Camden N J1
Sept
17
I wish you would send me (if you have it) the piece in the N Y Evening Post of a while since—the subject of your
letter—rejected by the P. & by N Y Times also2—Which piece I will return you—Marvin3 spent Saturday afternoon last with me, & has posted
me up about many things. (You have an immense accepter &
champion in M.)
W W
Notes
- 1. This letter is endorsed:
"Answ'd Sept. 18/83." It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | Life Saving Service |
Treasury | Washington D C. It is postmarked: Philadelphia | Pa. | Sep 17 83 | 2
30 PM. [back]
- 2. O'Connor wrote an answer
to the review of Bucke's biography in The Nation of July
26, the first sentence of which read: "This is an unadulterated eulogy by a man
of very little culture or critical ability." According to O'Connor's letter on
September 18, the New York Times rejected it for "professional reasons." Richard Maurice Bucke,
writing to O'Connor on December 16, said of the
article in The Nation: "don't see anything in it to get
mad about—do you get in a passion every time you hear a hog grunt out of
time? If so I fear, old man, you have a bad time" (The Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 3. Marvin's criticism of Leaves of Grass was reprinted in Bucke's book
(163–165). [back]