Camden1
Monday forenoon
June 13 '87
Yours of 11th just rec'd2—it is a fine bright morning, just the right
temperature—I am feeling better to-day—freer (almost free) of the heavy
congested condition (especially the head department) that has been upon me for
nearly a week—Took a long drive yesterday & have been living much on
strawberries of late—Don't write much—just sold & got the money
for—& it comes in good, I tell you—a poem to Lippincotts—(Mr Walsh3 editor—friendly to me)—poem called
"November Boughs," a cluster of sonnet-like bits, making one piece, in shape like
"Fancies at Navesink"—that ("November Boughs") is the name, by the by, I think
of giving my little book, I want to have out before '87 closes—shall probably
print it here in Phila: myself—it will merely give the pieces I have uttered the last five
years, in correct form, more permanent in book shape—probably nothing
new—I see a piece in Saturday's June 11 N Y Times4
that Boyle O'Reilly5 is treasurer of my summer
cottage fund—(dear Boyle, if you see him say I sent my best love
& thanks)—I wish you fellows, Baxter6, Mrs
F[airchild]7, yourself &c, to leave the selection, arrangement, disposal &c
of the cottage, (where, how, &c) to me—the whole
thing is something I am making much reckoning of—more probably than you all
are aware—the am't shall be put of course to that definite single purpose,
& there I shall probably mainly live the rest of my
days—O how I want to get amid good air—the air is so tainted here, five
or six months in the year, at best8—As I write
Herbert Gilchrist9 is here sketching in my portrait for an oil
painting—I hear from Dr Bucke10 often—nothing now of
late from O'Connor11, who is still in So: Cal—My friend Pearsall Smith12 & his daughter sailed for England in the Eider last
Saturday—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Wm Sloane Kennedy | Belmont | Mass:. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Jun 14 | 6
PM | 87. [back]
- 2. Kennedy's letter appears to
be lost. [back]
- 3. William S. Walsh
(1854–1919) was an American historian, poet, critic, and editor. [back]
- 4. The article is entitled
"A Cottage for Walt Whitman." See Whitman's May 25,
1887 letter to Sylvester Baxter. [back]
- 5. John Boyle O'Reilly
(1844–1890) was a fervent Irish patriot who joined the British Army in
order to sabotage it. He was arrested and sentenced to be hanged in 1866. Later
the decree was altered, and O'Reilly was sent to Australia, where he escaped on
an American whaler in 1869. In 1876 he became the coeditor of the Boston Pilot, a position which he held until his death in 1890.
See William G. Schofield, Seek for a Hero: The Story of John
Boyle O'Reilly (New York: Kennedy, 1956). For more on O'Reilly, see
also the letter from Whitman to James R. Osgood of May
8, 1881. [back]
- 6. Sylvester Baxter (1850–1927)
was on the staff of the Boston Herald. Apparently he met
Whitman for the first time when the poet delivered his Lincoln address in Boston
in April, 1881; see Rufus A. Coleman, "Whitman and Trowbridge," PMLA 63 (1948), 268. Baxter wrote many newspaper columns
in praise of Whitman's writings, and in 1886 attempted to obtain a pension for
the poet. For more, see Christopher O. Griffin, "Baxter, Sylvester [1850–1927]," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. Elizabeth Fairchild (see
Whitman's letter to Truman Howe Bartlett, October 14,
1883) was assisting in the Boston fundraising for Whitman's proposed
(but never built) small cabin, to be built on land near Timber Creek, New
Jersey, owned by Whitman's friends Susan and George Stafford. [back]
- 8. On June 18 Baxter wrote:
"Of course we shall be glad to have you take charge of the business for
yourself, following your own inclinations in the way of location, plan, etc."
(The Library of Congress). [back]
- 9. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 11. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 12. Robert Pearsall Smith
(1827–1898) was a Quaker who became an evangelical minister associated
with the "Holiness movement." He was also a writer and businessman. Whitman
often stayed at his Philadelphia home, where the poet became friendly with the
Smith children—Mary, Logan, and Alys. For more information about Smith,
see Christina Davey, "Smith, Robert Pearsall (1827–1898)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]