Annotations From the Archives: Thanksgiving in Red Cloud
"There we have short, bitter winters; windy, flower-laden springs; long, hot summers; triumphant autumns that last until Christmas—a season of perpetual sunlight, blazing blue skies, and frosty nights. In this newest part of the New World autumn is the season of beauty and sentiment, as spring is in the Old World."
—Willa Cather,
"Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle,"
published in The Nation, September 5, 1923
In November 1896, after leaving for her first job as editor of The Home Monthly in Pittsburgh, Willa Cather wrote “The Origin of Thanksgiving” under the pseudonym of “Helen Delay,” paying tribute to Sara Josepha Hale, who, like her, was a writer and editor of a popular ladies’ magazine. In addition to writing “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Hale is perhaps best known for her tireless work to create a Thanksgiving holiday—both in her editorials and through a presidential letter-writing campaign.
As “Helen Delay,” Cather wrote:
“While Thanksgiving Day is after the Fourth of July, the most characteristic and most patriotic of all American gala days, its origin is seldom referred to and its originator is left in almost total obscurity. We have come to regard this great feast day of ours as a thing that came about because of a general sentiment and through a general consent. . . . But our great National feast day was originated by a private individual, and a woman at that. Above all her other interests and duties, the establishment of Thanksgiving was Sarah J. Hale's life's work. Since this is so, it is strange that her name is so unfamiliar to American ears. But such injustice is not rare in history. . . .
"At last, after twenty years of fruitless endeavor, Mrs. Hale . . . succeeded in getting a personal interview with Abraham Lincoln. The story once in Lincoln's ear, and the thing was done. He saw how precious such a day would become to the American people, how invaluable would be its associations. That man of mighty proclamations first proclaimed "Thanksgiving Day" in 1864. Gradually, the governors of all the states fell in line, and the day has become one of the facts of our National existence.”
Cather often returned to Red Cloud to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family. In a letter to Elizabeth Wolfe Huffmann, on June 13, 1945, Cather recalled her last holidays in the Cather home:
“I often remember the last Thanksgiving and Christmas that you and I had in the old house in Red Cloud. What a happy time that was for me! I shall always think of the old house just as it was then—exactly as Father and Mother left it. As you know, I have a little house in Canada, and I have lived in a good many places in the world, but no one place is as dear to me as that old house in Red Cloud was.”
If you've ever thought of coming home (or visiting) Red Cloud over the holidays, Cather's dear old house is available for guest lodging. Historic but entirely unfussy, the Cather Second Home offers a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. While you're in town, you're welcome to make an appointment to visit the archives and see firsthand some of Cather's own personal artifacts or dig into Red Cloud history in a new way!