Camden New Jersey1
March 12 pm—Yours duly rec'd—I send you by mail to-day, to same address
as this card, my Two Vols, Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets—Please send me a
card informing me if they reach you safely—2
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. This letter bears the
following address: C H Sholes | Glenwood | Mills Co: Iowa. It is postmarked:
Philadelphia PA | Mar | 12 | 5 PM. C. H. Sholes was a shorthand reporter in
Iowa. On Decoration Day, May 30, 1880, he published an article entitled "Ashes
of Soldiers" in the Iowa State Register, commending
Whitman for his service during the Civil War. See Ted Genoways, "'Ashes of
Soldiers': Walt Whitman and C. H. Sholes, a New Letter and a Newspaper Article,"
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 18 (Spring 2001),
186–187. [back]
- 2. Sholes received the
package—an 1876 edition of Two Rivulets was offered
for sale in the early 2000s by D & D Galleries of Somerville, New Jersey,
with the inscription: "C. H. Sholes | from the author"—but if he sent a
postcard confirming the shipment, Whitman did not note it in the
daybooks. [back]