Camden
Friday Evn'g
Sept: 22
Dear William O'Connor
This is the best I can do about the Ruskin1—you will have to pick out from the letters
(especially what I have lined with the red ink)—I get lots
of letters—these are samples more or less2—I am well—(I can't send your book till Monday)—
W. W.
Notes
- 1. Whitman did more; see the
letter from Whitman to O'Connor of October 7,
1882. [back]
- 2. On September 20, O'Connor wanted to know "just what
Ruskin said about L. of G., for I discover that it was to you, or some near
friend of yours, that he wrote" (Horace Traubel, With Walt
Whitman in Camden [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1953], 4:21). Whitman forwarded to O'Connor three letters from William Harrison
Riley, dated March 5, April 2, and April 4, 1879, and one
from Herbert J. Bathgate, written on January 31,
1880. Riley and Bathgate were friends of Ruskin (see Whitman's letter
to Riley of March 18, 1879 and his letter to John
Burroughs of February 21, 1880). O'Connor returned
these letters to Whitman on August 17, 1883.
O'Connor's copies are in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York
Public Library. [back]