Camden1
Dec. 3 Evn'g
Yours rec'd & welcomed—will write at length soon—(meantime this
card)—Dr B[ucke]'s book has some sale all the time—nothing vehement, but
the orders drop in lingeringly2—yesterday ten
copies from Trübner London, &c. &c. My opinion that the book is a success (in the most important requisites) is to-day
more decided than ever—largely thanks to you. Dr B has
been in N. Y. for a month—has been twice here to see me.3 Did you see my article in Critic
of Nov. 24?4 I have lately sent a little 20 line poem
to Harpers—accepted immediately & paid for
($50!)5—I am well as usual—write
often—
W W
I sent your letter to Dr. B—he always wants to hear from you—
Notes
- 1. This letter is endorsed:
"Answ'd January 13/84." It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | Life Saving
Service—Treasury | Washington D C. It is postmarked: Philadelphia | (?) |
Dec 3 83 | 10 30 PM; Washington, D.C. | Dec 4 | 7 AM | 1883 | Recd. [back]
- 2. On December 16 Bucke
informed O'Connor that the book had sold "250 or 300" copies (The Library of
Congress, Washington D.C.). [back]
- 3. Bucke came to Camden on
November 5 and again on November 27 and 28, when he and Whitman visited Robert
Pearsall Smith (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of
the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.). [back]
- 4. Whitman was in error:
"Our Eminent Visitors (Past, Present, and Future)" appeared in The Critic on November 17. [back]
- 5. "With Husky-Haughty Lips,
O Sea" was published in Harper's Monthly in March, 1884.
Henry M. Alden, the editor, accepted the poem on November 30. Whitman began to write the piece while he was at Ocean
Grove (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, July 1, 1888; Clara Barrus, Whitman and
Burroughs—Comrades [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1931],scxv
245). [back]