Camden
Sunday noon
April 8 '881
It is very pleasant & sunny to-day & I am going out in the rig abt 1 o'clock
to my friends Mr & Mrs Harned2, three or four hours, &
have dinner & a good generous drink of the best champagne—I enjoy
everything—Nothing new with me—there seems to be some hitch in the
Herald's publ'ng my little pieces3—(I hear that
they have been appealed to in print to stop such stuff)4—I feel lately as if I
sh'd make a start in putting November Boughs5 in type making perhaps 150 to less than
200 pp.—some 30 pp, perhaps, of poems to go afterward as Annex to L of G. My
health though poor is "the same subject continued"—I enc: K[enne]dy's letter
from Wilson6—(not important)—Rhys7 is still in Boston—Morse8 in
Indiana—I like Eakins'9 picture (it is like sharp cold cutting true sea
brine)—I have not heard a word of the Worthington suit in N Y10—not a word from my dear friend O'C[onnor]11 in
Wash'n—
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Dr R M Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: (?) | Apr
8(?) | 5 PM | 88. [back]
- 2. Thomas Biggs Harned
(1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer
in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel (1856–1914), 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). For more on his relationship with Whitman, see
Thomas Biggs Harned, Memoirs of Thomas B. Harned, Walt
Whitman's Friend and Literary Executor, ed. Peter Van Egmond (Hartford:
Transcendental Books, 1972). [back]
- 3. In late 1887, James Gordon Bennett,
Jr., editor of the New York Herald, invited Whitman to
contribute a series of poems and prose pieces for the paper. From December 1887
through August 1888, 33 of Whitman's poems appeared. [back]
- 4. On April 1, 1888, Whitman
sent a bill for $40 to the Herald (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).
According to a note of April 7 from Bennett there
was a slight error in Whitman's bill. Bennett requested ten more poems for
April. [back]
- 5. Whitman's November Boughs was published in October 1888 by Philadelphia
publisher David McKay. For more information on the book, see James E. Barcus
Jr., "November Boughs [1888]," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. On March 24, 1888, Wilson
informed William Sloane Kennedy, author of Reminiscences of
Walt Whitman (1896), that he was most interested in obtaining
subscribers to the projected publication. On March
29 Kennedy observed, "I have not much faith in the despatch of F. W.
Wilson. . . . I have sent him 20 names." [back]
- 7. Rhys had written to Whitman
from Boston on March 7, 1888. For Whitman's
commentary on the letter, see Horace Traubel, With Walt
Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, January 29, 1889. Rhys wrote again on April 3, 1888; for Whitman's thoughts on the
letter, see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Tuesday, July, 24, 1888.. At this time relations between Rhys and
William Sloane Kennedy were strained; on March 1
(?) Kennedy had written to Whitman: "Rhys continues his schemes on
society's pocket-book, & demoralizes my nerves frightfully when I see him,
somehow." Whitman observed to Traubel in May: "You couldn't get 'em to fit
nohow. Kennedy will hardly fit anything but a chestnut burr" (Horace Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, May 17, 1888; Monday, October 2, 1888.) [back]
- 8. Sidney H. Morse (1832–1903)
was a self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to
1872, editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden
many times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an earlier
bust by Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan,
Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art,
1850–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2006), 105–109. [back]
- 9. Thomas Eakins (1844–1919) was
an American painter. His relationship with Whitman was characterized by deep
mutual respect, and he soon became a close friend of the poet. For more on
Eakins, see Philip W. Leon, "Eakins, Thomas (1844–1916)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. A New York lawyer, Thomas
J. McKee, wrote to Whitman on April 7, 1888: "I
received your letter but had been looking into the matter for some days
previously, Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke and Mr. Johnston having spoken to me about
your claim against Worthington. The difficulty I find is this that R.
Worthington failed some time since and is now unable to do business in his own
name, and the business is now run by a corporation named the Worthington Co. of
which Worthington's wife or some female relative is the President. The time
within which to claim a forfeiture of the plates and books (two years) has run
out and we are therefore limited to our action for an injunction and damages, I
am therefore quietly trying to get all the facts I can as to what the
'Worthington Co.' has been doing with reference to your book. The Company is of
some responsibility and undoubtedly have possession of the plates. As soon as I
have facts sufficient to base a sure claim I will get the injunction and money.
See also Whitman to Richard Watson Gilder, November 26,
1880, for an account of Whitman's dealings with Worthington. [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]