VII.
(Postal card postmarked Camden, September 11, 1883, and
addressed to Karl Knortz, cor Morris Avenue & 155th Street, New
York City)
431 Stevens Street Camden New Jersey Sept
11'83—In a
note rec'd from you quite a while ago (from Johnstown, Pa:) you
mention some German translations of my poems by Dr ___?___ at
Berlin (since dead)—Would you please give me the
Dr's name
exactly & some particulars ab't the translations?___ Did you
get Dr. Bucke's volume, which was sent you June 21
last?___ I have received the translations into German. (slips,
papers, &c) you have so kindly sent me from time to time ___ have
not (otherwise) heard from you for some four months—I continue
(though a half paralytic) well as usual—
Walt Whitman
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.
