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View full screen - View 1 of Lot 130. CATHER, WILLA, EDITH LEWIS, AND YEHUDI MENUHIN | A small archive of letters, snapshots, and other materials documenting the close friendship of Cather and Lewis with Menuhin and his family. V. p., ca. 1930–1965.

CATHER, WILLA, EDITH LEWIS, AND YEHUDI MENUHIN | A small archive of letters, snapshots, and other materials documenting the close friendship of Cather and Lewis with Menuhin and his family. V. p., ca. 1930–1965

Lot Closed

December 17, 07:10 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

CATHER, WILLA, EDITH LEWIS, AND YEHUDI MENUHIN

A small archive of letters, snapshots, and other materials documenting the close friendship of Cather and Lewis with Menuhin and his family. V. p., ca. 1930–1965


Approximately 35 letters and 3 postcards, most autograph but a few typed, from Yehudi, Moshe, Marutha, Hephzibah, and Yaltah Menuhin, approximately 85 pp., v. p., ca. 1930–1965, to Willa Cather and Edith Lewis; some autograph envelopes — approximately 45 photographs, mostly family snapshots, but with a few publicity photos, several photos inscribed to Willa Cather from Yehudi Menuhin — a few concert programs and miscellaneous clippings.


Aunt Willa and Miss Lewis. Willa Cather and Edith Lewis first met the talented Menuhin family in 1930 in Paris. As Hermione Lee writes, "… the following year, when the fifteen-year-old prodigy [Yehudi] was touring the West Coast, the friendship was resumed. Cather fell in love with them all: the tough, idiosyncratic mother, the three brilliantly gifted musical children. They were her last 'proxy family', and the last great romance of her life.… To Cather, the young Yehudi was simply 'beautiful'." Cather stayed in touch with all the Menuhins as they grew up, giving advice and encouragement.  Yehudi, his sister Hehzibah, and their children were the last people to visit Cather before her death in 1947. The family was also close to Edith Lewis, writing letters addressed to both of them. After Cather's death, they remained devoted to Lewis.


Addressing "Dear friend Miss Lewis!," Yehudi Menuhin writes from Christchurch, New Zealand, on 23 July 1935, "Whenever we think of Aunt Willa, we think of you, as of her sister. Nothing is more beautiful than friendship.… [O]ne is convinced that nothing is more beautiful than friendship. That is the idealization of this spirit of help and of noble and joyful self-sacrifice, for one's ownpleasure. That is what thrills us so in Aunt Willa. We feel richer and happier in the possession of such a friend."


The photographs include an undated snapshot of Willa Cather, which appears to have been taken in the 1930's. The remainder of the photographs are of the Menuhin clan. They include baby photographs, photos taken at the Menuhin home in Los Gatos CA, sledding expeditions in Central Park, Yehudi posing with a dairy cow, etc. There are also three photos inscribed by Yehudi to Cather. The earliest of these reads "To dear Aunt Willa, with much love and admiration, your 'punished' Yehudi. Feb. 6, 1933, New York."  


A fine collection of letters and photographs documenting the close bonds between Cather and Lewis and the Menuhin family.


REFERENCES:

Lee, Willa Cather: Double Lives, pp. 333–335


PROVENANCE:

Willa Cather and Edith Lewis (given by Miss Lewis to) — Emmeline Ruddy — by descent to the present owner