431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
Dec 21 '81
My dear W S K
Yours rec'd & glad to hear from you—have not forgotten those pleasant calls
& chats, & hope they will one day be renewed—I read your (added to
& somewhat changed) California magazine criticism1—the copy you showed Osgood—& thought it noble—
Am thankful to you & of course much pleased with your study of, & exploiting
L of G—have just sent you a package by express of the late & other
editions & Vols. of poems &c. as my Christmas offering2—with affectionate remembrances—
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. This is a reference to "A
Study of Walt Whitman," The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. [back]
- 2. Whitman sent three copies
of Leaves of Grass (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles
E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library
of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Kennedy wrote at the conclusion of the letter:
"I afterward sent him $5. as part payment for these K" (Faint Clews & Indirections: Manuscripts of Walt Whitman and His
Family, ed. Clarence Gohdes and Rollo G. Silver [Durham, N.C.: Duke
University Press, 1949], 94n). [back]