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Walt Whitman to Edward Carpenter, 24 July 1882

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Edward Carpenter, 24 July 1882
  • Date: July 24, 1882
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: med.00694
  • Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. Miller's transcription is based on a typescript of the letter held by Stanford University. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 299. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein Nima Najafi Kianfar Eder Jaramillo Nicole Gray
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Edward Carpenter, 24 July 1882." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 March 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: med.00694.xml (TEI)
431 Stevens Street,  
 Camden,  
 New Jersey,  
 U. S. A. July 24th, 1882.

Yours received with enclosure.1 Thanks, dear friend.

I am well. H[arry] S[tafford] is well.

I shall send you both books, soon as the S.D. is ready. The present edition L of G. satisfied me more than any hitherto. I am now printing Specimen Days.

W. W.

Notes

  • 1. Whitman referred to Carpenter's letter of March 16, in which he enclosed a letter from a friend named Sharp(?), who termed Leaves of Grass "a barbaric work" and Whitman "the poet of anarchy, confusion, lawlessness, disorder, 'anomia,' chaos," who was not even "cosmopolitan" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden [Boston: Small, Maynard, 1906], 1:252–253). Whitman was amused and impressed: "I kind o' take to the man: he tumbles me clear over as a matter of conscience—I respect him for it" (Traubel, 1:253). [back]
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