Letter from John G. Neihardt to Lucile Aly, September 22, 1970

A friend has been reading to me from the MS of the Biography, and I am again impressed with the book. There are still minor errors here and there, but I suppose they don't matter.

I have wondered again why you insist that Willa Cather did not receive a Lit D. in 1917 when I did. I know, for I was there and sat with Willa on the platform. There was a lull before the doings got started and she brought up the matter of an article of mine that had just appeared. It discussed my theory as to why women have a special gift for novel-writing. She said she believed I was right. She and I received the Lit D. degree. A man, whose name I did not try to remember, received an LHD. Theodore Roosevelt (such [abel?] ) and General John J. Pershing (just gone to Europe) received L [?] DLLD degrees in absentia.

Willa and I did not receive degrees from Creighton together. I received mine in absentia, being at the time on the Post-Dispatch.

If this mattered much [?] I'd I would insist upon correction. But even so, I don't understand why I am regarded as a [defective?] witness, for I was there.