued to be an indulgent aunt as he got older, writing him letters of advice about and lending him money for his education. He attended, but did not complete degrees from, the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, and the Law School at the University of Colorado in Boulder. After his aunt's death he completed undergraduate and law degrees at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, CA. He was a beneficiary of his aunt's estate and was appointed her literary executor after Edith Lewis's death.
Cather, Ethel Garber (1889-1975). Cather's sister-in-law. Ethel was the daughter of Edwin S. Garber and through him was related to Governor Silas Garber, the model for Captain Forrester in A Lost Lady (1923). Ethel graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1909 and married James Cather in 1913. The couple had two children, Helen Louise and Charles Edwin. The family moved to California in 1930. Ethel and Willa Cather were not close.