University of Virginia Library

A Sheaf of Whitman Letters
Walter Harding

Among the Whitman manuscripts owned by Mr. C. Waller Barrett of New York City are a number of miscellaneous unpublished letters relating to Whitman's publishing affairs. None of them individually is of startling significance, but together they shed some light on the circle of friends around Whitman and on his relations with his editors. I am indebted to Mr. Barrett for permission to publish them here.

I.
(Blue-lined white paper, 8" x 5", one page)

Mr. House informed me that you accepted, and would publish, my "Bardic

Symbols." If so, would you as soon as convenient, have it placed in type, and send me the proof?

About the two lines:

I have in view, from them, an effect in the piece which I clearly feel, but cannot as clearly define.—Though I should prefer them in, still, as I told Mr. House, I agree that you may omit them, if you decidedly wish to.

This letter was apparently addressed to James Russell Lowell, then the editor of the Atlantic Monthly. "Bardic Symbols" was published in the Atlantic for April, 1860 (V, 445-447) without the questioned lines. Later, when Whitman included the poem in Leaves of Grass as "As I ebb'd with the ocean of life" (one of the "Sea-Drift" poems), the lines were restored. It is enlightening that only a few years before this, Lowell had deleted a line from Thoreau's "Chesuncook," without permission when he published it in the Atlantic. Thoreau took him strongly to task for the liberty and refused thereafter to submit any of his works to Lowell's editing. Apparently Lowell learned his lesson and thereafter consulted his authors before censoring their works.

II.
(White paper, 4" x 6", four pages; envelope addressed to Charles W. Eldridge / care Major Hapgood / Paymaster U S Army / Washington D C, postmarked Brooklyn.)

I have been improving for the last two days, & think I shall be up & around soon, as well as ever—I have had the services of a good physician, who has allowed me to get well quite naturally—he decided that the only thing needing serious watching was the throat & had prepared if the disease there went beyond a certain point to call in a skilful New York doctor, for consultation, but fortunately we were saved the trouble—I felt a good deal like myself the most of yesterday, & the same to-day—so I don't think I am hurrahing before I am out of the woods.

—We have a letter from my brother George, down to 18th inst. he was all safe.

—My mother & folks are all well—

—I rece'd the letter enveloped to me 25th—

I sent a line to Wm O'Connor, 25th which I suppose he rec'd—

—Has Nelly gone yet?

—I shall write to her next time—

—Remember me to Ashton with friendship—also to Arnold Johnson with sincere thanks & tell him I am getting well—& give my best respects & thanks to Major Hapgood.

Eldridge was a member of the firm of Thayer & Eldridge of Boston who had published the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass and then had gone bankrupt when the outbreak of war had extinguished their Southern credit. Eldridge then became an assistant in Major Hapgood's office in Washington and managed to procure a desk for Whitman there and a small income for him for minor copyist duties. Eldridge had also introduced Whitman to his future biographer William O'Connor and his wife Nelly. J. Hubley Ashton was Assistant Attorney-General. He later obtained a position for Whitman in the Office of Indian Affairs. Arnold Johnson was Charles Sumner's private secretary.

III.
(Blue-lined white paper, 8" x 5", four pages)

The package of February magazines sent on the 10th, arrived safely yesterday. Accept my thanks. I am pleased with the typographical appearance, correctness, &c. of my piece.

I enclose a piece, "Thou vast Rondure, swimming in Space," of which I have to say to you as follows. It is to appear in the April number of the London Fortnightly Review.

—Having just received a note from the Editor of that Review, Mr. Morley, in which he intimates that he has no objection to its appearing simultaneously in America, I thought I would show it to you. Very possibly you will not care anyhow to print a piece which is to appear elsewhere. Should that, however, be no objection, and should you consider the piece available for your purposes, the price is $20. Of course it would have to go in your Number for April. I reserve the right of printing in future book.

In 1861 James T. Fields took over the editing of the Atlantic Monthly and in the issue of February, 1869 (XXIII, 199-203) published Whitman's poem "Proud Music of the Sea-Storm." Apparently Fields either did not care for "Thou vast Rondure" or did not approve of publishing a poem appearing elsewhere, for he did not include it in the Atlantic.

IV.
(White paper, unlined, with Harper's official heading, 8" x 5")

I send enclosed Messrs Harper & Brothers' check for One Hundred Dollars ($100), in payment for your poem, "Song of the Redwood Tree."

