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Walt Whitman to Mr. and Mrs. Harned, 7 November [1887?]

 loc.02267.001_large.jpg Mr: and Mrs: Harned Dear friends

I send the two tickets for the lecture—Also a little book for Anna. Also a programme of Donnelly's2 "Cipher" Book—curious to look over.

—Also your Sunday Tribune wh' I pilfered last night—also a couple of Critics—enjoyed a happy three hours last night & am all the better for it to-day—

W W  loc.02267.002_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Thomas Biggs Harned (1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel, was Horace Traubel's brother-in-law. For more on him, see Dena Mattausch, "Harned, Thomas Biggs (1851–1921)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).


Notes

  • 1. The year of 1887 appears to be a plausible date since November 7 fell on Monday in that year. [back]
  • 2. Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831–1901) was a politician and writer, well known for his notions of Atlantis as an antediluvian civilization and for his belief that Shakespeare's plays had been written by Francis Bacon, an idea he argued in his book The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare's Plays, published in 1888. The "programme" referred to here was probably an announcement of the publication of that book. [back]
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