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James R. Osgood & Company to Walt Whitman, 4 March 1882

About This Item

  • Title: James R. Osgood & Company to Walt Whitman, 4 March 1882
  • Date: March 4, 1882
  • Creator(s): James R. Osgood & Company
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.05596
  • Source: The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1842–1937, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Vince Moran Eder Jaramillo Nicole Gray Stefan Schöberlein
  • Cite this page: Company, James R. Osgood &. "James R. Osgood & Company to Walt Whitman, 4 March 1882." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 November 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.05596.xml (TEI)
 loc_nk.00366_large.jpg ☞What District Attorney is it? A/1 JAMES R. OSGOOD AND CO. 
  PUBLISHERS 
  BOSTON Mch.​ 4. 1882 Walt Whitman Esq Dear Sir

We enclose a letter from the District Attorney dated Mch.​ 1st, and received by us yesterday, March 3d. Please read and return it, keeping copy of it if you so desire.

We are not at present informed what portions of the book are objected to. We are, however, naturally reluctant to be identified with any legal proceedings in a matter of this nature. We are given to understand that if certain parts of the book should be withdrawn its further circulation  loc_nk.00367_large.jpg  loc_nk.00368_large.jpg would not be objected to. Will you advise us whether you would consent to the withdrawal of the present edition and the substitution of an edition lacking the obnoxious features?

Yours truly, James R. Osgood & Co.  loc_nk.00369_large.jpg
 loc_nk.00364_large.jpg B/ Commonwealth of Massachusetts2 District Attorney's Office Boston 24 Court House Mch​ 1st 1882 Messrs Jas​ R. Osgood and Company, Gentlemen;

Our attention has been officially directed to a certain book entitled "Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman" published by you.

We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof.

Otherwise the complaints which are proposed to be made will have to be entertained—

I am Yours truly Oliver Stevens Dist. Atty.​  loc_nk.00365_large.jpg
 loc_nk.00256_large.jpg  loc_nk.00257_large.jpg

Notes

  • 1. Whitman renumbered these pages in blue pencil. [back]
  • 2. This letter is pasted to a backing sheet. On the back of the backing sheet is a small slip of paper on which the following is written in an unknown hand: "O.M. Hanscom | Police Inspector | City Hall." [back]
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