The Messrs Harper do not object to the subsequent publication of the poem in book form, provided such publication is not made until six months after the appearance of the poem in their Magazine.

With thanks for your poem (of which I will send you proof in a few days), & the best wishes for your welfare, I am

P.S. The poem will appear in an early number. H. M. A.

Whitman's "The Song of the Redwood Tree" appeared in Harper's Monthly for February, 1874 (XLVIII, 366-367). It first appeared in book form in Two Rivulets, published in 1876.

V.
(White paper, 8" x 5", one page).

Wouldn't these articles be available for the paper. The price is $60 for the two. Of course they are hitherto unpublished—(my book, in which they go, will not be out for at least three or four weeks.)

There are so many Commercials that it is impossible to identify this one positively. Possibly it was the Commercial Advertiser, which had published some of Whitman's poetry as early as 1871. "These articles" were possibly some of the prose writings which appeared in Two Rivulets that year.

VI.
(Grey paper, unlined, 9½" x 6")

I believe you have in MS one or two clusters of my Notes—Yours—they are paid for—I think I would like to look over them & touch them up to date (perhaps, or not, I could tell on seeing them)—

I wish you would send the MS therefore immediately here—& I will at once make the improvement changes (if any)—& return to you—

There is no clue as to the recipient of this letter nor as to the "one or two clusters of my Notes."

VII.
(Postal card postmarked Camden, September 11, 1883, and addressed to Karl Knortz, cor Morris Avenue & 155th Street, New York City)

Dr. Knortz was a German-American scholar who translated many American writers for German-speaking audiences. A large part of Whitman's correspondence with him is printed in Horst Frenz's "Walt Whitman's Letters to Karl eaking audiences. A large part of Whitman's correspondence with him is printed in Horst Frenz's "Walt Whitman's Letters to Karl Knortz" in the May, 1948, American Literature (XX, 155-163). Mr Frenz derived his texts from the appendix of Knortz's monograph on Whitman. The original manuscripts for the following letters printed by Frenz are in the Barrett collection: November 14, 1882; November 15, 1882; June 19, 1883; January 10, 1884; April 27, 1885; June 14, 1886 (for which there are important additions, see below); March 24, 1887; May 3, 1887; September 10, 1888; January 8, 1889; and February 14, 1889. They differ in no important details from Mr. Frenz's transcription except that he occasionally spells out some of Whitman's elisions in full and in the letter of November 14, 1882, transposes a postscript into the main body of the letter. There are also included in the Barrett collection this letter of September 11, 1883 and one for June 14, 1887, for which see below.

Knortz was for several years pastor of the German Independent Protestant Congregation in Johnstown, Pa. In 1882 he moved to New York to do free lance editorial work. Although by this time there were several people translating Whitman into German, it seems likely that Whitman was referring here to Ferdinand Freiligrath who made the first translations in an essay in Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung for April 24, 1868. Dr. R. M. Bucke's book was his Walt Whitman, published in Philadelphia in 1883.

VIII.
(Postal card postmarked Philadelphia, June 11, 1885, and addressed to Sylvester Baxter, Outing office, 175 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.)

Received from Sylvester Baxter (Outing magazine Boston) Twelve Dollars for piece

Baxter was one of the circle of admirers of Whitman in Boston. He did editorial work on a number of newspapers and periodicals and was also one of the leaders in the abortive Boston Whitman Club.

IX.
(White board, 4½" x 3½")

As I doubt I made some small misfiguring in my last I send you an exact list of what I have rec'd of your good British "offering:"

     

abt Sept. 8	£ 22	.	2	.	6	--	$107.54
Oct. 20th	37	.	12	.		--	183.11
Nov. 28	31		19			--	155.53

—from which I am living—fuel, clothing, food, &c—personally living, this winter—

You may as well hand this card to Mr Rossetti

Although an international controversy had raged in 1876 over Whitman's need of financial assistance, when Robert Buchanan published an appeal for aid for him in an English journal, his English admirers continued to help him. Traubel includes several letters (II, 330; III, 65) from William Michael Rossetti in the fall of 1885 sending contributions. Herbert Gilchrist was the son of Whitman's ardent admirer Anne Gilchrist.

X.
(Blue-lined white paper, 10" x 7½", one page)

Yours of 26th rec'd—I send my heartiest thanks to the members, individually & collectively, of the Northwestern Literary and Historical Society—

I have been unable to identify this letter or the reason for its having been written.

