431 Stevens Street
Camden N J
March 5 '78
Dear John Burroughs1
John Swinton lives at 134 east 34th Street. (He is married lately to Mrs Dr Smith)—Yes [J.H.] Johnston's taking part in the lecture enterprise would be perfectly agreeable to me2—the name of the lecture, would be The death of Abraham Lincoln.
(In my last letter among the names proposed was S S Cox,3 M C—I wish that name cancelled)—I should well like to have, if the letter to me is carried out, a real mixture of names, representing the young blood, & all the parties, various professions, (especially as I said, journalists, artists, actors, &c &c—perhaps some women)—
I shall be home here all the following two weeks except next Saturday & Sunday4—
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. Whitman also wrote to
Burroughs on February 27 about the New York
lecture, and evidently listed the names of possible sponsors. Whitman had been
with the Staffords from March 2 to 4 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 2. In a letter on February 28, 1878, Burroughs asked for Swinton's
address and inquired about Johnston. [back]
- 3. Samuel S. Cox
(1828–1889) served in the House of Representatives from New York from 1869
until his death. Burroughs, when asked why Whitman wanted Cox's name deleted,
could not recall any reason (Clara Barrus, Whitman and
Burroughs—Comrades [Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931],
172). [back]
- 4. Whitman was with the
Staffords again on Saturday and Sunday, March 9 and 10 (Whitman's Commonplace
Book). [back]