MANUSCRIPT: Sapphira and the Slave Girl.
Emended drafts
Of Cather’s final novel
Cather, Willa Siebert. Autograph and typed manuscript drafts for Sapphira and the Slave Girl; n.p., n.d. [Grande Manan Island and New York, 1937-1940].
Ca. 80pp.; arranged in several groups as filed by Cather (or an assistant).
Heavily emended and reworked draft sections of Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Cather’s final book, an autobiographical novel set in antebellum Virginia; with numerous pencil additions, revisions and corrections by Cather, revising, omitting or adding words and phrases; irregularly paginated.
The draft names reflect either their heading or the first line of the first page of the draft. The drafts are grouped as follows:
1) "Late in the afternoon..."; autograph manuscript; 20pp., 13 leaves; rectos and some versos; in ink, with scattered ink and pencil revisions on (mostly omitting words and phrases, or adding and changing words); irregular, partial pagination; and with two pages marked "Insert," in Cather’s hand. The top right-hand corner of the first page is torn off, affecting text on the recto and the verso; there is also a square cut out of the bottom right-hand corner of the page that begins “there were all kinds of people,” not affecting text.
2) "...Fairhead said he would go..."; carbon ribbon typescript; 14pp., rectos only; with extensive autograph deletions, additions and revisions on each page; paginated 162-175. Page 163 includes a half-leaf of paper with an eight-line autograph addition; attached with a straight pin. On page 168, Cather adds two sentences in pencil after omitting two typed sentences. The first sentence reads, “She must have smelled the hot soup up in her bedroom; the stair door had been left open.” And two variations of the second is added after the words, “trivial thing”: “became momentous in a way one could not explain/took on a mysterious significance one could not explain.”
3) "Doctor from Baltimore," (deleted header on first page; text begins, "They walked along the mill road by the crick, leading the doctor home..."); autograph manuscript; 14pp., 7 leaves; in pencil, with deletions and revisions; paginated 1-10, 13-16. Page 9 marked "Discard" by Cather.
4) "Carbon of Timber Ridge Chapter"; carbon typescript; 11pp., rectos only; with Cather's pencil deletions and revisions on seven pages; paginated 1-3, 7-10, and 4 unnumbered pages; with a revision typed on a scrap of paper and affixed to page 9 with a straight pin; and with Cather's note on another slip: "Write on 1 and edit for Miss Bloom."
5) "Well, that was best, Mrs. Blake agreed, as she folded up the paper...”; carbon typescript; 4pp.; rectos only; a few typed revisions.
6) “No one could remember a finer autumn…”; carbon typescript; 8pp., rectos only; with penciled revisions and deletions on 4 pages; paginated 4, 4, 5, 6, and 4 unnumbered pages.
7) "and Betty sat all morning under the old gnarled chestnut tree..."; carbon typescript; 7pp., rectos only; scattered pencil revisions on all but one page; paginated 89-95. The last two lines of page 92 marked for deletion: "cut out 93"; and all of page 93 is crossed out.
8) “Tap came back from Winchester late in the afternoon"; carbon typescript; 4pp., rectos only; no corrections; paginated 1-3 and 1 un-numbered. Penciled note ("Italic") by Cather on last page.
Together with:
Portions of folders, envelopes and a leaf of scrap paper with Cather’s notes; as follows:
-Upper flap of a folder marked in blue china pencil, "April 29 Recent Carbons." Cather deleted the two original titles on this folder, "I. Mrs. Blake & Miller," and “II. Nancy's Flight.”
- Upper flap of a folder marked in pencil, “(Virginia) New to copy/Mrs. Blake Talk With The Miller and Nancy's flight."
-Envelope marked in blue china and graphite pencil, “Carbon from Page 1/280 words per page.” Cather deleted her note at the top of the envelope that reads “[ ] From Miss Bloom July 9th.” There
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