I send the article on Democracy. If satisfactory I should like $100 for it. You are to issue it in Galaxy with exclusive possession of the field, say for three months—after which I reserve to myself the right of any further use of it—as, for instance, issuing it with added Notes, Appendices, &c. in a pamphlet or small book—published by you, of course, if you are willing—I to receive copyright fee on sales, &c. &c.
But we can see better how the cat jumps after the article is before the public—& will leave that question open until then.
Please have it set up forthwith, read carefully by copy, & then, after correction, send me two good proofs. I want it to go forth in a perfect verbal &c. condition.
Walt Whitman.Please acknowledge this, immediately on reception.
If any thing could be made by disposing of advance sheets in London, to any magazine or publisher, I would suggest that it be done—the price procured to be divided equally between you & me.
W.Correspondent:
Francis Pharcellus Church
(1839–1906) established the Galaxy in 1866 with his
brother William Conant Church (1836–1917). Financial control of the Galaxy passed to Sheldon & Company in 1868, and the magazine
was absorbed by the Atlantic Monthly in 1878. In 1897, Francis
Church famously wrote, "Yes, Virginia, there
is a Santa Claus" for the New York Sun in response to a letter the paper received from
eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon. For more information on the Church brothers, see Edward
F. Grier, "Walt Whitman, the Galaxy, and Democratic Vistas," American Literature, 23 (1951–1952), 332–350;
Robert J. Scholnick, "The Galaxy and American Democratic Culture,
1866–1878," Journal of American Studies 16 (April 1982),
69–80; and Brook Thomas, "The Galaxy, National Literature, and Reconstruction,"
Nineteenth-Century Literature 75 (June 2020), 50–81.