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Walt Whitman to Edward Carpenter, 24 July 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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