Robert and Doris Kurth Cather Collection

The Kurth collection contains correspondence to and about Willa Cather, including letters from Anna Pavelka, after whom Cather modeled the protagonist of My Antonia. The Pavelka letters describe farm life in rural Nebraska. The collection includes Cather's article "Victoria's Ancestors: The House of Hanover" as it appeared in Home Monthly, photographs of Willa Cather and places in New Mexico, and typescripts about Willa Cather written by George N. Kates and E. H. Brewster. The list of renewals for Cather's stories and poetry include title of Cather's work, the title of the magazine the work was published in, the original publication date, and the date for application for renewal. The majority of postcards in the collection are of places in New Mexico. A postcard of Van Gogh's "La Chambre A Arles" includes the comment "so lovely" written in Cather's hand and on another postcard, captioned "Haute-Savoie - Combloux et le Mont-Blanc," Edith Lewis noted that Cather stayed there.