XI.
(Blue-lined white paper, 10" x 8", two sheets; envelope postmarked Camden, June 14, and addressed to Carl Knortz.)

Yours rec'd & I send you a few names I would like to have the address forwarded to. I am ab't as usual in health. I wish you to keep me posted of any thing that occurs—& I will you.

Edward Carpenter, Millthorpe, near Chesterfield, England

W S Kennedy, Belmont, Mass.

T W Rolleston, Editor University Magazine Dublin Ireland

Wm M Rossetti, 5 Endsleigh Gardens, Enston Square, London n w England (Dante Rossetti is dead)

Mrs. B F C Costelloe, 40 Grosvenor Road, Westminster, London S w England

Ernest Rhys, 59 Cheyne Walk Chelsea, London S w England

J Addington Symonds, Davos Platz Graūbünden Switzerland

E C Stedman 45 E 30th St New York City

Prof. Edward Dowden Temple Road Winstead Rathmines Dublin Ireland

This letter is included by Mr. Frenz in his article, but it lacks the list of names appended. The address was probably Knortz's lecture on Whitman, which was published in New York in 1886 as No. 14 in a series of "Vorträge des geselligwissenschaftlichen Vereins." The list of names will be familiar to students of Whitman, for they are all among his most ardent friends and disciples.

XII.
(Light green paper, 10" x 8", two sheets, originally used by Ernest Rhys for his letter to Whitman of March 29, 1887).

I send you Rhys's letter to me rec'd yesterday—tho I suppose the disagreeable item in it, relating to the pub'n of y'r book has been already written to you ab't by R ___ My under the weather spell still continues, but with a slight let up. I expect to go on to New York to speak my "Death of Lincoln" piece Thursday afternoon next—Probably the Shake up will do me good—

—I drove over last evening to spend a couple of hours with my friends Mr & Mrs. Talcott Williams Phila. & take dinner there—Enjoyed all—

—I receive the Transcripts & look them over—then send them to O'Connor—

—I don't make much reckoning of the N Y performance—the best is to be borne in mind (& warmly borne in mind) by a few dear N Y friends— Sunny & summery weather here & my canary is singing like a house afire—

This letter was obviously written to William Sloane Kennedy, Whitman's Boston admirer, who was hoping to publish a book on Whitman in England. His Reminiscences of Walt Whitman, however, did not finally appear until 1896. Whitman frequently traveled to New York in his later years to deliver a lecture on Lincoln on the anniversary of his death. Talcott Williams was an editor of the Philadelphia Press, an admirer of Whitman, and later director of the Columbia University School of Journalism. Kennedy and others of Whitman's Boston admirers contributed frequently to the Boston Transcript. O'Conner is, of course, William D. O'Connor, the author of The Good Gray Poet. Ernest Rhys's letter on the reverse of this manuscript discusses the English publication of Specimen Days, tells of a visit with Mrs. Costelloe, and announces that Wilson the publisher was too ill to attempt bringing out Kennedy's book.

XIII.
(Postal card, postmarked Camden June 14, and addressed to Karl Knortz.)

Yes Doctor I will loan you the Gilchrist book to read at your leisure—Will send it on in a day or two—Go to Cox photographer Cor 12th St & Broadway (entrance 12th St.) & see critically some photos of me he has taken—Shall be delighted to see you here—

Whitman sent Knortz H. H. Gilchrist's Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings (New York, 1887) and later was annoyed that Knortz had not returned it, complaining to Horace Traubel to that effect on September 6, 1888. Whitman had eight or ten photographs taken by George C. Cox, but only one, which Whitman called "the laughing philosopher," was satisfactory to him. Cox sold these photographs to the general public, and, according to Whitman, was the only photographer who had the courtesy to pay him royalties. Whitman apparently never had the opportunity of meeting Knortz, for more than a year later, on September 3, 1888, he told Traubel that his curiosity to meet him was still great.

XIV.
(Postal card postmarked September 30, 1889, and addressed to O. O. Hemenway, Pittsfield, Illinois.)

—Yes he can send you two

copies fullest & latest ed'ns "Leaves of Grass"—The price of the two $4 (2 each) (p o order preferred) address here 328 Mickle Street, Camden New Jersey—

This final note is apparently merely a reply to a Western admirer of Whitman.