Walt Whitman to Francis P. Church and William C. Church, 13 October 1867

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Francis P. Church and William C. Church, 13 October 1867
Date: October 13, 1867
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00271
Source: The New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 343. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Francis P. Church and William C. Church, 13 October 1867." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 21 November 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: nyp.00271.xml (TEI)

Washington, October 13, 1867. Messrs. Church.1
Gentlemen:

I write merely to say that I have finished the article on Democracy; (that will be its name.) I feel persuaded that it will please you thoroughly. It will make thirteen pages in Galaxy—the arrangement that it appear as leader in December number, being of course carried out.

It will reach your hands by or before Monday next, 21st.

Walt Whitman.

Notes

1. William Conant Church (1836–1917), journalist and publisher, was a correspondent for several New York newspapers until he founded the Army and Navy Journal in 1863. With his brother Francis Pharcellus (1839–1906), he established the Galaxy in 1866. Financial control of the Galaxy passed to Sheldon and Company in 1868, and it was absorbed by the Atlantic Monthly in 1878. William published a biography of his life-long friend Ulysses S. Grant in 1897, and Francis wrote for the New York Sun the unsigned piece "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." See Edward F. Grier, "Walt Whitman, the Galaxy, and Democratic Vistas," American Literature, 23 (1951–1952), 332–350; Donald N. Bigelow, William Conant Church & "The Army and Navy Journal" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952); J. R. Pearson, Jr., "Story of a Magazine: New York's Galaxy, 1866–1878," Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 61 (1957), 217–237, 281–302. [back]