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Notes
See the excellent article by Portia Baker, "Walt Whitman's Relations with Some New York Magazines," AL, VII (1935), 274-301.
See the facsimile of Reid's letter of December 21, 1911, in Charles N. Elliot's Walt Whitman as Man, Poet and Friend (Boston, [1915]), p. 213.
This letter has been dated "1874," evidently by Reid. The following letters reprinted here have been dated by the same hand: February 8, 1876; September 21, 1878; November 27, 1878; May 8, 1879; May 12, 1879; May 23, 1882. The dates are confirmed by references to articles or letters in the Tribune. On the basis of internal evidence I have dated the letters of July 12, 1878, and September 30, 1878.
All references are to the Author's Edition (Camden, 1876), which consists of five parts separately paginated.
In reprinting this second poem in the newspaper, Whitman treats it as a continuation of "Two Rivulets." Although the poet in his note to Reid asks for proof, he evidently did not receive it, since the texts of the newspaper versions reveal minor differences in capitalization and punctuation. In line 20 of "To a Locomotive in Winter" in the Tribune, the phrase "rumbling like an earthquake" is omitted.
The letter, dated July 7, 1876, in which Whitman forwarded the poem to Reid has been published in Royal Cortissoz' The Life of Whitelaw Reid (New York, 1921), I, 312. Reid's reply appears in Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden (1908), II, 212.
An analysis of references to Whitman in the Tribune during the first seven months of 1876 reveals a sharply fluctuating attitude. On January 29 (p. 6, col. 6) and again on February 25 (p. 4, col. 5), Whitman interviews, reprinted from other newspapers, emphasize the poet's complaints about his treatment by American magazine editors. The first interview, which appeared in the West Jersey Press, was sent by the poet to William Michael Rossetti and was the basis for Buchanan's provocative letter. See Clifton Joseph Furness, Walt Whitman's Workshop (1928), pp. 246-248. On February 10 (p. 4, col. 5), the Tribune observes: "A gentleman of Philadelphia has sent Walt Whitman a present of $100." On March 1 (p. 4, col. 6), the newspaper reprints another excerpt from Two Rivulets, on the murder of Lincoln, which appears in "Memoranda during the War" (pp. 48-49). Until March 28, then, the newspaper revealed no animosity toward Whitman. While the controversy raged over the Buchanan allegations, the Tribune was hostile to the poet in news dispatches. See the references on March 30 (p. 6, col. 2), April 10 (p. 4, col. 5), April 17 (p. 4, col. 4), and on April 26 (p. 4, col. 5). The last two items are based on communications from Moncure D. Conway, the Unitarian minister and early friend of the poet, who labeled Buchanan's charges "gross exaggerations."
A bitter attack on this editorial appeared in the Camden New Republic on April 1, reprinted in Richard Maurice Bucke's Walt Whitman (Philadelphia, 1883), pp. 216-217.
This letter is reprinted by Clara Barrus in Whitman and Burroughs Comrades (1931), pp. 125-128.
See Barrus, p. 173; Burrough's letter to Edward Dowden in April, 1876, in The Life and Letters of John Burroughs (1925), I, 182; O'Connor's letter to Dr. Bucke in Esther Shepherd's Walt Whitman's Pose (1938), p. 356. In an unpublished letter to John Burroughs, dated May 4, 1876, O'Connor attacks, with his customary vehemence, the editorial of April 12 and vilifies Taylor with such phrases as "small potatoes" and "peach blossom." (This letter is in the Estelle Doheny Collection of the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, California.) In a letter to Kennedy in August, 1886, Whitman refers to Bayard Taylor and Whitelaw Reid as "the most malignant and persistent enemies of W. W. and L. of G. from the beginning and throughout"; see William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman (1896), p. 51.
The neutrality of the Tribune is evident in the allusions to Whitman during the next three months; see May 6 (p. 6, col. 6), May 26 (p. 4, col. 5), June 3 (p. 6, col. 5), June 20 (p. 6, col. 2), and July 6 (p. 4, col. 5).
Noted in CHAL, II, 560. The material in this letter appears in Specimen Days and Collect (Philadelphia, 1882-1883), pp. 113-118.
"O Captain! My Captain!" appears in Passage to India (Washington, 1871), p. 41. This volume appeared separately and was later bound with Leaves of Grass. Whitman refers to the former state.
The text of this letter is based on a typescript prepared by the secretary of the late Ogden Reid.
The first letter, rearranged, appears in Complete Prose Works, pp. 506, 12-14; the second, rearranged and abridged, in Specimen Days and Collect, pp. 129-133.
This letter is erroneously dated May 23 in CHAL, II, 560. The material was abridged when reprinted; see Complete Prose Works, pp. 127-130.
An almost identical letter of the same date, addressed to the Editor of the Denver Tribune, is in the Doheny Collection. Except for minor phrasal changes the only difference is the price Whitman asks—$10 rather than $12. According to CHAL, II, 560, the article entitled "Summer Days in Canada" appeared in the London [Ontario] Advertiser on the date stipulated.
See James's letter to Reid on August 30, 1876, in Cortissoz, I, 308-309. Other letters by Whitman to the Editor of the Tribune were printed on August 4, 1881— "A Week at West Hills" (p. 5, col. 4)— and on August 15, 1881—"City Notes in August" (p. 5, col. 5). Both are noted in CHAL. The first article is referred to in a letter to Reid (now in the New York Public Library), dated August 3, 1881, which has been reprinted by Professor Rollo G. Silver in AL, VII (1935), 80-81. In the preparation of this article I am greatly indebted to the following: Mrs. Ogden Reid; Dr. David C. Mearns, Chief of the Manuscripts Division, The Library of Congress; the Rev. Patrick O'Brien, librarian of St. John's Seminary; and Professor Rollo G. Silver.
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